BILL ANALYSIS AB 973 Page 1 Date of Hearing: January 21, 2010 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Kevin De Leon, Chair AB 973 (Strickland) - As Amended: January 7, 2010 Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:9 - 0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: SUMMARY This bill limits when a peace officer may take a drug exposed newborn into temporary custody. Specifically, this bill: 1)Prohibits a peace officer from taking a newborn who is in a hospital into custody, without a warrant, if all of the following apply: a) The newborn or birth mother tested positive for illegal drugs. b) The newborn is the subject of a proposed adoption, as opposed to a petition for adoption. c) A Health Facilities Minor Release (HFMR) Report has been completed by the hospital and signed by the birth parent(s) and adoptive parent(s) or an authorized representative of a licensed adoption agency. d) Release of the newborn to a prospective adoptive parent or an authorized representative of a licensed adoption agency does not pose an immediate danger to the child. e) The prospective adoptive parents or the representative of a licensed adoption agency have provided the peace officer with specific documents. 2)Requires that DSS study the effects of the release of a minor to a prospective adoptive parent or licensed adoption agency pursuant to this legislation, particularly on the health and safety of the minor, and report its findings to the Legislature by January 1, 2014. FISCAL EFFECT AB 973 Page 2 1)Costs between $200,000 and $350,000 GF for DSS workload and for contracting with a psychologist to study the data collected and write the final report. 2)One-time costs in excess of $500,000 GF to develop a data collection system for adopted children and make the necessary changes to the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System to track adopted children. COMMENTS 1)Purpose . This bill seeks to correct a problem in current law, which makes it difficult to keep newborns out of the foster care system, by allowing a prospective adoptive parent or a licensed adoption agency to take temporary custody of a drug-exposed newborn if certain requirements, designed to ensure that the child is safe from harm, have been satisfied. In 2002, AB 2279 (La Suer; Chapter 920, Statutes of 2002) was enacted to prevent child protective services agencies from unnecessarily taking a drug-exposed newborn from the hospital into the foster care system when an adoption plan was in place and an adoptive home was waiting for the child. The law was refined in 2003 by AB 962 (La Suer; Chapter 568, Statutes of 2003) to try to correct implementation difficulties with the original bill. That legislation required that the newborn be the subject of an adoption petition. However, the author asserts that in practice, the adoption petition is generally not available until after the mother and child have been discharged from the hospital. Thus the current requirements make it difficult for prospective adoptive parents to take temporary custody of a drug-exposed baby at the hospital and keep the child out of the foster care system. Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 319-2081