BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 260
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 14, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Kansen Chu, Chair
AB
260 (Lopez) - As Amended April 7, 2015
SUBJECT: Foster care: parenting youth
SUMMARY: Provides supports and protections for parenting foster
youth.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Provides the legislative declaration that a child who has one
or both parents adjudged a dependent of the court, as
specified, shall not be considered at risk of abuse or neglect
solely based on the parent's or parents' age, dependent
status, or foster care status, or solely based on information
regarding the parent's or parents' placement history, past
behaviors, or health or mental health diagnoses prior to the
pregnancy. Allows such information to be taken into account
when considering whether other factors exist that place the
child at risk of abuse or neglect.
2)Requires all of the following to apply for a child with one or
more minor dependent parents, as specified:
a) Nullifies the stipulation that reunification services
need not be provided in instances where there has been a
termination of reunification services for, or permanent
severance of, parental rights over any siblings or half
siblings, as specified, unless other specified
AB 260
Page 2
circumstances removing the necessity for reunification
services also exist; and
b) Requires a party seeking foster care placement of, or
termination of parental rights over, a child with one or
both parents who were minors when the child was born to
demonstrate that reasonable efforts using available
resources, as specified, were made to provide services
aimed at preventing the removal of the child and that these
efforts were unsuccessful.
3)Requires the clerk of the superior court to maintain court
files and records regarding a dependent parent of a child who
is the subject of a dependency petition separately from the
files and records regarding that child.
4)Allows a dependent parent's dependency court records to be
disclosed to the county in the child's dependency proceedings,
but disallows these records from being admitted as evidence
unless required by a court order stating that these files and
records contain information materially relevant to the case,
as specified.
5)Requires foster care placements for minor parents and nonminor
dependent parents and their children to support the
preservation of the family unit and provide services, as
specified, to prevent, whenever possible, the filing of a
petition to declare the child a dependent of the juvenile
court.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes a state and local system of child welfare
services, including foster care, for children who have been
adjudged by the court to be at risk or have been abused or
neglected, as specified. (WIC 202)
AB 260
Page 3
2)Allows a juvenile court to adjudge a child a ward or a
dependent of the court for specified reasons, including but
not limited to if the child has been left without any
provision for support, as specified. (WIC 300)
3)Declares legislative intent that a child shall not be
considered to be at risk of abuse or neglect solely because of
the age, dependent status, or foster care status of his or her
parent. (WIC 300)
4)States that the purpose of foster care law is to provide
maximum safety and protection for children who are currently
being physically, sexually, or emotionally abused, neglected,
or exploited, and to ensure the safety, protection, and
physical and emotional well-being of children who are at risk
of harm. (WIC 300.2)
5)Requires a social worker, within 30 days of taking a child
into temporary custody or whenever appropriate, to identify
and locate all adults who are related to the child by blood,
adoption, or affinity within the fifth degree of kinship and
provide information for the purpose of informing them of their
right to participate in the care and placement of the child,
as specified. (WIC 309(e))
6)States the intent of the Legislature to preserve and
strengthen a child's family ties whenever possible and to
reunify a foster youth with his or her biological family
whenever possible, or to provide a permanent placement
alternative, such as adoption or guardianship. (WIC 16000)
7)Requires the court to make a determination as to whether
reasonable efforts were made to prevent or eliminate the need
for removal of a minor from his or her home, as specified.
(WIC 361)
8)Establishes circumstances under which family reunification
services should be ordered to be provided for families and
stipulates instances when, upon the court finding clear and
convincing evidence, reunification services need not be
supplied to a parent or guardian, as specified. (WIC 361.5
(b))
AB 260
Page 4
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
Child Welfare Services: The purpose of California's Child
Welfare Services (CWS) system is to protect children from abuse
and neglect and provide for their health and safety. When
children are identified as being at risk of abuse, neglect or
abandonment, county juvenile courts hold legal jurisdiction and
children are served by the CWS system through the appointment of
a social worker. Through this system, there are multiple
opportunities for the custody of the child, or his or her
placement outside of the home, to be evaluated, reviewed and
determined by the judicial system, in consultation with the
child's social worker, to help provide the best possible
services to the child. The CWS system seeks to help children
who have been removed from their homes reunify with their
parents or guardians, whenever appropriate, or unite them with
other individuals they consider to be family.
