BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 524|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 524
Author: Lara (D), et al.
Amended: 8/19/16
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 4-0, 4/28/15
AYES: McGuire, Berryhill, Hancock, Liu
NO VOTE RECORDED: Nguyen
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Nielsen
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 3-2, 8/26/16 (Pursuant to
Senate Rule 29.10)
AYES: McGuire, Hancock, Liu
NOES: Berryhill, Nguyen
SENATE FLOOR: 35-1, 6/1/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall, Hancock,
Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno,
Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach,
Nguyen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NOES: Morrell
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gaines, Nielsen, Runner, Stone
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 54-23, 8/24/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Private alternative boarding schools and outdoor
programs
SOURCE: Los Angeles LGBT Center
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Page 2
DIGEST: This bill establishes the licensure categories of
private alternative boarding school" and "private alternative
outdoor program" and makes those facilities subject to
regulation under the Community Care Licensing Act as specified.
This bill establishes rights for youth admitted to a private
alternative boarding school or a private alternative outdoor
program and requires each prospective youth and his or her
parent or guardian be provided with an accurate written
description of the programs. This bill requires training in
specified subject areas, and makes other regulatory changes.
Assembly Amendments substantially revise the licensure
requirements and create separate licensure categories for these
two types of facilities.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Establishes the California Community Care Facilities Act to
provide for the licensure and regulation of community care
facilities by California Department of Social Services
(CDSS). (HSC 1500, et seq.)
2) Defines "community care facility" to mean any facility,
place, or building that is maintained and operated to provide
nonmedical residential care, day treatment, adult day care,
or foster family agency services for children, adults, or
children and adults, including, but not limited to,
individuals with physical disabilities or mental impairments
and abused or neglected children. Includes within this
definition, group homes, foster family homes, full-service
adoption agencies, noncustodial adoption agencies,
transitional shelters, and others. (HSC 1502)
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3) Defines "residential facility" as a family home, group care
facility, or similar facility providing 24-hour nonmedical
care to persons in need of personal services, supervision, or
assistance that is essential for sustaining the activities of
daily living, or for the protection of the individual. (HSC
1502 (a)(1))
4) Prohibits the operation of an unlicensed community care
facility which provides or represents that it provides, care
or supervision, or which represents itself as a community
care facility that is not exempted from licensure. (HSC
1503.5)
5) Exempts specified facilities from the Act, including a
health facility or clinic, a juvenile placement facility
approved by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,
a county-operated juvenile hall, child day care facilities,
foster homes, a facility conducted for the adherents of any
well-recognized church or religious denomination who depend
upon prayer or spiritual means for healing in the practice of
the church or denomination, a school dormitory, facilities
that supply board and room only, recovery houses, and others.
(HSC 1505)
This bill:
1) Makes various legislative findings and declarations,
including about the risks of unlicensed behavioral treatment
facilities.
2) Adds to statute the licensure category of "private
alternative boarding school" and defines it as a group home
licensed by CDSS to provide youth with 24-hour residential
care and supervision, which, in addition to providing
educational services to youth, provides, or holds itself out
as providing, behavioral-based services to youth with social,
emotional, or behavioral issues.
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3) Adds to statute the licensure category of "private
alternative outdoor program" and defines it to mean a group
home licensed by CDSS to operate a program to provide youth
with 24-hour residential care and supervision, which
provides, or holds itself out as providing, behavioral-based
services in an outdoor living setting to youth with social,
emotional, or behavioral issues, as specified.
4) Requires that the care and supervision provided by private
alternative boarding schools and private alternative outdoor
programs be nonmedical, except as otherwise permitted by law.
5) Requires a private alternative boarding school or private
alternative outdoor program to comply with all statutory
provisions applicable to group homes, unless otherwise
indicated, and requires the facility to do all of the
following:
a) Be owned and operated on a nonprofit basis and prepare
and maintain a current, written plan of operation, as
defined by CDSS.
b) Offer 24-hour, nonmedical care and supervision to
youth who voluntarily consent to being admitted to the
program and who are voluntarily admitted by a parent or
legal guardian.
c) Not admit a child younger than 12 years of age or
employ secure containment or manual or mechanical
restraints.
d) Not admit a youth who has been assessed by a licensed
mental health professional as seriously emotionally
disturbed, unless the youth does not require care in a
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licensed health facility and the facility is certified to
provide appropriate mental health treatment, as specified.
e) Provide each prospective youth and his or her parent
or legal guardian with an accurate written description of
the programs and services to be provided, including a
written description of how advertised special programming
or services are intended to achieve the promoted claims,
as specified.
f) Ensure that all individuals providing behavioral-based
services to youth at the facility are licensed or
certified by the appropriate agency, department, or
accrediting body, as specified by the department in
regulation, and that
g) If it offers access to, or holds itself out as
offering access to, mental health service or alcohol or
substance abuse treatments, it shall ensure that those
services are provided by a licensed or certified provider
of those services.
