BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 423
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|Author: |Cooley |
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|Version: |May 28, 2015 |Hearing |July 14, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Sara Rogers |
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Subject: CalWORKs: relative caregivers
SUMMARY
This bill requires a county, immediately following the placement
of a child in the home of a relative, to initiate an application
for CalWORKs in order to ensure that the child receives funding
while eligibility determinations for other foster care benefits
are pending. It also provides that, if the child is found to be
ineligible for federal foster care payments, the county shall
determine eligibility for the Approved Relative Caregiver
Funding Option Program if the county has opted into the program.
The bill also requires the county to screen every youth who is
in foster care and who has been determined to be ineligible for
AFDC-FC benefits for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program
eligibility, as specified.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1) Establishes a juvenile court's jurisdiction over a child who
has suffered, or is at substantial risk of suffering, serious
physical harm inflicted non-accidentally upon the child by the
child's parent or guardian. (WIC 300)
2) Establishes multiple programs of support for dependent or
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former dependent children and the families that care for them.
Each of the federally reimbursed programs has a corollary
state-only funded program for children who are not eligible
under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) income
eligibility criteria from 1996. These include:
Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care
(AFDC-FC), (WIC 11401)
Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment Program
(Kin-GAP), (WIC 11360; WIC 11385)
Adoption Assistance Program, (WIC 16115)
Non Relative Legal Guardianship (WIC 11405)
CalWORKs (for children who are ineligible for
federal IV-E funding in foster care and residing with
relatives). (WIC 11250)
1) Establishes the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option
program to provide counties with the option of making the
amount paid to approved relative caregivers caring for
non-federally eligible children equal to the amount paid on
behalf of children who are federally eligible. (WIC 11461.3)
2)Provides that the following funding shall be used for the
Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program:
a. The applicable regional per-child CalWORKs grant.
b. Appropriated general fund resources.
c. County funds. only to the extent required.(WIC
11461.3)
3) Requires that a child who cannot be left in the home of a
parent or guardian be placed by a county social worker in a
foster home, with priority going to a relative of the child or
nonrelative extended family member. (WIC 309)
4)Requires that immediately following the placement of a child
who has been temporarily detained into the home of a relative
or a nonrelative extended family member, the county welfare
department must evaluate and approve or deny the home for
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purposes of AFDC-FC benefit eligibility. (WIC 309 (d)(2))
This bill:
1)States legislative findings that relative placements are the
most utilized type of foster placement in California and that
by establishing the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option
Program, the Legislature intends to ensure that children
placed with relatives are able to access state funding in an
equal amount and in a similar manner to children in other
types of foster placements.
2)Requires a county, immediately following the placement of a
child in the home of a relative, to initiate an application
for CalWORKs in order to ensure that the child receives
funding while eligibility determinations are pending for other
benefits. Provides that if the relative caregiver is also
needy, the relative caregiver shall be responsible for
applying for CalWORKs benefits to cover his or her own needs.
3)Requires a county welfare department to concurrently initiate
an application for CalWORKs, initiate the application for
AFDC-FC, and evaluate the home for AFDC-FC eligibility.
4)If the child is found to be ineligible for AFDC-FC, requires
the county to initiate and complete the application for, and
determine eligibility for, the Approved Relative Caregiver
Funding Option Program, if the child is placed with a relative
and the county has opted into the program.
5)Requires that if a county determines that the child is not
eligible for AFDC-FC benefits, the county welfare department
shall explain the specific basis for this determination and
screen the child for eligibility for the federal Supplemental
Security Income program, as specified.
6)Provides that a minor or nonminor foster youth who has been
placed in the home of a relative caregiver and who is a teen
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parent with a child living in the same home or placement,
shall receive an infant supplement, as specified.
7)Requires that receipt of Approved Relative Caregiver program
payments shall begin immediately upon determination that a
child is not eligible for AFDC-FC, as specified, and that the
initiation of such payment shall not be dependent upon
completion of any application. Further states that, to the
extent that an application or related information is required,
the county shall complete the application or supply necessary
information on behalf of the relative caregiver.
8)Permits an approved relative caregiver to receive payments on
behalf of a child, regardless of whether the child is placed
outside the county of jurisdiction. Further requires the
county of jurisdiction to be responsible for providing the
Approved Relative Caregiver payment.
9)Requires an infant supplement for a child to be included in
the provider rate when that child is living with a parent who
receives Approved Relative Caregiver benefits.
10)States that an Approved Relative Caregiver or CalWORKs
relative may be designated as a whole family foster home.
11)States that, if aid is paid on behalf of a child whose parent
or guardian is receiving reunification services, the county
welfare department shall determine whether referral of the
case to the local child support agency is in the best interest
of the child, as specified.
