BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1319
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Date of Hearing: June 26, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
SB 1319 (Liu) - As Amended: June 11, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Child Welfare
SUMMARY : This bill makes five statutory changes to the Health
and Safety and the Welfare and Institutions Code relating to
services for at-risk children and foster youth. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Deletes the statutory sunset for "crisis nurseries," thus
allowing "crisis nurseries" to operate as a temporary
placement option for at risk youth under the age of six.
2)Deletes the requirement that foster family homes be subjected
to civil penalties for violations of Section 1548 of the
Health and Safety Code.
3)Deletes the statutory sunset for licensed community treatment
facilities serving seriously emotionally disturbed children or
wards and dependents of the court to have nursing staff
on-call rather than onsite if the facility meets specified
conditions.
4)Preserves the provisional rate setting methodology for
"severely emotionally disturbed" (SED) children placed in
group home settings until the Department of Mental Health can
establish a permanent rate methodology.
5)Allows the Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS)
to extend a waiver of regulations to counties in increments of
three years to continue to participate in performance
agreements with the DSS to provide foster youth with
alternatives to group home care through the expansion of
family-based services programs.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes the California Community Care Licensing Act
(CCCLA), to provide for the development and licensure of
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community care facilities for the mentally ill,
developmentally and physically disabled, and children and
adults who require special services.
2)Provides the authority to the Department of Social Services to
establish regulations for the licensing of community care
facilities.
3)Defines a "crisis nursery" as a facility licensed by DSS to
provide short-term, 24 hour residential care and supervision
for children under the age of six, who are voluntarily placed
by their parent or guardian due to a family crisis or
stressful situation for not more than 30 days.
4)Sunsets the authorizing statute for crisis nurseries on
January 1, 2014.
5)Defines a foster family agency as a facility that recruits,
trains and certified foster family homes and foster parents
for the temporary or permanent placement of foster youth and
requires them to operate as private non-profit organizations.
6)Defines a foster family home as a residential placement
providing 24-hour care for six or fewer foster children by
foster parent or parents and their family.
7)Requires foster family homes to be licensed and subject to the
CCCFA, which includes specified fines and penalties.
8)Requires the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to establish
program standards regulations for community treatment
facilities that provide services to seriously emotional
disturbed children and wards and dependents of the court, as
defined.
9)Defines a "community treatment facility" as a facility that
provides mental health treatment services to children in a
group setting, is able to provide secure containment, and
complies with program requirements established by DMH.
10)Until January 1, 2013, allows community treatment facilities
to have one registered nurse onsite in lieu of having 24-hour
onsite licensed nursing staff as long as the facility:
a) Does not use mechanical restraints.
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b) Does not admit children who need 24-hour nursing
coverage.
c) Has other medical or nursing staff available and can
provide services within one hour.
d) Has all of its other direct care staff trained in first
aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other emergency
intervention techniques and methods, as provided by DSS.
11)Establishes a process by which foster care providers licensed
as group homes are funded pursuant to their rate
classification level, as specified.
12)Allows the Director of DSS to waive foster care payment
regulations or group home operation requirements for counties
requesting to enter into performance agreements with nonprofit
child services agencies to develop services not available in
their community, as specified.
13)Allows the Director of DSS to extend the waiver for a period
of up to an additional three years.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS :
Crisis Nurseries
Established in 2004 by SB 855 (Machado), Chapter 664, Statutes
of 2004, crisis nurseries were established as a separate
licensing category to provide a temporary housing and shelter
facility placement option for parents. The goal of crisis
nurseries are to prevent the need for child welfare services and
to provide an alternative placement option for families with
young children who are facing difficult or extreme challenges,
financial, health, or otherwise.
Prior to SB 855's adoption, child nurseries were subject to
licensure as a group home under the CCCLA. According to the
Assembly Human Services August 26, 2004 analysis of SB 855, the
author argued that group home licensing requirements were
"inappropriate for crisis nurseries, since the demands of very
young children who are voluntarily placed by a parent are less
serious than those of older children who have been removed from
parental custody by county child protective services workers due
to abuse or neglect." Further, operators of crisis nurseries
argued "that the costs of complying with group home regulations
are excessive and threaten their viability."
To allow for the monitoring and evaluation of this licensing
category, SB 855 was approved with a sunset of January 1, 2008.
That sunset was extended by two subsequent measures to establish
the current sunset of January 1, 2014 to provide additional time
to DSS to establish licensing regulations. Crisis nurseries
were originally allowed to serve a limited number of foster
youth, however, that authority was eliminated effective January
1, 2012 pursuant to SB 1214, Chapter 519, Statutes of 2010.
This limits the role of crisis nurseries to only serve children
under the age of six who are voluntarily placed by their parent
or guardian under their temporary care.