6) Requires a staffing ratio in private alternative outdoor
programs be one staff person to every four youths, and
requires that staff who supervise youth receive an additional
number of hours of initial and annual training, to be
determined by CDSS in regulations developed in consultation
with stakeholders in addition to the training required of
group home staff by CDSS regulations.
7) Requires a private alternative boarding school or private
alternative outdoor program to submit a staff training plan
to CDSS as part of its plan of operation. In addition to
other required training, as specified, requires training in
youth rights, the physical and psychosocial needs of youth,
appropriate responses to emergencies, as specified, cultural
competency and sensitivity in issues relating to the lesbian,
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gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, and laws
pertaining to residential care facilities for youth.
8) Requires, additionally, training in the following areas for
staff of private alternative outdoor programs:
a) Low-impact camping.
b) Navigation skills.
c) Water, food, and shelter procurement.
d) Recognition of poisonous plants.
e) Wilderness first aid.
f) Health issues related to acclimation and exposure.
g) Report writing and log maintenance.
9) Exempts providers from adhering to the existing bill of
rights for foster children in group homes, as specified in
regulation. Instead, requires youths admitted to a licensed
private alternative boarding school or private alternative
outdoor program to be accorded specified rights, and requires
the list of rights to be publicly posted and accessible to
youth. Specifies that the youth's rights shall not require a
licensee to take any action that would impair the health or
safety of youth in the facility. Included in these rights
are:
To be accorded dignity in his or her personal
relationships with staff, youth, and other persons, and to
be free from physical, sexual, emotional, or other abuse,
or corporal punishment, physical restraints of any kind,
and deprivation of basic necessities, as a punishment,
deterrent, or incentive.
To live in a safe, healthy, and comfortable environment
where he or she is treated with respect, and to be granted
a reasonable level of personal privacy, as specified.
To be served food and beverages of the quality and in
the quantity necessary to meet his or her nutritional and
physical needs.
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To be able to contact parents or legal guardians,
including visits and scheduled and unscheduled private
telephone conversations, written correspondence, and
electronic communications, as specified.
To have his or her parents or legal guardians remove him
or her from the program.
To consent to have visitors or telephone calls during
reasonable hours, privately and without prior notice,
provided the visitors or telephone calls do not disrupt
planned activities and are not prohibited by court order or
by the youth's parent or legal guardian.
To have caregivers who have received instruction on
cultural competency and sensitivity relating to, and best
practices for, providing adequate care to lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender youth in out-of-home care.
To be free from acts that seek to change his or her
sexual orientation, including efforts to change gender
expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic
attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.
To be free from abusive, humiliating, degrading, or
traumatizing actions.
1) Prohibits placement of youth in either of these new
licensing categories from the child welfare or probation
systems and prohibits the payment of a rate for a Short Term
Residential Therapeutic Program.
2) Exempts the licensure requirements of a private alternative
boarding school from applying to any facility operated,
licensed, or certified by the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation and its Division of Juvenile Justice, the
California Conservation Corps, the Military Department, or
any other governmental entity or to a boarding school that
solely focuses on academics.
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3) Exempts the licensure requirements of a private alternative
outdoor program from applying to those same programs, as well
as to any organized camp, as defined, outdoor activities for
youth designed to be primarily recreational, including, but
not limited to, activities organized by Outward Bound, Boy
Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire, and others, as specified.
4) Permits CDSS to adopt emergency regulations and requires
adoption of regulations by January 1, 2018, for private
alternative boarding schools, and by January 1, 2019, for
private alternative outdoor programs in consultation with
stakeholders, as specified, and requires that existing
programs in each of these categories be compliant with new
regulations no later than six months after those dates. In
the meantime, requires that these programs be governed by
specified existing group home regulations.
5) Requires individuals who are volunteer candidates for
mentoring children in these facilities to be subject to a
criminal background investigation, prior to having
unsupervised contact with the children.
6) Restricts the existing licensure exemption for spiritual
programs by removing the exemption for a private alternative
boarding school or private alternative outdoor program that
uses prayer or spiritual means as a component of its
programming or services in addition to behavioral based
services, thus making those facilities subject to licensure.
