BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1067
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|Author: |Gipson |
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|Version: |May 3, 2016 |Hearing | |
| | |Date: | |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mareva Brown |
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Subject: Foster children: rights
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Department of Social Services
(CDSS) to convene a working group, with specified participants,
to consider revising the foster youth bill of rights and make
related recommendations to the Legislature. It additionally
requires a social worker or probation officer to provide those
rights to the care provider, the child and the child and family
team, to provide a written copy of the rights to the child and
to include the signature of a foster child, as specified, at
each six-month status review.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1) Establishes a system of juvenile dependency for children
who are or are at risk of being physically, sexually or
emotionally abused, being neglected or being exploited to
ensure their safety, protection and physical and emotional
well-being. (WIC 300, et seq.)
2) Requires the status of every dependent child in foster
care to be reviewed no less often than once every six
months, and for the court to consider the continuing
necessity for placement, whether the placement is
appropriate and other factors. (WIC 366)
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3) Delineates the rights of foster children, including:
a) To live in a safe, healthy, and comfortable home
where he or she is treated with respect.
b) To be free from physical, sexual, emotional, or
other abuse, or corporal punishment.
c) To receive adequate and healthy food, adequate
clothing, and, for youth in group homes, an allowance.
d) To receive medical, dental, vision, and mental
health services.
e) To be free of the administration of medication or
chemical substances, unless authorized by a physician.
f) To contact family members, unless prohibited by
court order, and social workers, attorneys, foster youth
advocates and supporters, Court Appointed Special
Advocates (CASAs), and probation officers.
g) To visit and contact brothers and sisters, unless
prohibited by court order.
h) To contact the Community Care Licensing Division of
the State Department of Social Services or the State
Foster Care Ombudsperson regarding violations of rights,
to speak to representatives of these offices
confidentially, and to be free from threats or punishment
for making complaints.
i) To make and receive confidential telephone calls and
send and receive unopened mail, unless prohibited by
court order.
j) To attend religious services and activities of his
or her choice.
aa) To maintain an emancipation bank account and manage
personal income, consistent with the child's age and
developmental level, unless prohibited by the case plan.
bb) To not be locked in a room, building, or facility
premises, unless placed in a community treatment
facility.
cc) To attend school and participate in extracurricular,
cultural and personal enrichment activities, consistent
with the child's age and developmental level, with
minimal disruptions to school attendance and educational
stability.
dd) To work and develop job skills at an age-appropriate
level, consistent with state law.
ee) To have social contacts with people outside of the
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foster care system, including teachers, church members,
mentors, and friends.
ff) To attend Independent Living Program classes and
activities if he or she meets age requirements.
gg) To attend court hearings and speak to the judge.
hh) To have storage space for private use.
ii) To be involved in the development of his or her own
case plan and plan for permanent placement.
jj) To review his or her own case plan and plan for
permanent placement, if he or she is 12 years of age or
older and in a permanent placement, and to receive
information about his or her out-of-home placement and
case plan, including being told of changes to the plan.
aaa) To be free from unreasonable searches of personal
belongings.
bbb) To the confidentiality of all juvenile court records
consistent with existing law.
ccc) To have fair and equal access to all available
services, placement, care, treatment, and benefits, and
to not be subjected to discrimination or harassment on
the basis of actual or perceived race, ethnic group
identification, ancestry, national origin, color,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,
mental or physical disability, or HIV status.
ddd) To be placed in out-of-home care according to their
gender identity, regardless of the gender or sex listed
in their court or child welfare records.
eee) To have caregivers and child welfare personnel who
have received instruction on cultural competency and
sensitivity relating to, and best practices for,
providing adequate care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender youth in out-of-home care.
fff) At 16 years of age or older, to have access to
existing information regarding the educational options
available, including, but not limited to, the coursework
necessary for vocational and postsecondary educational
programs, and information regarding financial aid for
postsecondary education.
