BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2872| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2872 Author: Patterson (R) Amended: 8/4/16 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. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/4/16 clarify the authority for releasing children from hospitals to non-parents and address a chaptering-out issue with AB 1945 (Stone). AB 2872 Page 2 ANALYSIS: 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; AB 2872 Page 3 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 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 AB 2872 Page 4 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 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 AB 2872 Page 5 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. 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 AB 2872 Page 6 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 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: (Verified8/4/16) Academy of California Adoption Lawyers/Academy of California AB 2872 Page 7 Family Formation Lawyers (source) OPPOSITION: (Verified8/4/16) 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 AB 2872 Page 8 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. 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:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113 8/10/16 15:54:59 **** END ****