BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair 2129 (Bass) Hearing Date: 08/02/2010 Amended: 08/02/2010 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human Services 4-1 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: AB 2129 would extend to July 1, 2014, the deadline for the Department of Social Services (DSS) to develop a plan to transform the current statewide system of group homes into a system of residentially based services (RBS). Requires DSS to conduct a review of the county residentially based services program, as specified, and allows DSS to terminate the county's participation in the residentially based services reform project for specified reasons. Provides that voluntary agreements between counties and private nonprofit agencies to test alternative program design and funding models for transforming individual group home programs into residentially based services programs terminate on or before January 1, 2015. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund Extends pilots up to $185 Potentially significant costs; General potentially substantial long term savings* General Federal/Local Extends workgroup deadline Likely minor General Private *Potential offsetting savings from pilot projects after first year of implementation. _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. In 2007, AB 1453 (Soto, Chapter 466, Statutes of 2007), required DSS to convene a workgroup of stakeholders, which would be responsible for developing an operational plan for implementing RBS programs on a statewide basis and to submit a detailed plan to the Legislature by January 1, 2011 delineating how to transform the current system of group care for foster children into an RBS system. AB 1453 limited the length of contracts between the counties and their RBS providers to a maximum of five years, through January 1, 2013. The workgroup authorized by AB 1453 has not completed a report to the Legislature, and the pilot projects have not been implemented; though, there are contracts with three counties to participate in the pilot projects and to begin implementation this year. This bill would permit these contracts to remain valid through January 1, 2015, which will allow the demonstration projects nearly five years to test their program and funding models. This bill would also extend the workgroup's plan deadline to July 1, 2014, in order to learn from the results of the pilot projects. The goal of RBS is to reduce lengths of stay in high-end group care and increase permanency for children. To the extent that RBS is successful, there will be substantial savings to the state from serving youth outside of a group home in the future. Groups Page 2 AB 2129 (Bass) home placements are the most expensive foster care option, and those with the most intensive services can cost nearly $8,000 per child, per month. RBS would front-load intensive services while the child is residing in the RBS group home, resulting in additional upfront costs, in order to achieve more substantial savings in future years. According to the Administration, this would result in higher up-front costs, but represent a savings of as much as fifty percent over the span of a child's time in foster care. The Governor's May Revision proposal includes $185,000 General Fund for RBS, but in order to utilize the funds, the authority to continue the RBS pilots would have to be extended by legislation. Currently, no budget has been enacted for fiscal year 2011-12. Extending RBS authority creates cost pressure to fund this program in the budget. Absent this authority, the $185,000 proposed in the May Revision, if adopted, would revert back to the General Fund.