ggg) To have access to age-appropriate, medically
accurate information about reproductive health care, the
prevention of unplanned pregnancy, and the prevention and
treatment of sexually transmitted infections at 12 years
of age or older. (WIC 16001.9)
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1) Establishes required elements of a child's case plan,
including identification of specific goals, an assessment
of circumstances that required child welfare services
intervention, and a description of the schedule of the
placement agency contacts. Requires a social worker to
inform the child at least once every six months of his or
her rights as a foster child in a manner that is age- and
developmentally appropriate for the child. (WIC 16501.1)
This bill:
1) Requires CDSS to convene a working group regarding the
rights of all minors and nonminors in foster care, as
specified, in order to educate foster youth, foster care
providers, and others. Defines the group's responsibilities
to include all of the following:
a. By January 1, 2018, make recommendations to
the Legislature for revising the rights based on a
review of state law.
b. By July 1, 2018, develop standardized
information regarding the revised rights in an
age-appropriate manner and reflective of any relevant
licensing requirements with respect to the foster care
providers' responsibilities to adequately supervise
children in care, and recommendations for
disseminating the information.
c. By July 1, 2018, develop recommendations for
measuring and improving, if necessary, the degree to
which foster youth are adequately informed of their
rights.
2) Requires that working group shall be composed of all of
the following:
a. The Office of the State Foster Care
Ombudsperson.
b. The County Welfare Directors Association of
California.
c. The Chief Probation Officers of California.
d. The County Behavioral Health Directors
Association of California.
e. Current and former foster youth.
f. Foster parents and caregivers.
g. Foster children advocacy groups.
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h. Foster care facilities associations.
i. Any other interested parties.
3) Requires that the supplemental report to the court
associated with the six-month status hearing include the
signature of the foster child and the date of the signature
if he or she is 12 years of age or older at the time of the
report verifying that he or she has received and
understands his or her rights, as specified.
4) Adds to the requirement that a social worker inform the
child at least once every six months of his or her rights
as a foster child the requirement that a child be notified
of his or her rights at each placement change and that a
written copy of the rights be provided to the child during
each notification as a part of the explanation.
5) Adds to the requirement that a child be notified of his
or her rights the requirement that the child's care
provider and child and family team, if applicable, be
informed of the child's rights as a foster child.
6) Requires that a social worker or probation officer
document in the case plan that he or she has informed the
child of, and has provided the child with a written copy
of, his or her rights.
FISCAL IMPACT
According to an analysis by the Assembly Committee on
Appropriations, this bill will incur minor and absorbable costs
to CDSS to convene the working group and develop
recommendations.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
The author states that despite laws requiring foster youth to be
made aware of their rights, many foster youth say they are not
being made aware of them. He states this bill would address this
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issue by having foster youth as participants in a CDSS-run work
group, and by requiring the work group to make suggestions about
how to better disseminate the Foster Youth Bill of Rights.
Foster care
California's county-based child welfare system is designed to
protect children at risk of child abuse and neglect or
exploitation by providing intensive services to families to
allow children to remain in their homes, or by arranging
temporary or permanent placement of the child in the safest and
least restrictive environment possible. It is the legal "parent"
for children in the foster care system. Approximately 62,000
children were under the custody of the child welfare system as
of October 2015, according to the state's child welfare case
management system. About 45,000 children were in out-of-home
placements in 2016, according to data released by CDSS with the
governor's budget. About 14,000 youth are placed with Foster
Family Agencies.
Foster youth rights
California's Foster Youth Bill of Rights was established in 2001
(AB 899, Liu, Chapter 683) and requires that children in
out-of-home care be provided with information by their social
worker every six months. Additionally HSC 1530.91 requires that
any provider of care for foster children must provide each
school age child and his or her authorized representative with
an age- and developmentally appropriate orientation that
includes an explanation of the bill of rights and addresses the
child's questions and concerns. Any facility licensed to provide
foster care for six or more children must post a listing of a
foster child's rights. The statute requires that state Foster
Care Ombudsperson design posters, which include the telephone
number for the Ombudsman, and to provide posters to each
facility of six beds or more.
In addition, a number of other bills have established rights for
California's foster youth. AB 490 (Steinberg, Chapter 862,
Statutes of 2003) provided foster youth with specific
educational protections in the wake of studies that demonstrated
children may lose up to six months of academic and social growth
every time they change schools. Foster children have the right
to remain in their school of origin, to immediately enroll in
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school without any of the normally required documentation such
as a birth certificate or immunization records and the right to
partial credits, among others.
Under California Education Code 51225.1, a foster child may
remain in school for a fifth year to complete graduation
requirements, exempts a foster child from some graduation
requirements and establishes other rights.
