BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1712
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          Date of Hearing:   May 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 1712 (Beall) - As Amended:  April 26, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Human 
          ServicesVote:5 - 0 

          Urgency:     Yes                  State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill revises and expands the California Fostering 
          Connections to Success Act of 2010 (AB 12). Primarily, this 
          bill: 

          1)Shifts the licensing of Transitional Housing Placement Plus 
            Foster Care (THP+FC) facilities from the counties to the 
            state. 

          2)Specifies that non-minor dependents are eligible for adult 
            adoptions and tribal customary adoptions. 

          3)Specifies that non-minor dependents who are adopted as adults 
            are eligible to receive Adoption Assistance Payments (AAP) as 
            long as they meet participation requirements. 

          4)Specifies that active reunification services plans shall 
            remain in effect after a non-minor dependent reaches the age 
            of 18.

          5)Allows non-minor dependents to remain in care through age 19. 
            Originally, 19 year-olds were not allowed to remain in foster 
            care until after January 1, 2013. This bill removes that 
            phase-in period.

          6)Expands the definition of "kin" for kinship guardianship 
            placement to include tribal kin, extended family members, 
            family friends, committed caregivers, and other fictive kin.

           FISCAL EFFECT  









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          1)Costs for removing the phase-in for 19-year olds will be 
            between $13 million and $20 million ($9 million and $14 
            million GF) in 2012-13 and $5 million ($3 million GF) in 
            2013-14 for the administrative and grant costs associated with 
            allowing the youth to remain in care. 

          2)GF savings of over $1 million in 2012-13, growing to over $15 
            million by 2016-17 due to the increased federal financial 
            participation associated with expanding the definition of 
            "kin" and allowing more families to move from non-related 
            legal guardian status (NRLG) to the kinship guardianship 
            program. 

          3)Up to $200,000 ($68,000 GF) per year in administrative savings 
            in the child welfare program for every 25 non-minor dependents 
            who leave the child welfare system through adult adoption or 
            tribal customary adoption. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  . The California Fostering Connections to Success 
            Act (AB 12; Beall & Bass; Chapter 559, Statutes of 2010) 
            allowed the state to opt in to two provisions of the federal 
            Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act 
            of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act) (P.L. 110-351).  
            Specifically, the California Fostering Connections to Success 
            Act provided transitional foster care support to qualifying 
            foster youth ages 18 to 21, phased-in over three years, 
            beginning in 2012 and shifted California's existing state and 
            county-funded Kin-GAP program to align it with new federal 
            requirements and allow the state to bring federal financial 
            participation into the state kinship guardian assistance 
            program for the first time. In 2011, AB 212 (Beall), Chapter 
            459, Statutes of 2011, provided technical fixes to aid 
            implementation.  

           2)Purpose  . The purpose of this bill, according to the author and 
            supporters, is to provide additional technical clean-up to AB 
            12 and AB 212.  The author notes this bill reflects a 
            continued collaboration between the nine sponsor organizations 
            that worked on AB 12 and AB 212,as well as state and county 
            administrators.  

            Much of this bill is clarifying and technical. However, it 
            also contains significant policy changes.








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            This bill shifts licensing of THP+FC facilities from the 
            counties to the state. Under current law, counties have the 
            option of licensing their own community care facilities or 
            handing that responsibility to the state.  Most counties have 
            shifted that responsibility to the state and no longer have 
            the staff or expertise on hand to license facilities. Given 
            the state's current licensing structure, the author and 
            supporters believe it is more efficient to have the state 
            license THP+FC facilities.

            In addition, recent communication from the federal government 
            greatly broadened the way states could define "kin" in 
            developing their federal kinship guardianship programs to 
            include fictive kin.  This bill broadens the state definition 
            to reflect this direction from the federal government.  In 
            doing so, the state will be able to shift more guardianship 
            cases from the state-only program to the federal program, thus 
            increasing the amount of federal funding available to support 
            the state's guardianship program.  

            The most significant policy change in AB 1712 is the removal 
            of the phase-in contained in AB 12 that was intended to reduce 
            the up-front costs of the program expansion.  In AB 12, 
            expanding foster care eligibility to 19-year olds was not 
            intended to take place until January 1, 2013. 

            Supporters argue, however, that when the implementation work 
            began, county child welfare agencies realized many youth would 
            remain in traditional foster care beyond their 18th birthdays 
            and exit foster care into the AB 12 extended foster care 
            program before turning 19 during the 2012 calendar year, 
            therefore losing state eligibility for extended care before 
            the January 1, 2013 phase-in date for 19-year olds. 

            AB 1712 eliminates that gap in care by removing the phase-in 
            for 19-year-olds and allowing young people who are under age 
            19 at the time they enter the extended care option to remain 
            in extended care if they turn 19 during calendar year 2012, so 
            they do not end up being removed from the program for a few 
            months before being placed back in the program January 1, 
            2013.











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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081