BILL ANALYSIS SB 1214 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 29, 2010 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES Jim Beall Jr., Chair SB 1214 (Wolk) - As Amended: May 27, 2010 SENATE VOTE : 33-0 SUBJECT : Crisis nurseries SUMMARY : Redefines the scope of community care licensing for crisis nurseries to the provision of short-term 24-hour residential care and supervision for children under six years of age voluntarily placed by a relative or other responsible adult during a time of crisis or stress, and extends the sunset allowing for the use of crisis nurseries as a child welfare services direct placement option until July 1, 2012. Specifically, this bill : 1)Sunsets existing statutes related to the licensing of crisis nurseries on July 1, 2012. 2)Defines a "crisis nursery", effective July 1, 2012, as a Department of Social Services (DSS) licensed facility that provides short-term, 24-hour non-medical residential care and supervision for children under the age of six voluntarily placed by a parent, legal guardian, relative or other adult responsible for the child's day-to-day care and supervision during a family crisis or stressful situation. 3)Specifies that a voluntary placement does not include a child directly placed by a county child welfare services agency. 4)Limits the time a child may be voluntarily placed in a crisis nursery to no more than 30 days. 5)Limits the capacity for a crisis nursery at 14 licensed beds with specified exceptions. 6)Requires crisis nurseries to collect and maintain information on the total number and ages of children placed in the program and the length of their placement, to be made available to DSS upon request. 7)Provides that a crisis nursery may provide child day care SB 1214 Page 2 services to children under the age of six at the same site for up to 30 calendar days in a six-month period, unless granted an exception by DSS. 8)Requires that exceptions to group home licensing regulations for county-operated or contracted emergency shelter care facilities for children under six be contained in regulations for crisis nurseries. EXISTING LAW 1)Defines a "crisis nursery" as a nonprofit facility licensed by DSS to provide short-term, 24-hour non-medical residential care and supervision for children under six years of age who are either placed: a) Voluntarily by a parent or legal guardian for temporary relief in a family crisis or stressful situation for no more than 30 days; or, b) By a county welfare service agency for 14 days or less, unless granted an exception by DSS, provided county child welfare placements account for no more than one-third of the a crisis nursery's licensed capacity. Health and Safety Code (HSC) Section 1516. 2)Defines a "voluntary placement" as a child placed by a parent or legal guardian who retains physical custody of, and remains responsible for, the care of his or her child during the temporary emergency care placement. Ibid. 3)Allows a crisis nursery to provide temporary emergency care to children under six years of age either in the protective custody of child welfare services, or as a child welfare services direct placement. Ibid. 4)Allows crisis nurseries to provide child day care services to children under six years of age for no more than 30 calendar days in a six-month period, unless issued an exception by DSS, and provides that children in the day care program shall count toward the facility's licensed capacity. Ibid. 5)Limits the capacity of crisis nurseries to 14 infants and children under the age of six, unless the facility was licensed before January 1, 2004 as a group home for children SB 1214 Page 3 under the age of six, providing crisis nursery services, with a capacity between 14 and 21. Ibid. 6)Permits the use of volunteers subject to specified training requirements to be included in the staff-to child ratios for the purposes of licensing. HSC 1526.8. 7)Prohibits a child receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) from falling under the definition of a voluntary placement. HSC 1516. 8)Allows for AFDC-FC funding of children placed by child welfare services in licensed crisis nurseries. Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC) Section 11402. 9)Sets forth criteria for the licensure of a crisis nursery, including that the facility meet one of the following conditions: a) The facility had been operating as a group home in the county of Contra Costa, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Yolo for children under 6 years of age as of September 1, 2004.; b) The facility meets an urgent, significant, and unmet need for the temporary respite care of children under six years of age, pursuant to DSS regulatory standards.; or c) The facility offers temporary emergency shelter and services only to children under six years of age who are voluntarily placed by a parent or guardian and does not accept county child welfare services placements. HSC 1516. 