BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2597
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2597 (Cooley) - As Amended May 11, 2016
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|Policy |Human Services |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY: This bill makes various changes to the Resource Family
Approval (RFA) process to account for the unique needs of
relative caregivers. Specifically, this bill:
1)Clarifies that a relative who will need to rely on foster care
payments to provide for the child's needs, still meets the
'financial stability' requirement for RFA.
2)Allows child-specific approval for kinship caregivers to
enable relatives to care for a child, if it is in the child's
best interest, even if the relative is not able or willing to
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be approved as a foster parent for all children.
3)Ensures that RFA is aligned with statutory provisions for
immediate placement of children with relatives, prior to home
approval.
4)Clarifies that a relative has the permanency option of "fit
and willing relative" that should be accounted for during the
permanency assessment.
5)Ensures that each child placed on an emergency basis receives
a CalWORKs payment pending the relative's approval as a
resource family and that foster care funding (AFDC-FC) starts
within 90 days of placement, even if the approval process is
not yet completed if the reason for the delay is outside the
control of the family.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Unknown costs, but likely in the low millions of dollars
(Federal/GF), for additional CalWORKs payments resulting from
making each child placed on an emergency basis his/her own
Assistance Unit and allowing the grant to start immediately
upon placement.
2)Unknown costs, but likely in the tens of thousands of dollars
(GF), to provide AFDC-FC payments for those placements that
are pending RFA approval. Staff notes that federal funds
would not be available since the homes would not be approved.
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3)Unknown non reimbursable costs to counties (GF) to complete
additional expedited CalWORKs applications and for other
administrative adjustments.
4)The Governor's 2016-17 Budget (including May Revision)
includes $182 million ($127 million GF) to continue to
implement Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), including all of the
provisions of AB 1997 (Stone). Some of the provisions in this
bill are also contained in AB 1997, but others are not and
create costs outside of the budget.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author's office, "Over 30% of foster
parents in California are relative caregivers - family members
who have stepped up to care for a child related to them.
These relative caregivers face challenges that other foster
parents do not. Often, they take the child in first and ask
questions later. Funding and services kick in months after
the child is already in the home, after clothing, food,
medical care have been provided. As California moves to the
RFA process for foster parents, it is vital that we keep these
relative caregivers in mind. They must be given adequate time
to complete training and given the funds needed to help care
for the child as soon as possible. Each of these situations
is unique and each child and relative caregiver faces
multi-faceted issues. By ensuring that child-specific
approval is allowable under RFA we help the entire foster care
system succeed by not shutting out caregivers who are ready,
willing, and able to take these children into their homes."
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2)Background. Current law allows children to be placed with
relatives (and non-relative extended family members such as
neighbors, godparents, etc.) on an emergency basis prior to
home approval. This policy protects children from needless
trauma by providing a familiar caregiver at a time of crisis
and disruption - but it presents unique challenges for
relatives, who must complete home approval requirements while
they are already caring for traumatized and grieving children.
Relatives have not had the luxury of setting aside money and
vacation days, modifying their homes to meet licensing
standards, finding child care, etc. in advance of placement.
Last year AB 403 (Stone) was passed to move all foster
parents, relative and non-relative, into a Resource Family
Approval system that requires new risk assessments,
psychosocial assessment processes, and new training
requirements. Prior to AB 403, in 2013-14, Resource Family
Approval was a pilot program in San Luis Obispo, Kings, Santa
Barbara, Santa Clara, counties, and City and County of San
Francisco. In 2016, an additional 9 counties volunteered to
implement RFA prior to statewide implementation of RFA
beginning on January 1, 2017.
3)Resource Family Approval (RFA): California is starting
statewide implementation of a new, unified process of
approving foster families - called Resource Family Approval
(RFA) -- that will apply to both relative and non-relative
foster homes. By 2017, the only way to be approved as a new
foster parent will be to go through RFA; families already
approved prior to January 2017 will have additional time to
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convert to the new RFA standards. Relatives will be
substantially impacted by implementation of RFA because they
will have to go through new risk assessment and psychosocial
assessment processes, and meet new training requirements.
This bill seeks to take into account the different ways that
relatives enter the foster care system. Non-relatives enter
the system by deciding to become a foster family, followed by
months of training, preparation, home approval, and then
matching with a child or children. Relatives, in contrast,
typically enter the system in a crisis situation. The author
asserts that the RFA statutes were not designed with the
unique circumstances of relative caregivers in mind.
4)Continuum of Care Reform and Related Legislation. In 2015,
Governor Brown signed AB 403 (Stone) which reformed placement
and treatment options for youth in foster care. The bill was
sponsored by DSS and was aimed at improving outcomes for youth
in foster care. AB 403 included various changes to the RFA
program to be enacted beginning January 1, 2016. AB 1997
(Stone), sponsored by DSS and also before this Committee
today, adopts clarifying and technical changes to further the
implementation of CCR in order to continue the work started
with AB 403. Some of the provisions in this bill are also
contained in AB 1997. It is unclear how the changes proposed
in this bill impact the ongoing implementation of CCR. The
Committee may wish to consider how to reconcile potentially
conflicting bills.
5)Prior Legislation.
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a) AB 403 (Stone), Chapter 773, Statutes of 2015,
implemented CCR recommendations to better serve children
and youth in California's child welfare services system.
b) SB 1013 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter 35,
Statutes of 2012, realigned the child welfare services
system to counties, established a moratorium on the
licensing of new group homes, and required the Department
of Social Services to convene a workgroup to discuss and
recommend changes to the continuum of care within child
welfare services and how to reform the use of congregate
care.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081