BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1879
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1879 (McCarty) - As Amended April 13, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY: This bill requires that child-centered specialized
permanency services be provided to specified foster youth in
order to facilitate the placement of these youth with permanent
families. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a court, when it has determined that it is not in the
best interests of a child to hold a hearing to terminate
parental rights, to order the provision of child-centered
specialized permanency services.
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2)Permits a court to order the provision of child-centered
specialized permanency services for a nonminor dependent for
whom the court has ordered placement in long-term foster care.
3)Includes child-centered specialized permanency services among
the efforts a child welfare agency or probation department
must show the court it has made in an attempt to achieve
permanency for the child or nonminor dependent when the court
is reviewing the status of a dependent child or nonminor
dependent or ward of the juvenile court, as specified.
4)Stipulates that permanent placement services, designed to
provide an alternate permanent family structure for children
who because of abuse, neglect or exploitation cannot safely
remain at home and who are unlikely to ever return home, must,
as needed to achieve a permanent family, include
child-centered specialized permanency services.
5)Requires information regarding, and documentation of the
provision of, child-centered specialized permanency services
to be included in a youth's case-planning processes, as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Unknown significant annual costs, likely in the $20 million
range (GF*), to arrange and provide additional services. The
exact cost is not known because some services are required
while others must be ordered by the court as needed. This
bill applies to approximately 38,000 youth. Estimates indicate
it will take approximately seven hours of social worker time
annually per case to arrange services and to provide the
AB 1879
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administrative related services.
2)Unknown significant annual costs, likely in the tens of
millions of dollars (Fed/GF), to provide the counseling,
therapeutic, mental health and other medical type services.
These costs could be partially offset to the extent that these
services are provided under current law for youth who are
assessed as needing them.
3)Unknown, but likely significant annual costs in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars (GF*) for county probation departments
to provide additional services to youth under their
jurisdiction. Estimates indicate it will take approximately
eight hours of probation staff time per case for youth in
"another planned permanent living arrangement" or APPLA.
*Pursuant to Proposition 30 (November 2012) any legislation
enacted after September 30, 2012, that has an overall effect of
increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for
programs or levels of service mandated by realignment (including
child welfare services and foster care) only apply to local
agencies to the extent that the state provides annual funding
for the cost increase.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, within two years of leaving
the foster care system, 50% of foster youth who age out of the
system are homeless, victimized, incarcerated or dead. Even
with extended foster care until 21, the odds are stacked
against children who remain in the foster care system for
years and then age out without a strong connection to a
loving, supportive family.
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This bill seeks to improve the outcomes for foster youth by
requiring that child-centered specialized permanency services
be provided for children at risk of long-term foster care and
requiring that potential adoptive families and guardians be
provided with information to support their hopefully long-term
relationship with the foster child.
2)Background. Of the 66,000 children living in foster care in
California, nearly 40% have been in care for over two years,
25% have been in care for over three years and almost 15% have
been in care for over five years. The outcomes for children
in long-term foster care or APPLA who end up emancipating from
foster care without the support of a loving family are
notoriously poor.
Currently youth are provided with services to assist with
permanency, including being assessed for mental health
services - which may or may not be provided based upon the
assessment. These services include: case planning and case
management services, crisis intervention, general counseling,
therapeutic day treatment services, psychiatric/psychological
evaluation, aftercare, therapeutic milieu, counseling, mental
health assessment, California Children's Services, family
preservation services, concurrent planning, arranging ADA
services, family engagement, outreach with the family, family
case conferencing, community outreach assistance, and
requesting a psychological education assessment. These
services are chosen and outlined in the case plan based on the
assessed needs of the child/youth.
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This bill requires certain services and allows the court to
order any service they deem to be a child-centered specialized
permanency service - regardless of the social worker
determinations or assessed need of the child.
3)Continuing Efforts. Recent state and federal legislation has
sought to improve the lives of children who might otherwise
spent their youth in foster care, often in groups homes, and
emancipate without any connection to a supportive adult:
a) The 2014 federal Preventing Sex Trafficking, and
Strengthening Families Act made numerous changes to the
foster care program and enacted new requirements regarding
sex trafficking prevention and reporting, data collection,
reasonable and prudent parent standards, adoption
incentives payments, successor guardianship, and successful
adulthood in order to help protect youth and provide them
with permanent families.
b) Conforming state legislation (SB 794 (Senate Committee
on Human Services), Chap. 425, Stats. 2015), eliminated the
option of long-term foster care placement or APPLA for
dependent children under the age of 16, and required
permanency review hearing documents for children who are 16
years of age or older and in an APPLA to include a
description of the intensive and ongoing efforts of the
child welfare agency to return the child to the home of the
parent, place the child for adoption, or establish a legal
guardianship, as appropriate.
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c) AB 403 (Stone), Chap. 773, Stats. 2015, established a
comprehensive reform effort by transitioning children away
from congregate care into home-based family care with
resource families. AB 403 also established targeted
training and support that can better prepare families to
help care for foster youth.
This bill seeks to build on the federal and state legislative
advances and help foster youth who might otherwise emancipate
from foster care without family and without support by making
every effort to find permanent families for these youth and,
once that family is found, to help make that relationship more
stable and more successful.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081