BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 1460
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          Date of Hearing:   August 6, 2014

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                    SB 1460 (Beall) - As Amended:  August 4, 2014 

          Policy Committee:                             Human Services  
          Vote:        6 - 0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill is a Senate Human Services Committee bill that brings  
          California's child welfare laws into compliance with federal  
          laws and regulations regarding the Multi Ethnic Placement Act  
          (MEPA), the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), the Fostering  
          Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, the  
          Adam Walsh Act, tribal child welfare, resource family approval,  
          and others. Specifically, this bill:

          1)Requires county recruitment of potential foster parents to  
            include diligent efforts to recruit individuals who reflect  
            the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity of foster children.

          2)Provides a county child welfare agency or county probation  
            department may request and receive a relative's name, social  
            security number, most recent address, telephone number, place  
            of employment or other contact information to identify, locate  
            and notify relatives of children who are the subject of  
            juvenile court proceedings, including all grandparents, adult  
            siblings, and other adult relatives of the child as specified.

          3)Requires a probation officer to explain why siblings are not  
            placed together and what efforts the probation officer is  
            making to place the siblings together or why making those  
            efforts would be contrary to the safety and well-being of any  
            of the siblings.  

          4)Provides a ward's attorney and the attorney for the siblings  
            of the ward be notified by the placement agency if there is a  
            need for a change in placement that will result in the  
            separation of siblings currently placed together.








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          5)Allows additional counties to participate in the early  
            implementation of the "resource family" pilot project  
            regarding new standards for foster homes. Provides a federal  
            criminal offender record check be received for all adults  
            residing in a resource family home as a condition of approval  
            and makes other technical and conforming changes regarding  
            resource families.

          6)Allows tribes to receive criminal history and child abuse  
            information from DOJ and establishes the requirements for  
            tribes to complete the approval for tribal foster homes.  
            Authorizes DOJ to charge a fee for providing this information  
            to the tribe.

          7)Provides for the transfer of Indian child case records from a  
            county to tribal jurisdiction.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Negligible costs to the Department of Social Services.
          2)On-going, likely non-reimbursable, costs in the range of  
            $15,000 to county probation departments for duties regarding  
            sibling placements. Proposition 30, passed by the voters in  
            November 2012, eliminated potential mandate funding liability  
            for any new program or higher level of service provided by  
            counties related to realigned programs. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  . California statute must comply with federal  
            requirements pertaining to child welfare in order to ensure  
            the uninterrupted flow of California's Title IV-E allocation  
            for child welfare services, which is over $1 billion annually.  
             This bill implements necessary changes to statute identified  
            by the California Department of Social Services. Recent  
            amendments substantially amended the bill.

           2)Background  .

              a)   The Multi Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA)  . MEPA requires  
               states to have an identifiable process in place to recruit  
               potential foster parents and adoptive parents that reflect  
               the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state  
               for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed.  State  
               statute authorizes counties to operate recruitment programs  
               to ensure an adequate number of foster homes are available  







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               to meet their child welfare placement needs.  However,  
               statute neither addresses the recruitment of foster  
               families who reflect the diversity of children for whom  
               foster homes are needed nor requires the diligent  
               recruitment of adoptive homes.  

              b)   The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS)  . FPLS is a  
               national automated service provided by the Office of Child  
               Support Enforcement to help states locate custodial and  
               noncustodial parents for child support and to establish,  
               modify and enforce child support obligations.  The FPLS and  
               its state-level counterpart, the California Parent Locator  
               Service (CPLS) provides access to a parent's address,  
               employment, income, assets, and social security number  
               information. 

               AB 1751 (Pan) Chapter 637, Statutes of 2012, allowed county  
               child welfare departments and county probation departments  
               to access the FPLS and CPLS for the purpose of locating a  
               child's non-custodial parent.  However, this authority did  
               not extend to finding other relatives of a child, as  
               provided for under federal law.

              c)   The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing  
               Adoptions Act of 2008  .   This Act requires states to make  
               diligent efforts to place siblings in out-of-home care  
               together, unless doing so would be detrimental to the  
               health and safety of one of the siblings.  State statute  
               was revised to conform to this provision, however the  
               changes failed to clearly state that probation officers are  
               required to make these efforts as required by federal law.   


              d)   Adam Walsh Act  .  This Act requires a fingerprint check  
               of a national criminal records database as well as a check  
               from the state child abuse and neglect registries before  
               any prospective foster or adoptive parent may be approved  
               for placement of a child. Current state statute requires  
               state criminal history information be received and  
               processed for clearance prior to approval. However, as a  
               result of the previously slow process time for the federal  
               records check, the Resource Family Approval background  
               check process merely requires the federal check be  
               submitted, and does not require that the results be  
               received, prior to approval.  








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              e)   Tribal Child Welfare  . Federal law (ICWA) requires that  
               Indian children be placed first in a foster home of the  
               child's tribe.  With the exception of the criminal  
               background standards, existing federal and state law allows  
               tribes to approve foster homes based on tribal rather than  
               state standards. Existing state law does not allow tribes  
               to receive criminal background and child abuse information  
               from DOJ for the purpose approving foster homes unless they  
               have a Title IV-E agreement (only two of 113 have an  
               agreement). Therefore, in order to approve a tribal home,  
               the tribe must request the state or county review the  
               criminal background information and provide a clearance or  
               denial.  Because this is done only on a child-specific  
               basis, after a child is removed, when tribal children are  
               removed they must be placed somewhere else while the  
               approval process is completed for a tribal family.  As a  
               result, counties cannot comply with federal ICWA placement  
               preference requirements and children experience additional  
               trauma and disruption. 

              f)   Resource Families  . Current state law establishes new  
               standards for foster homes, called "resource families" to  
               be tested in five counties before authorizing the program  
               statewide. In order to meet federal requirements that  
               foster care standards apply across all foster homes  
               statewide, additional counties need to implement the new  
               standards during the piloting phase in order to achieve  
               implementation statewide within the required timeframes.  
               Without statutory authority for additional counties to  
               participate, these counties would not be able to receive  
               federal financial participation in foster care payments to  
               resource families.

           1)Chaptering Issues  . 

             a)   Both this bill and AB 1658 (Jones-Sawyer), pending in  
               the Senate Appropriations Committee, amend Section 10618.6  
               of the Welfare and Institutions Code.  If both bills  
               advance, the author may wish to consider amendments to  
               avoid chaptering out conflicts.

             b)   Both this bill and SB 1252 (Torres), pending on the  
               Senate Floor, amend Section 11403.2 of the Welfare and  
               Institutions Code.  If this bill passes out of this  
               committee, the author may wish to consider amendments to  
               avoid chaptering out conflicts.







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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081