Should this sunset be allowed to take effect, crisis nurseries
would again have to comply with group home licensing
requirements under the CCCLA. According to the California
Alliance of Child and Family Services, co-sponsor of this
measure, "there have been no significant problems in the care
provided to young children by crisis nurseries."
Foster Family Homes Penalties
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Under current law, foster family homes and certified family
homes of foster family agencies are subject to specific civil
penalties under the Health and Safety Code. Specifically,
foster family homes and certified family homes are subject to
civil penalties for violating the following requirements:
1) Operating, establishing, managing, conducting, or
maintaining a community care facility without a current
valid license, except for a juvenile hall operated by a
county, or a public recreation program. (Health and Safety
Code 1508)
2) Failing to comply with criminal background check and
clearance requirements. (Health and Safety Code 1522)
3) Operating an "unlicensed community care facility" not
exempt from licensure. (Health and Safety Code 1503.5)
In 2008, the state adopted AB 978 (Benoit), Chapter 291,
Statutes of 2008, which permitted counties and DSS to levy civil
penalties upon foster family homes, but exempted certified
family homes for any serious violation of the CCCFA. However,
according to the County Welfare Directors Association, this
exemption should have also included foster family homes. This
allowance for foster family homes to be subject to civil
penalties for each day they violate the CCCFA is substantial, as
it creates a significant financial disincentive for people to
become foster care providers. There are already a number of
mechanisms in place to provide for the proper proportional
response to violations of the CCCFA, which include the authority
of a county welfare agency (CWA) or DSS to require a corrective
action plan for a foster family home to remedy minor violation,
to temporarily suspend, suspend or revoke their license, or to
remove the foster youth from the home.
Community Treatment Centers Nursing Staff Requirements
Since 2003, the state has adopted several measures to allow for
community treatment centers not required by DMH to have 24-hour
onsite licensed nursing staff to have on staff at least one
licensed nursing staff available to respond to needed care
within one hour. This permission was initially adopted in 2003
by AB 1370 (Yee), Chapter 575, Statutes of 2003 with a sunset of
January 1, 2007. This sunset has been extended an additional
two times via legislation. This measure would now eliminate
that sunset and permanently allow community treatment centers
that meet specified conditions to have on staff and on call
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rather than onsite licensed nursing staff.
The Legislature has three times prior established and extended
this sunset, which has allowed for the efficient and appropriate
care of children in specified community treatment centers under
the oversight of DMH. It is appropriate to allow this sunset to
be lifted to remove the limitation of this permission. Should
the Legislature deem this permission unnecessary, it can always
revisit this issue via legislation.
Rate Setting Methodology for Foster Care Group Homes Serving SED
Children
With the repeal of AB 3632 of 1984 by AB 114, the education
budget trailer bill for the 2011-12 state budget, it transferred
the responsibility to provide mental health services to special
education students from county mental health departments to
county offices of education. As a part of this transfer, it
created an ambiguity as to how rate classification levels (RCL)
are calculated for foster care group homes serving special needs
children with mental health needs. Group home funding is set
based upon its RCL.
Prior to the repeal of AB 3632, a group home serving both foster
youth and special education children with mental health needs
was allowed to count both categories of children towards the
calculation of its RCL. However, according to the California
Alliance of Child and Family Services, which is a co-sponsor of
this measure, DSS is interpreting AB 114 to limit the RCL
calculation to only the number of foster youth served and not
special education pupils with mental health needs. This results
in a lower funding rate equivalent to lower service needs of
children in care, even though the group home continues to serve
high needs children.
This measure would allow a group home's rate classification to
be provisionally calculated based upon the all children served
in the by the group home until DSS issues revised regulations or
policies via All County Letter(s) governing the setting of a
group home's RCL.
Performance Agreement Waivers
Current law allows the Director of DSS to provide waivers of
foster care payments or the operation of group homes to enable
CWAs to enter into agreements with local non-profit child and
family services agencies to provide alternatives to group home
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care. The purpose is to provide an alternative placement to a
locked juvenile facility, such as a camp-oriented group home or
other less restrictive environment to provide for a more
positive youth environment.
Initially established by SB 933 (Thompson), Chapter 311,
Statutes of 1998, waivers were authorized to be in effect for
three years with an additional three-year extension as requested
by the CWA. Since the establishment of this waiver authority,
one additional measure was adopted (AB 388 (Torres/Hagman),
Chapter 445, Statutes of 2009), which allowed for an additional
three-year waiver extension. This measure would allow the
Director of DSS to extend the waiver in increments of three
years, as long as the CWA submits a report and independent
evaluation of the performance agreement, and provides adequate
justification for the waiver and demonstrates its ability to
continue to comply with the performance agreement.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Boys Republic
California State Association of Counties (CSAC)
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089