BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 260
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
260 (Lopez)
As Amended August 17, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 78-0 |(June 2, 2015) |SENATE: |40-0 | (September 9, |
| | | | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY: Provides support and protections for parenting minor
and nonminor dependents. Specifically, this bill:
1)Declares legislative intent that a child of a minor parent or
nonminor dependent parent shall not be considered at risk of
abuse or neglect 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
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termination of reunification services for, or permanent
severance of, parental rights over any siblings or half
siblings, as specified, unless other specified
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. Further, permits any party to the child's
dependency proceedings to request the admittance of such
records at any stage of the proceedings.
5)Requires foster care placements for minor parents and nonminor
dependent parents and their children to support the
preservation of the family unit and to refer a minor parent or
nonminor dependent parent to services, as specified, to
prevent, whenever possible, the filing of a petition to
declare the child a dependent of the juvenile court.
The Senate amendments:
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1)Remove from legislative intent language that the child of a
dependent parent shall not be considered at risk of abuse or
neglect solely because of the age, dependent status, or foster
care status of the parents.
2)Permit any party to the dependency proceedings of a child of
minor parents or nonminor dependent parents to request the
admittance of a dependent parent's dependency court records as
evidence at any stage during the proceedings.
3)Remove the requirement that foster care placements for minor
parents and nonminor dependent parents provide preventive
services, as specified, and instead require foster care
placements to refer a minor parent or nonminor dependent
parent to such services.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill may result in the following costs:
1)Potential increase in child welfare services costs (General
Fund), including but not limited to the provision of
reunification services, to specified cases. While the number
of potentially applicable cases is unknown at this time, for
every 10 cases that would have otherwise been denied
reunification services, annual costs would be about $100,000.
(Proposition 30 exempts the State from mandate reimbursement
for realigned programs, however, legislation that has an
overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by a
local agency for realigned programs including child welfare
services, apply to local agencies only to the extent that the
State provides annual funding for the cost increase.)
2)Unknown, potential future cost savings (Local/General Fund) in
averted or reduced time spent in a dependency placement to the
extent youth remain or are reunified with their parents sooner
than otherwise would occur under existing law.
3)Minor ongoing administrative costs (General Fund) to maintain
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court files and records of dependent parents and their
children separately.
COMMENTS:
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 six months (for children under the age of three) and 12
months (for children ages three 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
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 (H.R.
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,
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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
those who had been pregnant had been pregnant more than one
time.
Need for this bill: 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."
Analysis Prepared by:Daphne Hunt / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN:
0001945
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