BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1712 Page 1 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 AB 1712 Page 2 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. AB 1712 Page 3 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. AB 1712 Page 4 Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 319-2081