Section 1116.2. A. There is hereby established a postadjudication review board in each judicial district in the state. Members and alternate members of the postadjudication review boards shall be residents of or employed within the judicial district in which the board serves and shall be appointed by the Director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth after consultation with judges in the judicial district having juvenile docket responsibility, provided that in the event of a conflict of interest or for any reason when circumstances or the appearances of justice dictate, the Director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth may transfer the appointment decision to the entire Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth whose decision shall be final and further, provided, that any aggrieved aspirant may appeal the decision denying appointment by the Director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth within five (5) days to the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth whose decision shall be final. The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth may establish additional postadjudication review boards as needed for each county within a judicial district.

B. A postadjudication review board for each judicial district shall consist of at least five (5) members. Alternate review board members may be appointed to serve in the absence of a regularly appointed board member members. Alternate board members shall be appointed in the same manner as regularly appointed board members. On and after September 1, 1991, currently serving board members shall serve until appointments are made by the Commission on Children and Youth. The Commission on Children and Youth shall complete initial appointments to the review boards no later than June 30, 1992.

C. Board members shall be appointed for a term of three (3) years. Members shall serve after the expiration of their terms until their respective successors shall have been appointed. Vacancies shall be filled for the duration of unexpired terms. The review board members shall be appointed according to the following guidelines:

1. One member shall be a person who has training or experience in issues concerning child welfare, or a person who has demonstrated an interest in children through voluntary community service or professional activities;

2. Whenever possible, at least one member of the board shall be an individual who has served as a foster parent, provided that no person on the review board shall participate as a board member in any review hearing in which the person is a party; and

3. No more than one person employed by any child welfare agency or juvenile court may be appointed to a board at the same time, provided such person shall not participate in any review hearing in which the person is professionally involved.

D. Each postadjudication review board shall annually elect a chair and shall notify the Commission on Children and Youth as to the name and address of the chair. A list of the members of each local board and its officers shall be filed with the Presiding Judge of the judicial district and each judge within the district having juvenile docket responsibility.

E. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that a person participating in a judicial proceeding as a postadjudication review board member or a postadjudication review advisory board or postadjudication review board coordinator is acting in good faith. When acting in good faith, a participant shall be immune from any civil liability that might otherwise be incurred or imposed. Each postadjudication review board shall meet as often as is necessary at a place it designates to carry out the duties of the board established by Section 1116.3 of this title. The review board shall meet at least twice annually. Each review board shall be subject to the provisions of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, except that the actual case reviews shall be held in executive session; provided, however, that upon Upon the request of the board, members or prospective members of other existing review boards, students or researchers may attend and observe but not participate in board hearings subject to restrictions and conditions imposed by the board. Members and employees of the State Postadjudication Review Advisory Board who are exercising their oversight responsibilities pursuant to Section 1116.6 of this title may attend and observe but not participate in board hearings. All parties shall maintain confidentiality, and the names of the children in placement shall not be published. Temporary ad hoc review boards may be created in counties in which there is no active review board. The Director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth may appoint active or alternate members of existing review boards to serve as members of local boards that are unable to meet quorum requirements and to temporarily constitute members of a new board where no current board exists. A member appointed to temporary service shall be fully qualified as provided by law, and such service shall terminate when the basis for the appointment is remedied or upon the order of the Director.

F. As a condition of membership thereto, members and alternates of the postadjudication review boards shall attend the next available orientation program after appointment to the board. Failure to attend an orientation program, at the discretion of the Commission on Children and Youth, may result in the removal of the board member. Members of postadjudication review boards shall attend the annual meeting or training programs or both such meeting and training programs as are authorized and directed by the Commission on Children and Youth.

G. Members of postadjudication review boards shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for travel and training expenses from monies appropriated by the Legislature for such purposes, as provided by the State Travel Reimbursement Act. The Commission on Children and Youth shall provide members of postadjudication review boards with necessary operating supplies and postage fees or members shall be reimbursed for these expenses.

H. The Commission on Children and Youth shall be responsible for developing procedures for the removal of a member from a postadjudication review board. The grounds for the removal of a postadjudication review board member shall include but not be limited to:

1. Failure to attend board meetings as required by the Commission on Children and Youth;

2. Engaging in illegal conduct involving moral turpitude;

3. Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; or

4. Wrongful disclosure of information as provided by Section 1116.4 of this title.

I. Necessary staff assistance required by the postadjudication review boards may be provided by the bailiff or bailiffs, or other person designated by the court, of the judges with juvenile docket responsibility in the judicial district. Upon the request of the presiding judge, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court may authorize additional staff to be paid from local court funds to assist the review board.

The Administrative Director of the Courts may include such additional funding requests in the annual budget for the courts as are necessary to provide staff and administrative support for the review boards.

Section 1116.6. A. There is hereby created a State Postadjudication Review Advisory Board which shall meet at least twice each calendar year. The Advisory Board shall have the duty of overseeing the implementation of the state postadjudication review program in coordination with the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

B. The Advisory Board shall consist of twenty-one (21) members appointed by the Governor as follows:

1. Eight of the members shall be members of the various review boards throughout the state;

2. Five of the members shall be judges of the district court;

3. Five of the members shall represent the general public and may be foster parents;

4. One of the members appointed after the effective date of this act shall be a foster parent representing foster parents who have a current contract with the Department of Human Services to provide foster care services;

5. One of the members appointed after the effective date of this act shall be a foster parent representing child-placing agencies which have current contracts with the Department to provide foster care services; and

6. One of the members appointed after the effective date of this act shall be a foster parent nominated by any local or statewide foster parent association.

