BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     AB 403


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          Date of Hearing:  May 27, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          AB  
          403 (Mark Stone) - As Amended April 21, 2015


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          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  YesReimbursable:   
          No


          SUMMARY:


          This bill implements Continuum of Care Reform (CCR)  
          recommendations to better serve children and youth in  
          California's child welfare services system. Specifically, this  








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          bill:  


          1)Describes the goals of the child welfare services system and  
            the underlying principles of this bill.


          2)Improves and expands home-based family care through additional  
            training and support.





          3)Establishes new out-of-home care and supervision options  
            available for children and requirements for placement.
          4)Establishes and sets forth responsibilities of Child and  
            Family Teams.


          5)Revises rate structures for the care and supervision of  
            children in out-of-home care.


          6)Sets forth new requirements for licensure, program integrity  
            and transparency.


          FISCAL EFFECT:


          The Governor's 2015-16 Budget includes $9.6 million ($7 million  
          GF) to begin implementation of the CCR reforms contained in this  
          bill.


          COMMENTS:










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          1)Purpose. Sponsored by the Department of Social Services (DSS),  
            this bill establishes the framework for change in how  
            California provides treatment and services to children and  
            families involved in the state's child welfare system.  This  
            bill is built on the efforts of child welfare stakeholders and  
            the Legislature, and the Continuum of Care Reform report  
            submitted by DSS. 



            The author states, "[This bill] is a comprehensive reform  
            effort to make sure that youth in foster care have their  
            day-to-day physical, mental, and emotional needs met; that  
            they have the greatest chance to grow up in permanent and  
            supportive homes; and that they have the opportunity to grow  
            into self-sufficient, successful adults.





            "To the extent that children are provided needed services and  
            support, this bill transitions children away from congregate  
            care into home-based family care with resource families.  In  
            addition to new services and supports for resource families,  
            the measure establishes targeted training and support that can  
            better prepare families to help care for foster youth."





            "For children who are not yet ready to enter a family setting,  
            the bill makes changes to the existing model for group homes.   
            This bill is necessary to advance California's long-standing  
            goal to move away from the use of long-term group home care by  
            increasing youth placement in family settings and by  
            transforming existing group home care into places where youth  
            who are not ready to be placed with families can receive short  








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            term, intensive treatment.  The measure creates a timeline to  
            implement this shift in placement options, and it calls for  
            the adoption of new standards and performance measures."





          2)Child Welfare Services (CWS). On January 1, 2015, there were  
            62,898 children in foster care in California. Most of these  
            children and youth were placed with relatives, extended family  
            members, foster family agencies, or in foster family homes.  
            Nearly 3,800 (6%) were placed in group homes. 



            There has been growing consensus in the field of child  
            welfare, at both the national and state levels, that  
            institutionalized settings for foster youth should be used  
            sparingly.  The placement of maltreated children in group home  
            settings has been increasingly viewed as a temporary solution  
            in instances where emergency or crisis treatment is warranted.  
             Yet, as of January 2015, 48% of youth placed in group homes  
            in California via CWS had been there over two years, and 23%  
            had been there over five years, indicating stays longer than  
            what might have been necessary if appropriate, intensive  
            treatments had been deployed upon placement.





          3)Continuum of Care Reform.  Senate Bill 1013 (Senate Budget and  
            Fiscal Review) Chapter 35, Statutes of 2012, realigned CWS to  
            counties, established a moratorium on the licensing of new  
            group homes, and required DSS to convene a stakeholder  
            workgroup discuss and recommend changes to the continuum of  
            care within child welfare services and how to reform the use  
            of congregate care. In January 2015, DSS submitted the  








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            Continuum of Care (CCR) workgroup report to the Legislature,  
            which included general and fiscal recommendations, alongside  
            recommendations on home-based family care, residential  
            treatment, and performance measures and outcomes.  The report  
            reinforced the view that group home settings are best used  
            sparingly and temporarily.



            This bill begins the implementation of the reforms and  
            recommendations developed by the working group and expressed  
            in the CCR report.


          


          Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081