BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 260
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
260 (Lopez) - As Amended April 7, 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy |Human Services |Vote:|5 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| |Judiciary | |10 - 0 |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill provides supports and protections for parenting foster
youth. Specifically, this bill:
AB 260
Page 2
1)Requires that the court clerk maintain the court files and
records of a dependent parent (whether minor or nonminor)
separately from the files and records of his or her child who
is the subject of a dependency petition.
2)Allows a dependent parent's dependency court records to be
disclosed to the county in his or her child's dependency
proceedings, but prevents those records from being admitted as
evidence in the child's dependency proceeding except by court
order stating that those files and records contain information
materially relevant to the case, as specified.
3)For a child with one or more minor dependent parents:
a. Nullifies the provision 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, unless other specified circumstances removing
the necessity for reunification services also exist.
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 were made to provide services to prevent the
removal of the child and that these efforts were
unsuccessful.
4)Requires that foster care placements for minor and nonminor
dependent parents and their children support the preservation
of the family unit and provide services to prevent, when
possible, the filing of a petition to declare the child a
dependent of the juvenile court.
FISCAL EFFECT:
AB 260
Page 3
Unknown, but potentially significant costs in excess of $150,000
to the courts for increased administrative workload and
additional hearings. For example, if ten percent of female
foster youth likely to have children are impacted by this bill,
the estimated cost to conduct court hearings would be $210,000
(350 cases x ~$600/hour (estimated court hearing cost) x 1
hour). Attorney fees and administrative costs for records
management would be additional.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill seeks to help support foster youth who
become parents while in the foster care system, and their
children, and stop what the author sees as the "cycle of
foster care." The author states, "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."
2)Background. Recent data indicates there are approximately
AB 260
Page 4
63,000 children and youth in foster care in California.
Approximately half are over the age of ten, and half of those
are female. Although, there are no comprehensive data on the
number of pregnant and parenting foster youth, there is
evidence of higher pregnancy and parenting rates for foster
youth. Researchers connecting Child Protective Services data
with birth records in California found that, of girls in
foster care at the age of 17, more than one-quarter 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.
3)Prior Legislation:
a) SB 500 (Kuehl), Chap. 630, Statutes of 2005, created an
option for teen foster parents to live with their children
in foster homes.
b) SB 1178 (Kuehl), Chap. 841, Statutes of 2004, the Teen
Parents in Foster Care Act, expressed the Legislature's
intent to preserve and strengthen family relationships
between minor dependent parents and their dependent
children, and required the foster care system to treat
these families as a unit rather than as individuals.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 260
Page 5