BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2872|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2872
Author: Patterson (R)
Amended: 6/6/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Hernandez, Nguyen, Hall, Mitchell, Monning, Nielsen,
Pan, Roth, Wolk
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/21/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/5/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Children
SOURCE: Academy of California Adoption Lawyers/Academy of
California Family Formation Lawyers
DIGEST: This bill makes technical and clarifying changes
related to adoption laws, including requiring hospitals to
complete a Health Facility Minor Release Report upon the request
of a birth parent.
ANALYSIS:
AB 2872
Page 2
Existing law:
1)Provides a streamlined procedure for a stepparent to adopt a
stepchild. Requires the probation officer, qualified court
investigator, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), licensed
marriage and family therapist (MFT), private licensed adoption
agency, or, at the option of the board of supervisors, the
county welfare department in the county in which the adoption
proceeding is pending, to make an investigation of each case
of stepparent adoption. Prohibits the court from making an
order of adoption until the person or entity making the
investigation has filed its report and recommendation and the
report has been considered by the court.
2)Permits a peace officer, without a warrant, to take into
temporary custody a minor who is in a hospital if the release
of the minor to a prospective adoptive parent or a
representative of a licensed adoption agency poses an
immediate danger to the minor's health or safety. However, a
peace officer is prohibited from taking into temporary custody
a minor who is in a hospital if all of the following
conditions exist:
a) The minor is a newborn who tested positive for illegal
drugs or whose birth mother tested positive for illegal
drugs;
b) The minor is the subject of a proposed adoption and a
Health Facility Minor Release Report (HFMR Report),
developed by the Department of Social Services, has been
completed by the hospital;
c) Provides that the HFMR Report does not constitute
consent to adoption or relinquishment of parental rights
and that the birth parents may reclaim the child at any
time, as provided;
d) Release of the newborn to a prospective adoptive parent
AB 2872
Page 3
or an authorized representative of a licensed adoption
agency does not pose an immediate danger to the child; and,
e) The prospective adoptive parents or the representative
of a licensed adoption agency have provided the peace
officer in the hospital seeking to take custody of the
newborn with, among other things, a fully executed HFMR
Report.
3)Limits access to juvenile case files, as defined, to specified
individuals and officials, including the child's parent or
guardian, attorneys for the parties, court and state
personnel, including law enforcement and child protective
services, and school district officials. Allows a
court-appointed investigator when acting within the scope of
his or her duties in a guardianship case to inspect the
juvenile court case file in that case. Prohibits any party
authorized to inspect a dependency court case file from
disseminating the file or its contents unless otherwise
permitted.
This bill:
1)Revises the existing law requirement that a written
investigation be completed prior to a court approving a
stepparent adoption by specifying that the petitioner, at the
time of filing the adoption request, can elect an LCSW, an
MFT, or a private licensed adoption agency to perform the
investigation.
2)Specifies that if the petitioner chooses an LCSW, MFT, or a
private licensed adoption agency to perform the investigation,
the petitioner is required to pay any investigation fee
directly to the investigator rather than having to pay the
court an investigative fee at the time of filing.
3)Requires the appropriate hospital personnel, upon request by a
AB 2872
Page 4
birth parent or parents of a newborn, to complete a HFMR
Report and provide copies of the report to the birth parent or
parents, and the person or persons who will receive physical
custody of the child upon discharge.
4)Prohibits hospital personnel from refusing to complete a HFMR
Report for any reason, even if the minor is ineligible for
release at that time, but specifies that nothing in this bill
is to be construed to require hospital personnel to release a
minor contrary to the directives of a child welfare agency.
5)Eliminates a requirement that birth parents be given a notice
prior to signing the HFMR Report with specified information,
and instead requires all of the information in the notice to
be included in the HFMR Report.
6)Expands the list of investigators that are permitted to
inspect a juvenile case file to include statutorily authorized
or court-appointed investigators, who are conducting an active
investigation pursuant to specified provisions of existing law
related to the termination of parental rights and stepparent
adoptions.
Comments
1)Author's statement. According to the author, this bill
promotes the welfare of children, the efficiency and statewide
uniformity of court processes, and the fiscal well-being of
state and local public entities, by remediating the following
deficiencies in law: a) eliminating the current backlog of
step-parent adoptions and ensuring that these cases can be
completed in a timely manner moving forward; b) affirming a
birth parent's existing right to make an adoption plan at the
hospital by requiring hospital personnel to complete the
necessary forms upon request; and, c) ensuring that
court-appointed or statutorily authorized investigators have
access to relevant information for completion of statutorily
mandated reports.
