BILL ANALYSIS AB 743 Page 1 ( Without Reference to File ) ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 743 (Portantino) As Amended January 26, 2010 Majority vote JUDICIARY 10-0 HUMAN SERVICES 7-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|Beall, Ammiano, Tom | | |Evans, Jones, | |Berryhill, Hall, Logue, | | |Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, | |Portantino, Torres | | |Monning, Nielsen | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- APPROPRIATIONS 13-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, | | | | |Bradford, Charles | | | | |Calderon, Coto, Davis, | | | | |Fuentes Hall, John A. | | | | |Perez, Skinner, Solorio, | | | | |Audra Strickland, | | | | |Torlakson | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Requires California to place siblings together when they have been removed from their parents or guardians unless that placement is contrary to their safety or well-being pursuant to the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act). Specifically, this bill requires: 1)Social workers to place siblings together when they have been removed from their parents or guardian because of abuse or neglect unless it is determined joint placement would be contrary to the safety or well-being of any of sibling. 2)That any court order placing a child in foster care provide for visitation between the child and any siblings unless the AB 743 Page 2 court finds that sibling interaction is contrary to the safety or well-being of either child. 3)The placing agency to notify the child's attorney within one business day of a placement or change in placement. 4)Absent emergency circumstances, the placing agency to notify the child's attorney and the child's siblings' attorneys at least 10 calendar days prior to the change in placement of a dependent child if the change will result in the separation of 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 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)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.) AB 743 Page 3 4)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.) 5)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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 1)Minimal costs for workload associated with notifying siblings' attorneys in the event of a separation. 2)Potential, unknown cost pressure due to the requirement that social workers notify attorneys by the end of the following business day if they need to change sibling placements. Under current law, a social worker is required to notify the attorneys as soon as possible. COMMENTS : The author identifies several issues under current law that this bill is intended to address: 1)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. 2)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. 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. 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 AB 743 Page 4 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 different ideas for resources to address the underlying issue, many of these anticipated separations can be avoided. 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 revises existing law to clarify that social workers must place children in foster care with their siblings unless 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. This bill also 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 calendar days before a proposed 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. This should help prevent siblings from being unnecessarily separated and then later, after much disruption in their lives, being reunited. Analysis Prepared by : Michelle Doty Cabrera / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN: 0003636 AB 743 Page 5