BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 408
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:  May 21, 2003

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                              Darrell Steinberg, Chair

                    AB 408 (Steinberg) - As Amended:  May 5, 2003 

          Policy Committee:                             JudiciaryVote:13-0
                       Human Services                         5-0      

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes         

           SUMMARY  

          As proposed to be amended, this bill makes several changes to  
          dependency law to ensure that certain youth have stable  
          relationships during and after foster care and to reduce  
          restrictions on age-appropriate activities for all foster youth.  
          Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Requires county social workers and dependency courts to  
            consider the importance of certain relationships that are  
            significant to a foster child. These provisions apply to youth  
            who are at least 10 years old and have been in foster care at  
            least six months and have been placed with nonrelatives.

          2)Requires that every foster child be allowed to participate in  
            age-appropriate extracurricular and social activities. This  
            provision applies to all foster youth, regardless of age. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Unknown state-reimbursable court and county social services  
          costs, likely under $150,000 annually to identify and integrate  
          significant relationships into case plans for certain children.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . This bill is designed to ensure that children  
            leaving foster care have support within their communities and  
            a life-long connection to a committed adult. The bill requires  
            social workers to discuss individuals who are important to  
            certain foster children and to integrate these individuals  
            into case plans, including dependency court concerns. In  








                                                                  AB 408
                                                                  Page  2

            addition, the bill requires foster parents to allow children  
            to participate in age-appropriate activities.   
           
          2)CWDA Workload Concerns  . The County Welfare Directors of  
            California (CWDA) indicate that a combination of budget cuts  
            and lack of annual cost-of-doing business adjustments have led  
            to an estimated statewide county funding gap in excess of $1  
            billion. Therefore, they indicate the provisions of this bill  
            are more of a burden than they would have been in prior years.  
             



           Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081