12)Requires the county to screen every youth who is in foster
care and who has been determined to be ineligible for AFDC-FC
benefits for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program
eligibility, as specified. Further requires the county to
submit an SSI application to the federal Social Security
Administration on behalf of a youth who is determined through
screening to be likely eligible for benefits.
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13)Stipulates that no continuous appropriation, as specified,
shall be made from the General Fund to counties in order to
implement this act.
14)Currently does not incorporate chaptering language from SB 79
(Senate Committee on Budget, Chapter 20, Statutes of 2015)
FISCAL IMPACT
An Assembly Appropriations analysis states that this bill incurs
the following potentially significant ongoing costs:
State GF costs (due to Proposition 30) for counties to
immediately initiate applications and determine eligibility
for AFDC-FC, CalWORKs, or ARC program benefits for foster
children placed with relative caregivers.
Increase in AFDC-FC, CalWORKs, and ARC payments due to
mandating eligibility for aid from the date of placement.
Every one additional month of aid for 8,500 relative
placements could cost in the range of $2.9 million to $7.3
million (GF) depending on whether the county has opted into
the ARC program.
State costs for county welfare departments to provide an
explanation of the eligibility requirements and benefit
amounts of programs to relative caregivers. Assuming 30
minutes of social worker time for 8,500 relative placements,
it would cost about $325,000 (GF).
State costs of about $235,000 (GF) for county welfare
departments to screen for SSI eligibility, assuming 30 minutes
of social worker time. As existing law requires counties to
screen for SSI for foster youth between the age of 16 and 17
years, no additional costs are assumed for this age group.
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State costs of about $250,000 (GF) to provide the infant
supplement of $411 per month to an estimated 50 cases
statewide.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, "Foster children are some of the most
vulnerable in our state. It is vitally important that we do
everything we can to help them succeed. The ARC program is an
important step forward in making sure that relative caregivers
are given the same funding as nonrelatives, but not all counties
have opted into the program. In counties that don't opt in,
those children who do not qualify for federal foster care
benefits are still eligible to receive CalWORKs, but often their
relative caregivers do not understand how to navigate the system
in order to ensure the benefits these children are entitled to.
[This bill] clarifies procedures and application requirements
for counties that opt into the ARC program, as well requiring
counties that do not opt into the program to screen foster
children in relative placements to see if they qualify for
CalWORKs funding."
Assistance for foster children
State statute establishes multiple programs to support children
in foster care, including AFDC-FC, Kin-GAP, adoption assistance
and payments to non-relative legal guardians. However, income
eligibility requirements for the AFDC-FC program are frozen at
the 1996 AFDC standards - meaning that in order for a child to
be eligible for federal AFDC-FC funding, he or she must have
been removed from a family that has a monthly income of below
$734, regardless of the income of the family member who is now
caring for the foster child. As a result, the proportion of
federally eligible foster youth is declining over time, shifting
the cost of the program to state-only funding, and increasing
the numbers of relative caregivers who are ineligible for
federal funding.
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For a federally-eligible foster youth placed with a relative,
the federally-funded payment averages approximately $923 per
month. Current statute allows a child who does not meet federal
AFDC-FC eligibility criteria and is cared for by a nonrelative
to receive a state-only foster care payment equal to the federal
AFDC-FC payment. This practice is consistent across the various
types of foster care placements, except for when a child is
placed with a relative. A basic foster care rate for a
12-year-old is $800. In California, families caring for
relatives who are ineligible for AFDC-FC federal payments are
paid through the CalWORKs program, with the child receiving a
single benefit allocation of approximately $369 per month in a
high-cost county).
In response to this payment inequity and the impact it has on
the ability of relatives to care for children in the foster care
system, SB 855 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter
29, Statutes of 2014) created the Approved Relative Caregiver
Funding Option Program, allowing counties to pay approved
relative caregivers the same amount paid on behalf of children
who are eligible for foster care payments.
This year's Human Services trailer bill included additional
clean up language that sought to increase federal participation
and streamline eligibility processes for families, including the
following provisions:
If the approved relative caregiver is needy, his or her
assistance unit size will include the number of Approved
Relative Caregiver children, or non-minor dependents, for
purposes of determining program income and eligibility of
the CalWORKs assistance unit only, however for purposes of
calculating the grant amount foster children are excluded.
Overpayments will be collected pursuant to existing
foster care program requirements.
The county with court jurisdiction of the child has
payment responsibly for Approved Relative Caregiver
children.
An approved relative caregiver is exempt from Statewide
Fingerprint Imaging Systems, reporting, immunization, and
other CalWORKs requirements.
