BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2580
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 12, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Susan Bonilla, Chair
AB 2580
(Olsen) - As Amended March 18, 2016
SUBJECT: Dependency proceedings
SUMMARY: Requires the juvenile court to provide in writing the
factual bases for certain conclusions regarding a child's case
and requires a social worker to provide foster parents with
specified information.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the court, at various dependency review and
permanency hearings, to specify in writing the factual bases
for the following conclusions:
a) That returning a child to his or her parent or legal
guardian would be or would not be detrimental;
b) That there is substantial probability that a child who
was under three years of age when first removed or who is a
member of a sibling group, as specified, may be returned to
his or her parent or legal guardian within six months, or
that reasonable services have not been provided, justifying
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continuance to the 12-month permanency hearing;
c) That it is in the best interest of each child in a
sibling group to schedule a hearing to determine a
permanent plan for some or all members of the sibling
group, as specified; and
d) That, for a child who has not been adopted and who has
had three or more years pass since termination of parental
rights, as specified, it is in the best interest of that
child to reinstate parental rights.
2)Requires a social worker to, at the time a child is being
considered for placement in a foster home, provide foster
parents with all of the following:
a) Notification that he or she has the right to be present
at the dispositional hearing and at any hearing thereafter
at which the status of the child is at issue;
b) Information regarding de facto parent status and the
manner in which a foster parent can apply to the juvenile
court to become a de facto parent; and
c) Notification that if the child reenters foster care, the
foster parents of the child have the right to be provided
written notice from the court if the child, after being
reunified with his or her parents, is returned to the court
for further dependency proceedings.
3)Makes technical changes.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Permits the juvenile court to adjudge a child a dependent of
the court for specified reasons, including, but not limited
to, if a child has suffered or is at substantial risk of
suffering serious physical harm, emotional damage, or sexual
abuse, as specified. (WIC 300)
2)States that the purpose of foster care law is to provide
maximum safety and protection for children who are currently
being physically, sexually, or emotionally abused, neglected,
or exploited, and to ensure the safety, protection, and
physical and emotional well-being of children who are at risk
of harm. (WIC 300.2)
3)Declares the intent of the Legislature to, whenever possible,
preserve and strengthen a child's family ties and, when a
child must be removed from the physical custody of his or her
parents, to give preferential consideration to placement with
relatives. States the intent of the Legislature to reaffirm
its commitment to children who are in out-of-home placement to
live in the least restrictive family setting and as close to
the child's family as possible, as specified. Further states
the intent of the Legislature that all children live with a
committed, permanent, nurturing family and states that
services and supports should be tailored to meet the specific
needs of the individual child and family being served, as
specified. (WIC 16000)
4)Requires out-of-home placement of a child in foster care to be
based upon selection of a safe setting that is the least
restrictive family setting that promotes normal childhood
experiences and the most appropriate setting that meets the
child's individual needs, as specified. Further requires the
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selection of placement to consider, in order of priority,
placement with: relatives, nonrelated extended family
members, and tribal members; foster family homes, resource
families, and nontreatment certified homes of foster family
agencies; followed by treatment and intensive treatment
certified homes of foster family agencies or multidimensional
treatment foster care homes or therapeutic foster care homes;
group care placements in the order of short-term residential
treatment centers, group homes, community treatment
facilities, and out-of-state residential treatment, as
specified. (WIC 16501.1(d)(1))
5)Establishes requirements and processes for the court, and
further provides for various hearings to review the status of
the dependent child during which certain case information
regarding the child must be provided and reviewed. (WIC
360-370)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
Child Welfare Services: The purpose of California's Child
Welfare Services (CWS) system is to protect children from abuse
and neglect and provide for their health and safety. When
children are identified as being at risk of abuse, neglect or
abandonment, county juvenile courts hold legal jurisdiction and
children are served by the CWS system through the appointment of
a social worker. Through this system, there are multiple
opportunities for the custody of the child, or his or her
placement outside of the home, to be evaluated, reviewed and
determined by the judicial system, in consultation with the
child's social worker, to help provide the best possible
services to the child. The CWS system seeks to help children
who have been removed from their homes reunify with their
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parents or guardians, whenever appropriate, or unite them with
other individuals they consider to be family.
