BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 528
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 14, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 528 (Yee) - As Amended: August 5, 2013
Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:10 -
0
Human Services 6 - 1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill provides additional considerations for foster youth in
relation to the provision of priority access to state subsidized
child care and access to medical care. Specifically, this bill:
1)Permits child welfare agencies, local educational agencies
(LEAs), and child care resource and referral (R&R) agencies to
make reasonable and coordinated efforts to ensure that minor
parents and nonminor dependent parents who have not completed
high school have access to school programs that provide onsite
or coordinated child care.
2)Requires that minor dependent parents are given priority for
subsidized child care. Adds parenting minor and nonminor
dependents to the list of families eligible for federal and
state subsidized child care.
3)Authorizes a social worker to inform a dependent over the age
of 12 of his or her right to consent to and receive, among
other things, the diagnosis and treatment of sexual assault,
medical care regarding the prevention or treatment of
pregnancy, including contraception, abortion, and prenatal
care, treatment of infectious, contagious, or communicable
diseases, mental health treatment, and treatment for alcohol
and drug abuse.
4)Authorizes social workers to provide dependent children with
access to age-appropriate, medically accurate information
about sexual development, reproductive health, prevention of
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unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
5)Permits child welfare agencies to provide dependents and
nonminor dependents with access to social workers or resource
specialists who are trained on the needs of parenting
teenagers and available resources.
6)Encourages child welfare agencies to update a dependent's or
nonminor dependent's case plan with specified pregnant and
parenting information in collaboration with specified
individuals within 60 days of being notified that a dependent
or nonminor dependent has become pregnant.
7)States the intent of the Legislature to ensure that complete
and accurate data on parenting minor and nonminor dependents
and their children are collected, and that the Department of
Social Services (DSS) shall ensure that specified information
is publicly available on a quarterly basis by county about
parenting minor and nonminor dependents and their children.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown, one-time significant programming/automation costs
potentially in excess of $1 million (General Fund) to capture
data in CWS/CMS specific to dependent parents, their children,
their age, ethnic group, placement type, and time in care,
should DSS decide to comply with the legislative intent
included in this bill.
2)Ongoing potential moderate data reporting costs to counties on
parenting minor and nonminor dependents and their children
should counties decide to comply with the legislative intent
included in this bill. Fund source would either be local
realignment funding, GF, or a combination of both (See #5).
3)Significant ongoing local costs potentially in the hundreds of
thousands to low millions of dollars to the extent social
workers update case plans, provide age-appropriate health
information, provide assistance in accessing resources, hold
specialized conferences, and coordinate efforts with LEAs and
child care R&R agencies. Fund source would either be local
realignment funding, GF, or a combination of both (See #5).
4)Significant ongoing costs potentially in the hundreds of
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thousands to low millions of dollars for specialized training
for social workers and/or recruitment of resource specialists
to the extent counties provide parenting teens with access to
specially trained professionals. Fund source would either be
local, realignment funding, GF, or a combination of both (See
#5).
5)Proposition 30, passed by the voters in November 2012, among
other provisions, eliminated potential mandate funding
liability for any new program or higher level of service
provided by counties related to the realigned programs.
Although the provisions of this bill are a mandate on local
agencies, any increased costs do not appear to be subject to
reimbursement by the state. Rather, Proposition 30 specifies
that for legislation enacted after September 30, 2012, that
has an overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by
a local agency for realigned programs, the provisions shall
apply to local agencies only to the extent that the state
provides annual funding for the cost increase.
COMMENTS
1)Intent . According to the author, research from the University
of Chicago suggests that extending foster care to age 21 will
roughly double the incidence of parenting youth in foster
care. Given this, the author argues, it is important that
California's foster care system adapt itself to meet the real
needs of parenting youth and their children. This bill seeks
to help support foster youth who are pregnant and parenting be
successful in their situation and help end the
intergenerational cycle within the foster care system. It
also aims to inform foster youth about reproductive health in
order to avoid problematic situations before they start.
2)Background . The California Fostering Connections to Success
Act (AB 12 Beall/Bass; Chapter 559, Statutes of 2010),
extended foster care benefits to nonminor dependents between
the ages of 18 to 21 subject to specified criteria. As a
result, eligible nonminor foster youth are now able to
continue receiving support from the dependency system as they
transition into adulthood. As California has expanded foster
care to serve older youth, the challenges of parenting youth
in the extended foster care program has led to the
identification of reforms needed to better meet the needs of
this population of young parents.
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In 2008, Los Angeles County established a project to aid
pregnant and parenting dependents. The Pregnant and Parenting
Teen conference (PPT) is an entirely voluntary program in
which pregnant or parenting dependents are connected with a
variety of resources from the child welfare system as well as
other benefit systems. The PPT is a team-based approach, where
a number of supportive adults, including the dependent and a
resource specialist or social worker, work to create a plan
for the dependent with a focus on healthy parenting and
identifying appropriate resources. The program has been
successful in Los Angeles, with an estimated 95% of eligible
youth participating.
This bill takes a comprehensive approach to addressing many of
the issues that have been identified under California's
expansion of foster care to eligible nonminors.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081