Creation of an annual increase for the caregiver, as
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specified, to ensure that the caregiver payments get a full
California Necessities Index (CNI) adjustment.
Relative caregivers
A county's first priority for placement is in the home of a
relative, unless the placement would not be in the best
interests of the child. Caseworkers are required to make
diligent efforts to locate relatives, but if a relative is not
immediately found a child may be placed in a licensed or
certified foster home. Although "relative" for purposes of
preferential consideration is limited to grandparents, siblings,
aunts or uncles, the statutory definition of "relative" is
broad, based on a 5th degree of separation standard. This means
that placement within this broader network of relatives may
cause the child to receive far less aid and other services than
if they were placed in a stranger's home.
Nearly one-third of the nearly 63,000 non-probation foster youth
are placed with relatives, most of them with non-guardian
relatives. Another 123 probation foster youth, of the nearly
4,000, are placed with relatives. Children who have medical or
mental health needs, parenting youth, or youth on probation are
the least likely to find permanent homes and instead are more
likely to remain in "long term foster care" in residential
placements (such as a group home). Outcomes data collected by
CDSS shows that nearly 10 percent of non-probation foster youth
and 15 percent of probation youth age out of the systems without
a "permanent connection." For these youth, recruiting and
supporting relative caregivers is a key to a successful
transition to adulthood. However, without sufficient financial
support and services these distant relatives are often unable to
care for the youth. The Approved Relative Caregiver Funding
Option program, which all but 15 counties have opted in to,
equalizes the financial aid payments for these families, though
many other services and supports remain unavailable to them.
Under both state and federal law, relative and non-relative
caregivers are required to be approved by the caseworker using
specific standards, including a Department of Justice background
check. This process can be lengthy. Beginning in 2017, the
resource family approval process for foster families will
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simplify this process, although there may still be delays for a
few caregivers.
Prior Legislation:
AB 1882 (Cooley, 2014) was similar to this bill. It was held on
Senate Appropriations Committee's Suspense File.
SB 855 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 29,
Statutes of 2014) among other things, established the ARC
Funding Option program.
COMMENTS
Following extensive negotiations with the County Welfare
Directors Association of California and CDSS, the author
proposes several amendments to this bill. Currently this bill
requires counties who have opted into the Approved Relative
Caregiver (ARC) program to provide ARC payments immediately upon
a determination that a child is not federally eligible for
foster care payments, even if the family has not yet been
formally approved as a relative caregiver. The relative
caregiver process involves a more thorough background clearance
than is required for initial relative placement. Due to backlogs
at the court level in entering arrest disposition and other
information, some criminal record clearances can take months or
longer. Instead of initiating ARC payments prior to approval,
the author proposes to amend the bill to instead ensure that
families are quickly enrolled in CalWORKs pending the formal
caregiver approval. The author also intends to limit to 120
days, the length of time that an approved Relative Caregiver
must wait to receive payments while a criminal record clearance
is pending.
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For the 15 counties that have not opted into the Approved
Relative Caregiver program, the process to apply for CalWORKs is
simplified and made automatic. The current process for relative
caregivers to receive CalWORKs requires a full application
process, including documenting employment and income information
that is not relevant to being paid as a foster caregiver. As
proposed to be amended, this bill would require non-ARC counties
to utilize a streamlined CalWORKs application.
The specific amendments proposed by the author are as follows:
Amendment 1: Page 5, line 10:
(d) (2) (A) Immediately following the placement of a child in
the home of a relative, the county shall initiate an application
for CalWORKs pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section
11250) on behalf of the child in order to ensure that the child
receives funding while eligibility determinations for other
benefits are pending. The county shall utilize the shortened
CalWORKs application and simplified CalWORKs eligibility
standards that pertain to determining a foster child's CalWORKs
eligibility for the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option
Program pursuant to Sections 11253.5 and 11461.3. The
application date for CalWORKs and the beginning date of aid
shall be the date the child was placed with the relative. If
the relative caregiver is also needy, the relative caregiver
shall be responsible for applying for CalWORKs benefits to cover
his or her own needs.