The members shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor. The administrative heads of the divisions which have foster care responsibilities within the Department of Human Services and the Office of Juvenile Affairs or their designees shall serve as ex officio members of the Board.

C. The Director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth shall be the clerk of the Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board shall have the duty to:

1. Assist in the training of the members of the review boards;

2. Serve, in coordination with the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, as a clearinghouse for reports and information concerning the foster care review program and the review boards as they relate to foster care;

3. Make recommendations to the courts, the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, the Governor, the Legislature, the Department of Human Services, the Office of Juvenile Affairs, and other state agencies providing services to children regarding proposed statutory revisions, and amendments to court rules and procedures, and review and make recommendations on permanency planning, foster care and child welfare service delivery policies, guidelines, and procedures;

4. Work with both public and private agencies concerned with foster care and adoption exchanges to inform the public of the need for temporary and permanent homes and other services needed by deprived children; and

5. Specifically:

D. The State Postadjudication Review Advisory Board may designate multidisciplinary committees on the local level to act as advocates for foster parents in order to assist in the resolution of specific complaints concerning foster care and to help facilitate the relationship between the Department of Human Services, the Office of Juvenile Affairs, child-placing agencies, and the foster parents.

E. The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, with the assistance of the State Postadjudication Review Advisory Board, shall be responsible for developing and administering training procedures and rules for the administration of the state postadjudication review board system.

F. The State Postadjudication Review Advisory Board shall submit a report of the activities of the review boards, including the findings and recommendations of such review boards, to the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth on or before May 1 of each year. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

G. The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth shall incorporate, as appropriate, the findings and recommendations of the review boards in the annual report required by Section 601.9 of this title.

Section 304. As used in the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act:

1. “Public body” means the governing bodies of all municipalities located within this state, boards of county commissioners of the counties in this state, boards of public and higher education in this state and all boards, bureaus, commissions, agencies, trusteeships, authorities, councils, committees, public trusts or any entity created by a public trust including any committee or subcommittee composed of any of the members of a public trust or other legal entity receiving funds from the Rural Economic Action Plan Fund as authorized by Section 2007 of Title 62 of the Oklahoma Statutes, task forces or study groups in this state supported in whole or in part by public funds or entrusted with the expending of public funds, or administering public property, and shall include all committees or subcommittees of any public body. Public body shall not include the state judiciary, the Council on Judicial Complaints when conducting, discussing, or deliberating any matter relating to a complaint received or filed with the Council, the Legislature, or administrative staffs of public bodies including, but not limited to, faculty meetings and athletic staff meetings of institutions of higher education when those staffs are not meeting with the public body, or entry-year assistance committees. Furthermore, public body shall not include the multidisciplinary teams provided for in Section 1–9–102 of Title 10A of the Oklahoma Statutes, in Section 2 10–115 of this act Title 43A of the Oklahoma Statutes, and in subsection C of Section 1–502.2 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes or any school board meeting for the sole purpose of considering recommendations of a multidisciplinary team and deciding the placement of any child who is the subject of the recommendations. Furthermore, public body shall not include meetings conducted by stewards designated by the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission pursuant to Section 203.4 of Title 3A of the Oklahoma Statutes when the stewards are officiating at races or otherwise enforcing rules of the Commission. Furthermore, public body shall not include the board of directors of a Federally Qualified Health Center or the postadjudication review boards provided for in Sections 1116.2 and 1116.3 of Title 10 of the Oklahoma Statutes;

2. “Meeting” means the conduct of business of a public body by a majority of its members being personally together or, as authorized by Section 307.1 of this title, together pursuant to a videoconference. Meeting shall not include informal gatherings of a majority of the members of the public body when no business of the public body is discussed;

3. “Regularly scheduled meeting” means a meeting at which the regular business of the public body is conducted;

4. “Special meeting” means any meeting of a public body other than a regularly scheduled meeting or emergency meeting;

5. “Emergency meeting” means any meeting called for the purpose of dealing with an emergency. For purposes of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, an emergency is defined as a situation involving injury to persons or injury and damage to public or personal property or immediate financial loss when the time requirements for public notice of a special meeting would make such procedure impractical and increase the likelihood of injury or damage or immediate financial loss;

6. “Continued or reconvened meeting” means a meeting which is assembled for the purpose of finishing business appearing on an agenda of a previous meeting. For the purposes of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, only matters on the agenda of the previous meeting at which the announcement of the continuance is made may be discussed at a continued or reconvened meeting;

7. “Videoconference” means a conference among members of a public body remote from one another who are linked by interactive telecommunication devices or technology and/or technology permitting both visual and auditory communication between and among members of the public body and/or between and among members of the public body and members of the public. During any videoconference, both the visual and auditory communications functions shall attempt to be utilized; and

8. “Teleconference” means a conference among members of a public body remote from one another who are linked by telecommunication devices and/or technology permitting auditory communication between and among members of the public body and/or between and among members of the public body and members of the public.