BILL ANALYSIS AB 743 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 28, 2009 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES Jim Beall, Jr., Chair AB 743 (Portantino) - As Amended: April 14, 2009 SUBJECT : Foster care: sibling placement SUMMARY : Requires social workers to make reasonable efforts to place and keep siblings together when they have been removed from their parents or guardians due to abuse or neglect. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires social workers to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together when they have been removed from their parents or guardian because of abuse or neglect. 2)Requires the social worker, if unable to place siblings together, to report to the court why a joint placement would be contrary to the safety or well-being of any of the siblings. 3)Requires, absent emergency circumstances, the placing agency to notify the child's attorney and the child's siblings' attorneys as soon as the agency that placed the child becomes aware of a need for a change of placement of a dependent child. a) Requires, except in the event of an emergency, at least 10 days notice of the planned change of placement if the change will result in separation of siblings. b) Allows the child's attorney to object to the change by filing a notice of hearing "ex parte" (without the necessity of initially involving the other parties). c) Defines sibling to include half-siblings and adoptive siblings. EXISTING LAW 1)Requires, a social worker, where possible and appropriate, to place a child, who has been removed from his or her parents or guardian because of abuse or neglect, together with his or her siblings or half-siblings also being removed, or to describe AB 743 Page 2 continuing efforts to place them together if they are not initially placed together, or to explain why placing them together is inappropriate. (Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC) Section 306.5.) 2)Requires, when the court has ordered the removal of a child from his or her parents, to consider whether there are siblings also under the court's jurisdiction, the nature of the relationships between the siblings and the appropriateness of developing or maintaining those relationships, and the impact of those relationships on placement and permanency planning. (WIC Section 361.2(i)) 3)Requires the status review reports from the social worker to the court to contain information on the nature of the relationships between the siblings, and the appropriateness of developing or maintaining those relationships, if the siblings are not placed together an explanation of why not and the frequency and nature of visits between the siblings, and the impact of the relationships on placement and permanency planning. Requires the court to consider this information at the status hearing. (WIC Sections 366.1(f); 366.3(e)(9).) 4)Recognizes the importance of sibling relationships and requires the responsible local agency to maintain sibling togetherness and contact, whenever possible. Requires the responsible local agency to make diligent effort in all out-of-home placements of dependent children to develop and maintain sibling relationships. Requires that, if siblings are not placed together in the same home, the social worker must explain why, what efforts are being exerted to place them together in the same home, or why those efforts are not appropriate. (WIC Section 16002.) 5)Requires a placing agency to notify the child's attorney as soon as possible after the agency makes a decision regarding a placement or a change of placement for the child. (WIC Section 16010.6.) 6)Requires the dependency court to appoint counsel for a dependent child unless the court affirmatively finds that the child would not benefit from such appointment. (WIC Section 317.) FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown AB 743 Page 3 COMMENTS : According to the author: Maintaining sibling relationships is critical to foster children's emotional stability, yet many children in foster care in California are separated from one or more of their siblings either from the outset of the dependency case or as the case moves forward. For many foster children already suffering the trauma of the circumstances that brought their family into the child welfare system, along with the additional trauma of being removed from their homes, being placed with siblings is a critical lifeline that provides emotional support. In keeping with our state's promise to "parent" these vulnerable children, our obligation goes beyond their physical safety; we must do everything we can to nurture their emotional well-being and give them every available opportunity to be connected to the people they love and are closest to. As the child's advocate, the child's attorney is uniquely positioned to work with all parties involved to ensure that wherever possible and appropriate the siblings are able to stay together. Need for this bill : The author identifies several issues under current law that this bill is intended to address: Current law requires the child welfare department to notify the child's attorney "as soon as possible" when a child has been moved to a new placement, but does not require the notification to occur within any prescribed timeframe. Current law does not require the child welfare department to notify the attorney for the sibling of a child being removed from a placement where the two children are placed together. In addition, current law requiring the child welfare departments to make efforts to place siblings together does not comport with the "reasonable efforts" requirement of recently enacted federal law-the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (Fostering Connections Act; HR 6893; Pub. L. 110-351). The sponsor, Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (CLC), reports that, often, a sibling group is initially placed together but one of the children has difficulties or demonstrates behavioral issues with which the caregiver struggles to handle. Many times the remedy sought by the social worker is to remove that child from that foster home, thus separating the siblings. CLC believes that with the intervention of the child's attorney who may have a different relationship with the caregiver and/or AB 743 Page 4 different ideas for resources to address the underlying issue, many of these anticipated separations can be avoided. Recent data provided by the author reveal that children in foster care are often not placed with all their siblings. As of October 1, 2008, foster children in California are placed together with all their siblings in only about half of all cases. Moreover, in approximately 29 percent of cases, foster youth have been separated from all of their siblings. (Needell, B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J., Exel, M., Glasser, T., Williams, D., Zimmerman, K., Simon, V., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Frerer, K., Ataie, Y., Winn, A., & Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Child Welfare Services Reports for California (2008).) In October 2008, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Fostering Connections Act, which will significantly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster care by promoting permanent families for them through relative guardianship and adoption, extending assistance to foster children to age 21, and improving education and health care. The federal act requires that states use "reasonable efforts" to place siblings together unless that is contrary to their safety or well-being. If siblings are not placed together, visitation between the siblings must happen frequently unless it is contrary to their safety or well-being. (42 USC Section 671(a).) This bill seeks to keep siblings together in two ways. First, it provides that social workers must, when children are first taken into custody, make "reasonable efforts" to place siblings together. If not, the social worker must explain to the court either his or her continuing efforts to place the siblings together or why a joint placement would be contrary to the safety or well-being of one of the siblings. This provision ensures that California is in compliance with the Fostering Connections Act. Second, this bill establishes a procedure to allow for intervention if siblings who have been placed together are to be separated. Existing law requires notice to a dependent child's attorney when a decision is made about the child's placement or change of placement. This bill requires that, absent an emergency, a child's attorney and the attorneys for all the child's siblings, be notified at least 10 days before a proposed AB 743 Page 5 separation of siblings that have been placed together. This time period will allow the children's attorneys to investigate the circumstances of the proposed separation. In the event that one of the children's attorneys objects to the separation, this bill allows the attorney to file an ex parte notice of hearing to have the court resolve the issue. This should help prevent siblings from being unnecessarily separated and then later, after much disruption in their lives, being reunited. SECOND COMMITTEE OF REFERENCE . This bill was previously heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 14th, and was approved on a 10-0 vote. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support California Alliance of Child and Family Services California Youth Connection Children's Advocacy Institute Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (sponsor) John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089