As of October 1, 2015, there were 62,605 children in
California's child welfare system. Of those, 9,079 had been in
foster care for five years or more; 37% of those in foster care
five years or more were between the ages of 18 and 20, 22%
between the ages of 16 and 17, 29% between the ages of 11 and
15, and 11% between the ages of 3 and 5.
Need for this bill: According to the author,
"California has more children in foster care than any other
state in the nation, with over 60,000 children placed in our
state's foster care system. Foster parents provide a
supportive and stable family for children who cannot live with
their parents. They develop close bonds with the children
they welcome into their home, and are active participants in
major decisions for the children.
Too often, however, this bond is needlessly broken to the
detriment of the child. Numerous cases have seen children
being removed from their foster homes without any indication
that
reunification will be in their best interest. In one recent
case, a decision was made to reunify a disabled toddler with
her father who was recovering from drug addiction and living
in a transitional home. Sadly, the child was found dead
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shortly after being reunified with her father. It is
difficult to measure the extent of the problem because the
process is mostly confidential. This makes it difficult for
foster parents and other stakeholders to really know whether
decisions are made in the child's best interest.
Current law does not provide a method for informing foster
parents of de facto parent status, nor does it inform a foster
parent when a child they have cared for previously returns to
the dependency court system after being reunified with their
biological/legal parent. This leaves foster parents without
any way of knowing how to protect their rights to continue to
care for a child when a social worker or the court determines
that reunification should occur in the absence of concrete
evidence showing that this would be in the child's best
interest. Courts are also not required to put into writing
their decision(s) when reunification should occur. This bill
would provide a method to correct these deficiencies."
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors, writing in support of this
bill, states that, "[This bill] will protect the best interests
of foster children by ensuring that foster parents have access
to the information they need to empower them to protect the
rights of the children they care for."
Opposition: Writing in opposition to this bill, the Juvenile
Court Judges of California state that:
"?sections of the bill pose undue burden on the courts. In
counties where judges handle 1,000-3,000 cases (children)
each, this could amount to approximately 25-40 hearings per
week for which judges would then have to produce additional
written findings, or order attorney to draft proposed factual
findings after the hearing. Judges are already required to
make factual findings on the record, and juvenile dependency
courts are courts of record with transcript ability. Many
juvenile courts are already impacted, and this will cause
further continuances and delay in placement, return, or
permanence, and more work for already overburdened dependency
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counsel."
The Children's Law Center of California, also writing in
opposition, similarly argues that this bill will "impose
incredibly burdensome requirements on an already overburdened
system, which will jeopardize the court's ability to adhere to
the strict dependency court timelines and will cause children to
unnecessarily languish in foster care." They also go on to
raise issues with some of the bill's requirements of social
workers to provide certain information, including that, "of
additional concern in [this bill] is the requirement that all
foster parents be provided of notice of their 'right' to attend
all court hearings, which is not an accurate statement of
current law," and that some of the requirements will burden
county welfare agencies and, in all, that the bill will have a
"chilling effect on reunification efforts."
Staff comments: As currently written, this bill could have the
effect of hampering reunification efforts and delaying and
truncating dependency hearings, as courts take on the burdensome
task of documenting findings and factual bases in writing - a
task that is duplicative, given that these findings are already
required to be on the record, and transcripts may be obtained.
Additionally, the additional requirements this bill places on
social workers, and the "rights" it affords foster parents raise
a number of concerns and questions. The "right" this bill
affords a foster parent to be notified when youth for whom they
previously provided care re-enters foster care is quite broad
and open-ended: it has no time limit, meaning a child could
re-enter the system a decade after placement with that foster
parent, and that parent would still be notified; additionally,
issues of privacy are not addressed, and these provisions leave
no room for youth choice or voice in whether they want a former
foster parent notified of their re-entry into foster care. The
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requirement that social workers provide information regarding de
facto parent status and how to apply for it may leave social
workers open to claims that they are giving legal advice. And
some of the bill's requirements are also duplicative of current
law; Welfare and Institutions Code Section 16010.4 already
states that caregivers should have knowledge of the right to
receive notice of all review and permanency hearings concerning
the child during placement, and their right to attend those
hearings or submit information they deem relevant to the court
in writing.
