BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          Date of Hearing:  August 30, 2016 


                             ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES


                              Richard S. Gordon, Chair


          ACR  
                      204 (Quirk) - As Introduced  August 25, 2016


          SUBJECT:  Court Adoption and Permanency Month


          SUMMARY:  Designates November 2016 as Court Adoption and  
          Permanency Month and encourages the courts and their local  
          communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for  
          children.  Specifically, this resolution makes the following  
          legislative findings:


          1)Consistent with its commitment to support practices and  
            procedures that promote access to justice and improved case  
            outcomes for California's children and families, the Judicial  
            Council has recognized November as Court Adoption and  
            Permanency Month every year since 1999.


          2)Each year in California nearly half a million incidents of  
            child abuse and neglect are reported and about 25,200 children  
            enter child welfare-supervised foster care for the first time.  
            Nearly 61,900 California children live apart from their  
            families in child welfare-supervised out-of-home care.


          3)Thirty-eight percent of the children in foster care in  
            California have lived apart from their families for two or  
            more years.  Twenty-four percent of the youth in care are  
            transitional-age youth between 16 and 20 years of age.









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          4)Of the more than 29,600 California children who left foster  
            care in the 12 months preceding May 2016, 52 percent were  
            reunited with their families, 21 percent were adopted, and 7  
            percent exited foster care without reunifying or obtaining a  
            permanent home by the time they reached the age of majority.


          5)The Judicial Council remains committed to working with the  
            Governor, the Legislature, and local courts and communities to  
            ensure that every abused or neglected child finds a safe,  
            stable, and permanent home with a loving family as quickly as  
            possible.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  None


          REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:


          Support


          None on file


          Opposition
          None on file


          Analysis Prepared by:Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800


















                                                                    ACR 204


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