BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AJR 17|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AJR 17
Author: Lopez (D), et al.
Amended: 7/9/15 in Assembly
Vote: 21
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 7/9/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Foster Care Tax Credit Act
SOURCE: Foster Coalition
DIGEST: This resolution urges the President and the Congress of
the United States to enact S. 664, the Foster Care Tax Credit
Act, which provides tax relief to short-term foster parents by
helping to cover the actual costs of caring for a foster child.
ANALYSIS: This resolution makes legislative findings related
to foster care, pertaining to:
1)The importance of foster parents,
2)The shortage of foster homes,
3)The state's difficulty in recruiting and retaining a
sufficient supply of foster families,
4)The expenses involved in caring for foster children,
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5)The frequency of short-term foster care placements,
6)The likelihood that children adopted from foster care will be
adopted by former foster parents, and
7)The benefits that the recently proposed federal legislation,
S. 664 (Heitkamp) - the Foster Care Tax Credit Act, will bring
to foster parents offering short-term placements to foster
children.
This resolution urges the President and Congress to enact S.
664, the Foster Care Tax Credit Act, which provides tax relief
to short-term foster parents by helping to cover the actual
costs of caring for a foster child.
Background
On January 1, 2015, there were 62,898 children in foster care in
California. Approximately 35% of these youth were placed with
relatives, non-relative extended family members, or in a
tribe-specified home. Another 25% were placed with foster
family agencies (FFAs) or FFA-certified homes, and almost 9%
were placed in foster family homes (FFHs) and small family
homes.
For Fiscal Year 2014-15, the FFH basic rate (which varies by age
of the foster youth) ranged from $671 per month for children
zero through four years old to $838 per month for youth ages 15
to 20. The same basic rate applies for youth placed in homes
through non-treatment FFA programs, while rates are higher for
youth placed through treatment FFAs. A 2007 report from
Children's Rights, the National Foster Parent Association, and
the University of Maryland School of Social Work found that
California's foster care rates covered only 61% of the costs of
raising a two-year-old foster child, 59% of raising a
nine-year-old, and 44% of raising a 16-year-old.
Short-term foster care. Available Child Welfare Services (CWS)
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data do not provide an exact picture of the number of all foster
youth that are placed less than six months, at any given time,
in FFHs and FFA-certified homes. However, some data are
available for median lengths of stay and for youth entering CWS
within specified periods. For example, for youth who exited
care to reunification in 2014, the median length of stay for
those placed in FFHs was 4.8 months; for those placed in
FFA-certified homes, the median length of stay was 6.3 months.
Additionally, 5,951 youth entered foster care for the first time
during the first six months of 2014 and were placed into FFHs or
FFA-certified homes; 1,905 (32%) of those youth were reunified
with their families within that six months.
Foster Care Tax Credit Act: Introduced in March 2015 and
referred to the Senate Finance Committee, the Foster Care Tax
Credit Act (S. 664) proposed to extend the benefits of the Child
Tax Credit to foster parents with whom foster youth are placed
for shorter periods of time. The federal Child Tax Credit
allows taxpayers to reduce their federal income tax by up to
$1,000 per qualifying child, including eligible foster children.
However, the Child Tax Credit has a residency requirement
stating that, to render a taxpayer eligible for the credit, a
qualifying child must have lived with the taxpayer for more than
half of the calendar year for which taxes are being filed.
(Note that California, while offering certain tax benefits
related to children, dependents, and adoption, does not offer a
state equivalent of the Child Tax Credit.)
The Foster Care Tax Credit Act offers foster parents a
refundable tax credit of up to $1,000 per year, per foster
child, that is pro-rated by the number of months a foster child
is in a family's care.
Comments
According to the author's office, this resolution urges the
enactment of the Foster Care Tax Credit Act which will
"encourage more families to become foster parents via tax credit
incentives in order to cut down on group home costs in the
short-term and encourage more permanent adoptions in the
long-term. A tax credit can make it more financially feasible
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for more Americans to offer safe loving homes for foster
children. Recruiting more foster parents also increases the
chance that children will be adopted into permanent families.
Children who are adopted versus those who 'age out' of foster
care are less likely to be incarcerated, homeless and require
public welfare assistance."
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified7/31/15)
Foster Coalition (source)
Lilliput Children's Services
Marin Foster Parent Association
Social Mission Central
The Village Family Services
OPPOSITION: (Verified7/31/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 7/09/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, O'Donnell, Olsen, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Dahle, Grove, Mayes, Obernolte,
Patterson
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Prepared by:Melissa Ward / SFA / (916) 651-1520
8/13/15 13:38:53
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