Suggested amendments: In order to address the concerns raised
above, committee staff recommends deleting this bill's
requirements that courts provide information in writing, and
narrowing and revising the requirements it places on social
workers to provide certain information. Therefore, committee
staff recommends the following amendments:
1)Strike lines 1 through 12 on page 3, and pages 4 through 47 of
the bill.
2)Make the following amendments to Welfare and Institutions Code
Section 16010.4:
WIC 16010.4.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The State of California is guardian to more than 90,000
children in foster care, more than any other state in the
nation. As of 2002, California has a disproportionately high
number of children in foster care. While the state is home to 12
percent of the nation's population, it guards over 20 percent of
the nation's children in its foster care system. Thirty-five
percent of foster children live with relatives.
(b) Foster parents are one of the most important sources of
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information about the children in their care. Courts, lawyers,
and social workers should have the benefit of caregivers'
perceptions. Both federal and state law recognize the importance
of foster parents' participation in juvenile court proceedings.
Federal law requires that foster parents and other caregivers
receive expanded opportunities for notice, the right to
participate in dependency court review and permanency hearings,
and the right to communicate concerns to the courts. State law
similarly provides that caregivers may submit their concerns to
courts in writing.
(c) It is in the children's best interests that their caregivers
are privy to important information about them. This information
is necessary to obtain social and health services for children,
enroll children in school and extracurricular activities, and
update social workers and court personnel about important
developments affecting foster children.
(d) Most school districts and extracurricular organizations
require proof of age before enrolling a child in their programs.
Moreover, caregivers are required to obtain a medical
appointment for their foster children within the first month of
receiving the children into their homes. It would therefore be
in both the children's and the caregivers' best interests to be
provided with any available medical information, medications and
instructions for use, and identifying information about the
children upon receiving the children into their homes.
(e) Caregivers should have certain basic information in order to
provide for the needs of children placed in their care,
including all of the following:
(1) The name, mailing address, telephone number, and facsimile
number of the child's social worker and the social worker's
supervisor.
(2) The name, mailing address, telephone number, and facsimile
number of the child's attorney and court-appointed special
advocate (CASA), if any.
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(3) The name, address, and department number of the juvenile
court in which the child's juvenile court case is pending.
(4) The case number assigned to the child's juvenile court case.
(5) A copy of the child's birth certificate, passport, or other
identifying documentation of age as may be required for
enrollment in school and extracurricular activities.
(6) The child's State Department of Social Services
identification number.
(7) The child's Medi-Cal identification number or group health
insurance plan number.
(8) Medications or treatments in effect for the child at the
time of placement, and instructions for their use.
(9) A plan outlining the child's needs and services, including
information on family and sibling visitation.
(f) Caregivers should have knowledge of all of the following:
(1) Their right to receive notice of all review and permanency
hearings concerning the child during the placement.
(2) Their right to attend those hearings or submit information
they deem relevant to the court in writing.
(3) The "Caregiver Information Form" (Judicial Council Form
JV-290), which allows the caregiver to provide information
directly to the court.
(4) Information about and referrals to any existing services,
including transportation, translation, training, forms, and
other available services.
(5) The caregiver's obligation to cooperate with any
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reunification, concurrent, or permanent planning for the child.
(6) Any known siblings or half-siblings of the child, whether
the child has, expects, or desires to have contact or visitation
with any or all siblings, and how and when caregivers facilitate
the contact or visitation.
(g) Courts should know, at the earliest possible date, the
interest of the caretaker in providing legal permanency for the
child.
(h) If a foster child is removed from the caregiver in order to
reunify with his or her parent or guardian, the caregiver may
indicate to the child's social worker at the time of removal
that the caregiver is interested in and willing to provide care
for the child should that child be removed from his or her
parent or guardian and in need of foster care placement.
DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill has been double-referred. Should
this bill pass out of this committee, it will be referred to the
Assembly Judiciary Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
County of Yolo Board of Supervisors
Opposition
Children's Law Center of California (CLC)
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Juvenile Court Judges of California
Analysis Prepared by:Daphne Hunt / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089