Similarly, specifies that the existing licensure exemption
for a school dormitory or similar facility does not include a
private alternative boarding school or private alternative
outdoor program.
7) Permits CDSS to set licensure fees via regulation for both
types of new programs.
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8) Exempts private alternative boarding schools and private
alternative outdoor programs from participating in
psychotropic medication monitoring and oversight measures
currently required for child welfare placements, as
specified, and exempts such facilities from requirements of
the "reasonable and prudent parent standard," required for
foster homes and group homes.
Background
The Community Care Licensing Division (CCL) of CDSS licenses and
regulates a variety of facilities which provide nonmedical
residential care, day treatment, adult day care, or foster
family agency services for children, adults, or children and
adults. CCL also licenses and regulates child care centers,
residential care facilities for the elderly, and other
facilities. Approximately 65,000 care facilities are licensed in
the state, with the capacity to serve 1.3 million Californians.
Private Children's Residential Facilities. Private,
self-described "therapeutic boarding schools," "wilderness
programs," "residential treatment centers," or "reform schools"
are 24-hour residential facilities serving children and
adolescents who face emotional, mental, academic, physical or
social challenges. In some instances, facilities may be licensed
as a residential group home or a residential community treatment
facility. However, CDSS reports there are facilities and
programs in the state that are unlicensed and either relying on
the exemption for "school dormitories" provided for in statute
(HSC 1505) or because there is no licensing provision for
wilderness camps or boot camps.
Safety and Abuse Concern. Various wilderness programs have been
the subject of lawsuits and accusations of abuse and neglect
including incidents of "sexualized role play." In 2004, a
14-year-old boy died in a wilderness program after hiking
several miles in 90-degree weather. Reportedly, a combination of
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excessive heat, a constrictive uniform, and the boy's obesity
caused his body to overheat. He suffered severe heatstroke
requiring immediate medical attention but program staffers
ignored complaints and the youth died an hour later at the
hospital. In 2012, a mother filed a lawsuit alleging that her
15-year-old daughter was subjected to hours of stress positions,
threats of suffocation, exposure to animal abuse and regular
public humiliation.
General Accounting Office report. A U.S. General Accounting
Office report entitled, "Residential Facilities: Improved Data
and Enhanced Oversight Would Help Safeguard the Well-Being of
Youth with Behavioral and Emotional Challenges" from May, 2008,
evaluated regulatory oversight of residential facilities serving
children, including private facilities receiving no government
funding. The report identified significant gaps in regulatory
oversight and licensure of private residential facilities
serving youth.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 1089 (Liu, 2012) sought to license and regulate "private
nontraditional alternative treatment facilities for youth" and
was similar to this bill. It was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
Unknown.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/26/16)
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Los Angeles LGBT Center (source)
AIDS Project LA
Buenstar Human Services Inc.
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California LGBT Health and Human Services Network
City of Los Angeles
City of West Hollywood
Equality California
Gender Health Center
LGBTQ Center of Long Beach
Sacramento LGBT Center
SIA Organization
Stonewall Democratic Club
Transgender Law Center
WWASP Survivors
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/26/16)
Freeing American Children from Exploitation and Sexual Slavery
Riverview Christian Academy
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author, residential
boarding schools currently are exempt from state licensing and
do not have oversight "beyond filing a one-page affidavit with
the Department of Education." The author states that the lack of
oversight and regulation has opened the door to abuse and
parents and guardians often have no idea that a facility is not
subject to rigorous licensure standards. "Tragically, many young
people have experienced horrendous abuse, neglect, and even
death at unregulated boot camps, wilderness camps, and
residential institutions," the author states.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: The organization Freeing American
Children from Exploitation and Sexual Slavery writes that the
bill will imperil sex trafficked minors by eliminating
alternatives to group homes, where "a majority of recruitment of
minors into sex trafficking" takes place. It further states that
CCL's oversight of group homes has been poor and that CCL will
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not have the ability to successfully manage all the private
residential schools in California.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 54-23, 8/24/16
AYES: Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta,
Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Levine,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin,
Nazarian, O'Donnell, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams, Wood,
Rendon
NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Bigelow, Brough, Chang, Chávez,
Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Gray, Grove, Harper, Jones,
Lackey, Mathis, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson,
Steinorth, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hadley, Kim, Linder
Prepared by:Mareva Brown / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524
8/26/16 14:26:50
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