AB 2872
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2)Subject. This bill address three separate issues related to
child adoption law. Below is background information provided
by the author on the three components of this bill:
a) Use of independent investigators in stepparent
adoptions. The author states that stepparent adoptions
across the state are seriously backlogged, as much as 12-24
months in some counties. Existing law requires that an
investigation must be completed prior to a stepparent
adoption, and despite previous amendments made to this
section of law that would allow petitioners to hire a LCSW,
MFT, or a licensed adoption agency to complete the required
investigation, many courts are interpreting the existing
language to require the approval of the County Board of
Supervisors before petitioners can utilize the statutory
options. The changes proposed by this bill will make it
clear that petitioners are allowed to use alternative
professional investigators to complete the required
investigation and get the case finalized.
b) HFMR Report. Existing law allows the birth parent of a
baby who has a positive drug screen test to make an
adoption plan at the hospital, rather than having the child
detained by Child Protective Services. According to the
author, however, many hospitals have misinterpreted this
code section and have actually prevented these voluntary
placements by refusing to complete the necessary paperwork,
which is the HFMR Report. The proposed change will require
hospital personnel to complete the HFMR Report at the
request of a birth parent, thereby ensuring that the
underlying purpose of this statute is fulfilled. In
addition, the existing statute includes confusing language
about a separate "notice" that is actually already included
in the mandated HFMR Report, so this bill deletes reference
to the non-existent "notice" and just ensures that the
notice language is included in the HFMR Report (which is
current practice).
c) Access to juvenile records by appropriate parties.
Certain investigators in guardianship and termination cases
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are not granted access to juvenile court files, despite the
clear need for them to have all information available to
present to the court in their report. According to the
author, unnecessary time and resources are expended to file
a formal petition to ensure that the records are reviewed
and the results compiled into the statutorily-required
reports. This bill ensures that court-appointed or
statutorily-authorized investigators have access to
juvenile court files for the limited purpose of completing
designated investigations on behalf of the court.
Prior Legislation
AB 973 (Strickland, Chapter 440, Statutes of 2010) revised the
requirements that must be met before prospective adoptive
parents may take a drug-exposed newborn into temporary custody
from the hospital.
AB 2279 (La Suer, Chapter 920, Statutes of 2002) limited the
ability of law enforcement to take custody of a child without a
warrant when the child is in a hospital and is the subject of a
prospective adoption plan.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/1/16)
Academy of California Adoption Lawyers/Academy of California
Family Formation Lawyers (source)
AB 2872
Page 7
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/1/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: This bill is sponsored by the Academy of
California Adoption Lawyers/Academy of California Family
Formation Lawyers (Academy), which states that in its role as
practitioners of adoption law, it has first-hand knowledge
regarding the effects of existing law and how these laws can be
modified for the benefit of families and children. The Academy
states that this bill addresses three distinct subjects: the use
of independent investigations in stepparent adoptions, HFMR
Reports, and access to juvenile records by appropriate parties.
With regarding to the use of independent investigators in
stepparent adoption, the Academy states that stepparent
adoptions are seriously backlogged, and that a previous
amendment to this section of law that should have alleviated
this backlog has been misconstrued and is not currently being
utilized by the courts. This bill will clarify that the
petitioner can select from a range of specified professional
investigators to complete the required report, so that the
adoption may be finalized in a timely manner. With regard to the
HFMR Report, the Academy states that existing law allows birth
parents to make an adoption plan at the hospital for a baby with
a positive drug screen, rather than have the child detained by
Child Protective Services into an unnecessary foster care
proceeding at great public cost. However, the Academy states
that many hospitals have actually prevented these voluntary
placements by refusing to complete the necessary paperwork, and
so this bill will require hospitals to complete this paperwork
at the request of a birth parent. Finally, with regard to access
to juvenile records, the Academy states that existing law
requires court-appointed or statutorily-authorized investigators
to file petitions with the court to gain access to juvenile
court files, which results in unnecessary delays and
expenditures of public funds related to processing the
petitions. This bill revises the law so that persons who are
statutorily authorized or court appointed to complete child
custody-related investigations that are to be filed with the
court can obtain the necessary records without first needing to
file a petition.
AB 2872
Page 8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/5/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines
Prepared by:Vince Marchand / HEALTH / (916) 651-4111
8/3/16 19:40:20
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