Meanwhile, the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and
Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (HR 4980) now requires state
child welfare agencies to develop a reasonable and prudent
parenting standard for foster parents to make parental decisions
to maintain the health and safety of foster youth and also make
decisions about the youth's participation in extracurricular,
enrichment, cultural and social activities. It also requires
states to ensure that children in foster care age 14 or older
participate in the development of, or revision to, his or her
case plan which must describe the foster child's rights and to
provide children aging out of foster care with a birth
certificate, a social security card, health insurance
information, medical records and a driver's license or state
identification.
The office of the state Foster Care Ombudsman in its most recent
report identified 271 complaints of personal rights violations,
mostly from youth living in group homes complaining that the
staff did not treat them with respect or that they did not
receive adequate food and clothing. The Ombudsman's report
recommended that social workers be required to document in court
reports and contact notes the date they reviewed the Foster Care
Rights with the foster child and youth in age-appropriate
language. This will ensure review of rights occurs every six
months as mandated.<1>
Other states
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<1> Office of the California Foster Care Ombudsman, Fiscal year
2012/2013 Annual Report, pg. 5
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Fifteen states and Puerto Rico have enacted bills of rights for
foster children, and 17 states have enacted bills of rights for
foster parents, according to the National Conference of State
Legislators.<2> During the 2014 legislative session, 10 states
introduced bills either seeking to enact a bill of rights or
otherwise extending or defining the rights of foster children
and parents. Some of these rights include independent living
services for older youth, educational consistency and
enrollment, foster child input into evaluations of out-of-home
care placements, and extracurricular activities.
Related legislation:
SB 899 (Liu, chapter 683, Statutes of 2001) established the
Foster Youth Bill of Rights, required social workers to notify
foster children of those rights and required facilities that
provide services for youth to make the information available.
AB 181 (Portantino and Beall, 2011) sought to establish a foster
youth mental health bill of rights. It died in the Assembly
appropriations committee.
COMMENTS
This bill seeks to update the existing foster care bill of
rights statute, which was enacted 15 years ago, by establishing
a task force to consider modifications and updates to the
rights. It additionally requires new procedures to ensure that
children in foster care are being notified of their rights.
These two paths appear to be somewhat in conflict with each
other -asking both for a task force and to make specific changes
to the existing statute.
The author may want to consider removing some of the recently
amended requirements and instead proposing them as issues for
the task force to consider. Specifically, staff recommends the
following amendments:
Strike Sections 1 and 2 of the bill and replace the language
with the following:
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<2>
http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/foster-care-bill-of-r
ights.aspx
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16001.8. (a) The State Department of Social Services shall
convene a working group regarding the rights of all minors and
nonminors in foster care, as specified in Section 16001.9, in
order to educate foster youth, foster care providers, and
others. Responsibilities of the working group shall include all
of the following:
(1) By January 1, 2018, make recommendations to the Legislature
for revising the rights based on a review of state law.
(2) By July 1, 2018, develop standardized information regarding
the revised rights in an age-appropriate manner and reflective
of any relevant licensing requirements with respect to the
foster care providers' responsibilities to adequately supervise
children in care.
(3) By July 1, 2018, develop recommendations regarding methods
for disseminating the standardized information specified in
paragraph (2), including whether to require the signature of a
foster child verifying that he or she has received and
understands his or her rights.
(4) By July 1, 2018, develop recommendations for measuring and
improving, if necessary, the degree to which foster youth are
adequately informed of their rights.
(b) The working group shall be composed of all of the following:
a. The Office of the State Foster Care
Ombudsperson.
b. The County Welfare Directors Association of
California.
c. The Chief Probation Officers of California.
d. The County Behavioral Health Directors
Association of California.
e. Current and former foster youth.
f. Foster parents and caregivers.
g. Foster children advocacy groups.
h. Foster care facilities provider associations.
i. Any other interested parties.
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
Support:
California Youth Connection (Co-Sponsor)
American Academy of Pediatrics
Aspiranet
Children Now
Families Now
County Behavioral Health Directors Association
County Welfare Directors Association of California
Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services
Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaboration
John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes
National Center for Youth Law
Office of the Attorney General Kamala Harris
Oppose:
None received.
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