Amendment 2: Page 5, line 22: Insert the following at the end
of the paragraph:
(B) Concurrently with initiating the application for CalWORKs
pursuant to this paragraph, the county welfare department shall
also evaluate and approve or deny the home for purposes of
AFDC-FC eligibility pursuant to Section 11402. The placing
agency shall initiate the application for AFDC-FC and determine
eligibility. If the child is found to be ineligible for AFDC-FC,
the county shall initiate and complete the application for, and
determine eligibility for, the Approved Relative Caregiver
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Funding Option Program if the child is placed with a relative
and the county has opted into the program pursuant to Section
11461.3. If an application was submitted for purposes of
determining CalWORKs eligibility pursuant to subparagraph (A)
that contains all necessary information to determine eligibility
for the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program, a
new application need not be initiated for purposes of complying
with this subparagraph. The beginning date of aid for the
Approved Relative Caregiver funding shall be either the date of
placement or the date of approval of the home pursuant to
Section 309(d)(2), whichever is later, and shall be no later
than 30 days after the date of placement, unless the county
documents the need for additional time to complete the home
approval process because of a need to obtain additional records
or documentation to determine whether a criminal conviction can
be waived, or similar circumstances. If additional time is
necessary, the beginning date of aid for the Approved Relative
Caregiver Funding Option Program shall be the date of approval
but funding must commence no later than 120 days after the date
of placement . If the child is transferring from CalWORKs to ARC
but remains in the home of the same related caregiver, the
effective date of program transfer is the first month following
the request for change of program.
Amendment 3: Page 5, line 29 - 30:
(C) If the county determines that the child is not eligible for
AFDC-FC benefits, the county welfare department shall explain
the specific basis for this determination and shall screen the
child for eligibility for the federal Supplemental Security
Income program in accordance with Section 13758 . The application
date for CalWORKs for the child shall be the date the child was
placed with the relative .
Amendment 4: Page 9, line 1: After "pending" add the
following:
The county shall utilize the shortened CalWORKs application and
simplified CalWORKs eligibility standards that pertain to
determining a foster child's CalWORKs eligibility for the
Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program pursuant to
Sections 11253.5 and 11461.3. The application date for CalWORKs
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and the beginning date of aid shall be the date the child was
placed with the relative. If the relative caregiver is also
needy, the relative caregiver shall be responsible for applying
for CalWORKs benefits to cover his or her own needs.
Amendment 5: Page 9, line 13: Insert the following at the end
of the paragraph:
If an application was submitted for purposes of determining
CalWORKs eligibility pursuant to subparagraph (A) that contains
all necessary information to determine eligibility for the
Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program, a new
application need not be initiated for purposes of complying with
this subparagraph. The beginning date of aid for the Approved
Relative Caregiver funding shall be either the date of placement
or the date of approval of the home pursuant to Section
309(d)(2), whichever is later, and shall be no later than 30
days after the date of placement, unless the county documents
the need for additional time to complete the home approval
process because of a need to obtain additional records or
documentation to determine whether a criminal conviction can be
waived, or similar circumstances. If additional time is
necessary, the beginning date of aid for the Approved Relative
Caregiver Funding Option Program shall be the date of approval
but funding must commence no later than 120 days after the date
of placement.
Amendment 6: Page 9, line 20 - 21: Strike the line beginning
with "CalWORKs" and ending with "relative" as follows:
(C) If the county determines that the child is not eligible for
AFDC-FC benefits, the county welfare department shall explain
the specific basis for this determination and shall screen the
child for eligibility for the federal Supplemental Security
Income program in accordance with Section 13758. The application
date for CalWORKs for the child shall be the date the child was
placed with the relative .
Amendment 7: Page 22, lines 30 - 38: Amend subsection (e) (4)
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as follows:
(e) (4) Receipt of funding through the Approved Relative
Caregiver Funding Option Program shall begin immediately upon a
finding that the child is not eligible for AFDC-FC pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 11404 and approval of the home
consistent with the timelines included in subdivision (B) of
section 309. and initiation of payment shall not be dependent
upon completion of any application . To the extent that an
application or other information is required to determine county
share of costs or for the utilization of CalWORKs funding, the
county shall complete that application, or provide that
information, on behalf of the relative caregiver to the extent
possible prior to requesting information from the relative
caregiver. If an application was submitted for purposes of
determining CalWORKs eligibility pursuant to section 309(d)
(2)(A) or 361.45(b)(1) that contains all necessary information
to determine eligibility for the Approved Relative Caregiver
Funding Option Program, a new application need not be initiated.
Amendment 8: Page 27, line 31: Add a new sentence at the end
of the paragraph to read:
(a)? developed pursuant to Section 13752. The screening shall
occur no later than 120 days after the child is placed or upon
concluding that the child is not eligible for AFDC-FC
benefits, whichever is later.
PRIOR VOTES
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|Assembly Floor: |78 - |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |17 - |
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|Assembly Human Services Committee: |7 - |
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POSITIONS
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Support:
Alliance for Children's Rights
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Communities United
California Department of Social Services
California Youth Connection
Children's Advocacy Institute
Children's Law Center
Children Now
Dependency Legal Group of San Diego
Hillsides
Lilliput Children's Services
OC Kinship & Support Org.
Public Counsel's Children's Rights Project
Oppose:
None received.
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