Reunification services: The court may order reunification
services for parents who have had a child removed when it is
determined that reunification with the family would ultimately
benefit the child. These services can encompass a range of
supports, including parenting classes, substance abuse
treatment, family therapy, home visiting, among others, aimed at
responding to the needs of the child and the parents. Depending
on the child's age, reunification services can be offered for
between 6 months (for children under the age of 3) and 12 months
(for children ages 3 and older). Extensions for certain
circumstances may be granted if there is a substantial
probability that the child will be returned to the physical
custody of his or her parents. If the court finds that any one
of a number of situations exists - such as evidence of a
parent's history of abuse or neglect resulting in having a child
removed from his or her custody - reunification services need
not be provided. A parent's past history of terminated
reunification services, or permanent severance of parental
AB 260
Page 5
rights, for a sibling or half-sibling of a child currently
removed from his or her physical custody could also constitute a
reason for not providing reunification services.
Pregnant and parenting foster youth: As of January 1, 2015,
there were 62,898 children and youth in foster care in
California. Little information exists on the number of pregnant
and parenting youth in the foster system (although this will
change as of Federal Fiscal Year 2016, when the federal
Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act [HR
4980] will require states to track data on pregnant and
parenting foster youth).
While comprehensive data on the size of the state's population
of pregnant and parenting foster youth is currently lacking,
evidence of higher pregnancy and parenting rates for foster
youth exists. For example, recent research connecting Child
Protective Services (CPS) data with birth records in California
was able to link approximately 1.5 million California birth
records (from 2000 to 2010) to 1 million CPS records. Using
this linked data, researchers found that, of girls in foster
care at the age of 17, more than one-quarter of them had given
birth at least once during their teens. Of girls in foster care
who had given birth at least once before the age of 18, over
one-third had more than one birth in their teens. These
findings were corroborated by a much smaller, more in-depth
study that interviewed over 700 17-year-old foster youth and
former foster youth in California. This study found that just
over one-fourth of respondents had ever been pregnant; 30% of
whom had been pregnant more than one time.
Need for this bill: Parenting can present any young parent with
a number of significant challenges. Those challenges are often
greater for pregnant and parenting foster youth. A 2012 article
in a publication of the Sargent Shriver National Center on
Poverty Law stated that:
"Parenting youths in foster care are among the most vulnerable
AB 260
Page 6
respondents in neglect and abuse proceedings. Not only are
they in foster care, but also, as parents and expectant
parents, they are subject to a heightened level of scrutiny by
virtue of living in a highly structured environment staffed
with mandated reporters. Our youth-in-care clients almost
always face allegations by foster parents or staff members in
congregate care settings, such as mother-child placements or
maternity residences. Some common allegations against young
mothers in foster care are being missing from care-or
"awoling"- either with or without the subject child and either
prior to or during pregnancy; missing curfew either with or
without the subject child and either prior to or during
pregnancy; taking the child to homes or locations not cleared
and approved by the agency; failing to follow directives or
suggestions on the care of the subject child from an agency
staff member or a foster parent; failing to attend school, a
General Educational Development program, or job training;
behaving in a difficult-to-control manner in a congregate care
facility or a foster home; and not complying with recommended
therapeutic treatment or medication management or both for a
mental health diagnosis such as bipolar disorder, attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder,
or posttraumatic stress disorder."
According to the author, "It is vital that we initiate a culture
shift around the way we think about parenting foster youth.
Instead of making it more difficult for these youth or
overlooking their unique needs as parents living within the
dependency system, we should be supporting them in their goals
to create a healthy family in the same way we support their
goals for higher education, career/professional, or any other
permanency outcomes our system seeks to achieve for them. By
working to break the cycle of foster care, we can ensure our
foster youth can succeed while also preserving the lives of
children in their family unit rather than settling for
additional, unnecessary entrances into the system for those
children."
This bill will help support pregnant and parenting foster youth
to preserve their families by discouraging the inappropriate use
of outdated and/or irrelevant information as a means for
removing a child from the care of a parenting foster youth.
AB 260
Page 7
Moreover, this bill recognizes the fact that a parenting foster
youth may have more than one child and removes barriers to
reunification services for these youth that can exist for
parents who have histories of interaction with the child welfare
system related to siblings or half siblings of their child.
Instead of preventing a parenting foster youth from accessing
services to help them maintain their family, the goal of this
bill is to assure that these youth have exactly those services
and supports that will help them, and their child(ren), remain
an intact family unit. Additionally, this bill requires foster
placements for parenting youth to be supportive of family
maintenance for those youth and their child(ren).
DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill has been double-referred. Should
this bill pass out of this committee, it will be referred to the
Assembly Committee on Judiciary.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Alliance for Children's Rights
American Civil Liberties Union of California (ACLU)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME), AFL-CIO
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Disability Rights California
Family Law Section (FLEXCOM)
Hillsides
John Burton Foundation
National Center for Youth Law
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared
by: Daphne Hunt /HUM. S./(916) 319-2089
AB 260
Page 8