10)Requires each crisis nursery to submit a monthly report to DSS with the number of children placed in the program, the child's length of stay, and specifying whether each child was voluntarily placed by a parent or legal guardian, or placed by county child welfare services. Ibid. 11)Requires an annual summary report to DSS for those children placed directly in crisis nurseries by a county child welfare services agency, indicating the number of children placed, the age of each child and length of stay, the average length of stay for all children placed by the county, and the county's reasons for using the crisis nursery for these children. SB 1214 Page 4 Ibid. 12)Sunsets the above provisions on July 1, 2011. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. COMMENTS : Background : Crisis nurseries provide short-term emergency respite care for the infants, toddlers, or young children of families in crisis without other options, such as trusted friends or relatives to care for their children. Reports show that families turn to crisis nurseries when they are struggling to deal with illness, hospitalization, domestic violence, homelessness, or substance abuse recovery. According to crisis nursery proponents, temporary emergency respite care helps to reduce the numbers of children who may enter the child welfare system and end up in foster care by helping parents and legal guardians to have a stable place for their child during a short-term emergency. In California, licensed crisis nurseries are established in response to an urgent or unmet need for families in crisis, and operated by private nonprofit agencies. Placements are restricted to voluntary placements by parents or legal guardians, and, at shorter, more restricted intervals, child welfare services placements. In addition, many crisis nursery programs in California have developed robust crisis day care services, and the numbers of children in day care apply toward the licensed capacity of the facilities. Prior to 2004, crisis nurseries had been licensed as group homes. Group homes are residential facilities used by the courts and child welfare agencies for foster children whose needs cannot be met in less restrictive, more family-like settings such as relative placements, foster family homes, or foster family agencies. Crisis nurseries that served children under the age of six had been held to the group home regulations for this cohort, commonly referred to as the "under six" regulations, which require educational standards for staff, defined staff to child ratios, and supportive services. As stated in the DSS procedural guide for congregate care for children under the age of six: "We have a firm belief that these young children should never be placed in congregate care unless exceptional circumstances exist which require services SB 1214 Page 5 that only a group home can provide." Supporters of crisis nurseries argued at the time that the more stringent standards for group homes should not apply to crisis nurseries given that the demands of children who are voluntarily placed by their parents are less serious than those of an abused or neglected child, and they cited a concern that the costs associated with group home licensing threatened their financial viability. In response, a separate licensing category was created with the passage of SB 855 (Machado) Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004. Changes brought about by the new licensure category include a provision allowing crisis nurseries to use trained volunteers instead of staff and allowing specified volunteers to apply to staffing ratios. The provisions of SB 855 were due to sunset on January 1, 2008, but because licensing standards were not issued by DSS until late 2007, the sunset was extended pursuant to SB 104 (Machado) Chapter 288, Statutes of 2007, which added reporting requirements and moved the sunset date to July 1, 2011. Currently, five nonprofit agencies operate six crisis nursery facilities with a total of 66 licensed beds in the counties of: Contra Costa, Sacramento, Yolo, Stanislaus, and Nevada. The crisis nurseries operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and rely mostly on private funds, although some do receive funding through their local First Five Commissions. Some counties, such as Stanislaus work with parents and legal guardians involved in the child welfare system to get them to voluntarily utilize the crisis nursery services in an effort to avoid greater child welfare services involvement. The only existing crisis nursery that still accepts direct child welfare services placements is the Yolo Crisis Nursery, and they have one licensed bed for this purpose. A total of 97 children and infants were directly placed by county child welfare services in the Yolo Crisis Nursery over the course of four years (2006-2009), accounting for approximately 43% of the total overnight placements. Over the same period, around 57% (132 total) of the overnight placements were by voluntary placement. The average length of stay for children in a child welfare placement at the Yolo Crisis Nursery was 7 days. Notably, the numbers of children in voluntary placement crisis day care at the Yolo Crisis nursery rose dramatically from an average of around 155 per year from 2006-2008, to 325 in 2009, an increase SB 1214 Page 6 of 110% over the course of one year. Need for this bill : This bill would allow