BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 1460 (Human Services Committee)
          As Amended  August 4, 2014
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :37-0  
           
           HUMAN SERVICES      6-0         APPROPRIATIONS      17-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Stone, Maienschein,       |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow,           |
          |     |Ammiano,                  |     |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian  |
          |     |Ian Calderon, Garcia,     |     |Calderon, Campos,         |
          |     |Lowenthal                 |     |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez,  |
          |     |                          |     |Holden, Jones, Linder,    |
          |     |                          |     |Pan, Quirk,               |
          |     |                          |     |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner,    |
          |     |                          |     |Weber                     |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Makes various changes to child welfare statute to  
          bring it into compliance with specified federal acts.  

          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.









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          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.

          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 Department of Justice (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  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee:

          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  :  This is a Senate Human Services Committee bill that  
          implements various non-controversial state compliance issues  
          regarding the MEPA, the FPLS, the Fostering Connections to  
          Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, the Indian Child  
          Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Adam Walsh Act. 








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          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.

          The Multi Ethnic Placement Act (Public Law (P.L.) 103-382):   
          MEPA requires states to have an identifiable process in place to  
          diligently 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 to meet  
          their child welfare placement needs.  However, statute does not  
          address 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 at all.  

          According to CDSS, the federal government has specifically  
          inquired as to what California will do to meet the requirements  
          of the MEPA.  This bill explicitly requires that an agency that  
          recruits foster and adoptive parents undertake diligent efforts  
          to ensure that recruitments reflect the diversity of the  
          children needing placement. 

          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. 

          Family find requirements:  Pursuant to the federal Fostering  
          Connections Act, 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 (45 Code of Federal  
          Regulations 302.35).  This bill permits the FPLS and CPLS to be  
          used in the identification and notification of relatives of a  








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          child who is the subject of a juvenile court proceeding.   
          Additionally, this bill authorizes child welfare agencies and  
          county probation to access the information for this purpose.
          The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions  
          Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351) 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 also required to make these efforts as  
          required by federal law.  Because, in practice, probation  
          officers follow the same procedures as social workers for  
          placing children in foster care and federal law makes no  
          distinction between children in the care and custody of a county  
          child welfare department and children in the care and custody of  
          a county probation department, this bill explicitly applies the  
          federal requirements to probation officers.

          AB 1751 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.

          Adam Walsh Act (P.L. 109-248):  The Adam Walsh 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 regarding caregiver background checks as  
          part of the Resource Family Approval (RFA) process for foster  
          care and adoptive placements require that 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 RFA background check  
          process merely requires the federal check be submitted, and does  
          not require that the results be received, prior to approval.   
          This is in conflict with federal law.  Additionally, federal  
          response times to background check requests have since  
          significantly improved.

          To comply with the requirements of the Adam Walsh Act, this bill  
          provides that approval as a resource family can be granted only  








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          after federal criminal history information is received. 
          The RFA Program was initially authorized pursuant to AB 340  
          (Hancock), Chapter 464 Statutes of  2007, and was further  
          implemented through SB 1013 (Budget and Fiscal Review  
          Committee), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2012.

          Tribal Child Welfare:  The 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. 

          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.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 


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