BILL ANALYSIS AB 2495 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 26, 2006 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Judy Chu, Chair AB 2495 (Bass) - As Amended: April 18, 2006 Policy Committee: Human ServicesVote:6 - 1 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: Yes Reimbursable: Yes SUMMARY This bill would provide benefits to children and families in the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP) that are currently only available for foster children and children in the Adoptions Assistance Program (AAP). Specifically, this bill: 1)Increases benefits to include: a) The specialized care increment the child would be entitled to under the foster care program or in the AAP program. b) A $100 a year supplemental clothing allowance to which the child would be entitled to under foster care. 2)Requires county welfare departments to provide each child in KinGAP and his or her guardian with information regarding the availability of independent living services when the child is approaching his or her 16th birthday. FISCAL EFFECT The net savings from this bill will total approximately $2.5 million ($1.55 million federal, $250,000 GF, $700,000 county). Specifically, this bill could: 1)Increase grant costs for the existing KinGAP caseload by up to $15 million ($7.5 million GF, $7.5 million county). AB 2495 Page 2 2)Increase KinGAP costs by approximately $1.5 million ($500,000 federal, $1 million GF) by providing a clothing allowance to current KinGAP children. 3)Remove children from the child welfare services program saving approximately $19 million ($9 million federal, $7 million GF, $3 million county). Assuming that about 15 percent of the foster children living with relatives move to permanency through KinGAP, approximately $28 million in annual grant expenditures would shift from the foster care program to the KinGAP program. The funding for KinGAP is different from the funding for foster care. Therefore, this shift would have the following impact on the funding sources: 1)The state General Fund share of KinGAP is less than the foster care share. Therefore, it would save $1.5 million in GF for grants for these children. 2)The county share for KinGAP is significantly less than the foster care share, thus saving the counties $5.5 million for these grants. 3)The federal funding source for KinGAP is the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, as opposed to the federal funding for foster care, which is open-ended Title IV-E entitlement funding. Shifting these children would save the federal government $9 million in Title IV-E funding and cost the state $16 million in TANF block grant funding. COMMENTS 1)Background. Currently, children that find a permanent home with a relative through the KinGAP program are not allowed to receive the annual supplemental clothing allowance they would receive in the foster care program. In addition, children in foster care who are eligible for specialized care increases to their foster care grants due to special needs are not eligible for permanency through the KinGAP program unless a social worker determines that the services provided through the grant increase are no longer necessary. This is in contrast to children that find permanency through adoption. Those children and their adoptive parents continue AB 2495 Page 3 to receive a grant equal to the foster family home grant with the specialized care increment that the children would have received in foster care. This increased grant is provided as a way to promote permanency for children that are considered "hard to place" in the foster care system. In theory, providing a larger monthly grant allows parents to adopt children that might otherwise languish in the foster care system until they age-out. This bill seeks to allow the same incentives to relatives that are willing to provide permanent homes to foster children through legal guardianship. 2)Specialized Care Increment . Children in foster care placements are potentially eligible for a specialized care increment (SCI) to meet the additional daily care needs of a foster care child who has a health and/or behavior problem. This added payment is in addition to the basic foster care rate, which ranges from $425 to $597 in foster family homes. The SCI is paid with federal Title IV-E, state and county funding, and varies by county. Currently, 55 counties have specialized care systems. Some pay a flat rate, others pay a rate based on local plans. According to the County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA), the average rate is $300-$400, and can be as little as $140 or as much as $695. Approximately 10-15% of relatives receiving a foster care grant also receive an SCI payment. 3)Clothing Allowance . Since 2000-01, foster care providers have been entitled to a supplemental clothing allowance of $100 per year, subject to the availability of funds, to help offset the cost of foster children's clothing. Counties do not pay a share of this payment. Annual costs for 2006-07 as proposed in the Governor's budget are $6.2 million, $2.4 million in federal funds and $3.8 million in state costs. 4)Federal TANF Block Grant. Each year California receives $3.7 billion in federal TANF block grant funds. The majority of these funds are used for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. However, federal law permits the expenditure of TANF funds on a variety of programs and activities. TANF funds can be spent for any purpose permitted under the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children program or a AB 2495 Page 4 portion of the funds may be transferred to the Title XX Social Services Block Grant and then expended in accordance with the federal rules pertaining to Title XX. This flexibility has allowed the Legislature to attempt to strike a balance between using the funds to support families in the CalWORKs program and using them to offset the state GF in other programs, in order to partially address the state's budget deficit. Unexpended TANF funds can be carried over indefinitely into future years. Traditionally, California has been able to carry forward several hundred million dollars in TANF funding, which is used to fund the CalWORKs program or to offset General Fund in other parts of the state budget. Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 319-2081