a child to be directly placed by his or her parent or legal guardian, or by a relative or adult caregiver in a licensed crisis nursery. As amended this bill sunsets provisions allowing for direct placement of a child under six by county child welfare services as of July 1, 2012. According to the bill's sponsor, the California Alliance of Child and Family Services: In response to concerns about this specific use [child welfare placements] of Crisis Nurseries by counties, [this bill] would eliminate the authority for Crisis Nurseries to accept placements made directly by county child welfare agencies and to receive AFDC-Foster Care payments, effective July 1, 2012. Under SB 1214, parents, legal guardians, relatives, or other caregivers would continue to be able to come to Crisis Nurseries when they need a safe and stable place for their children to stay for a few days while they deal with a difficult situation in their lives. According to the Youth Law Center, in removing their opposition: We are certain that developing quality foster family home resources for children in care will ensure that children in foster care receive the consistent care from one responsive adult that is critical for healthy development, and will protect already traumatized young children from being subjected to an additional necessary move and the documented harms of shift care. In opposition , the Alliance for Children's Rights states: One of the most important factors in the development of an infant is the security of their attachment to a primary caregiver. When a very young child is placed in a group setting, as [this bill] allows, they are at greater risk of failing to make these crucial attachments because their caregivers are constantly rotating in and out, as staff goes on and off shift and volunteers cycle through. This can have SB 1214 Page 7 profoundly negative impacts on the child's development. Proposed Amendments The author has asked to take the following correction amendments found by Senate Engrossing and Enrolling: On page 5, line 29, add "children" after "14" On page 5, line 32, add "children" after "14" and after "21" In addition , staff is recommending the following amendments: 1)The existing statutes are clear that children who are voluntarily placed in crisis nurseries must be placed by a parent or legal guardian. This bill proposes to expand the definition of "voluntary placements" to include children placed by other relatives and adults responsible for the child's day-to-day care and supervision. This could be broadly interpreted, and is a departure from what has been permitted and evaluated under current law. Staff recommends the author limit voluntary placements to placements made by parents or legal guardians, per existing law as follows: On page 5, line 14, after "voluntarily", strike "placements" and add "placed by a parent or guardian" On page 5, line 14, strike "as defined in" and replace with "pursuant to" On page 5, strike lines 24 through 27. On page 5, line 23, add the following: . Voluntary placement does not include a child who has been removed from the care and custody of his or her parent or legal guardian and placed in foster care by a child welfare services agency. 2)Given that there is currently only one county in California using a single licensed bed for child welfare services placements, staff recommends restoring the SB 1214 Page 8 existing sunset date for child welfare services placements in crisis nurseries. This would provide Yolo County with one year, until July 1, 2011, as provided under existing law, to seek family-centered alternatives for the few children currently placed in crisis nurseries, consistent with statewide practice. 3)In addition, staff recommends including information regarding the reasons for voluntary placement in a crisis nursery to the information collected and maintained by crisis nurseries as follows: On page 5, line 39 insert "the reasons given for the use of the crisis nursery," Prior & Related Legislation: SB 104 (Machado) Chapter 288, Statutes of 2007 extended the sunset for crisis nurseries to July 1, 2011, and required specified reporting to DSS on child welfare placements in crisis nurseries. SB 855 (Machado) Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004 created a separate licensing category for crisis nurseries, to sunset January 1, 2008. AB 1197 (Bates) Chapter 1088, Statutes of 1993 established standards for congregate care placements for children under six years of age, including "temporary shelter care facilities," or facilities operated by counties for 24-hour temporary residential placement. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support California Alliance of Child and Family Services (sponsor) California State Association of Counties The Child Abuse Prevention Center EMQ Families First Junior Leagues of California-State Public Affairs Committee Junior League of Sacramento Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Yolo County Board of Supervisors Opposition SB 1214 Page 9 The Alliance for Children's Rights 2 Individuals Analysis Prepared by : Michelle Doty Cabrera / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089