BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 794 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 794 (Committee on Human Services) As Amended September 8, 2015 Majority vote SENATE VOTE: 40-0 -------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------| |Human Services |7-0 |Chu, Mayes, Calderon, | | | | |Lopez, Maienschein, | | | | |Mark Stone, Thurmond | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------| |Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, Bloom, | | | | |Bonta, Calderon, | | | | |Chang, Nazarian, | | | | |Eggman, Gallagher, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | | | |Holden, Jones, Quirk, | | | | |Rendon, Wagner, Weber, | | | | |Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | SB 794 Page 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: Amends state law to address compliance with the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (Public Law 113-183). Specifically, this bill: 1)Redefines reasonable and prudent parent standard to mean the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child while at the same time encouraging the emotional and developmental growth of the child, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the responsibility of the state to participate in age or developmentally appropriate extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities. 2)Requires licensed community care facilities that provide care and supervision to children to designate at least one onsite staff member to apply the reasonable and prudent parent standards, as specified. 3)Requires a licensed or certified foster parent or facility staff member to receive training related to the reasonable and prudent parent standard, including knowledge and skills relating to the standard for the participation of the child in age and developmentally appropriate activities, as specified. Additionally, adds the reasonable and prudent parent standard to training topics required for preapproval training for a resource family applicant and annual training for an approved resource family. 4)Defines "another planned permanent living arrangement" as a permanent plan ordered by the court for a child 16 years of age or older or a nonminor dependent, when there is a compelling reason or reasons to determine that it is not in the best interest of the child or nonminor dependent to return SB 794 Page 3 home, be placed for adoption, be place for tribal customary adoption, or be placed with a fit and willing relative. Prohibits placement in a group home or in a short-term residential treatment facility as the identified permanent plan for any child or nonminor dependent. 5)Eliminates placement of a dependent child under 16 years of age in another planned permanent living arrangement as a permanency option and requires the court to order a permanent plan of return home, adoption, tribal customary adoption in the case of an Indian child, legal guardianship, or placement with a fit and willing relative, as appropriate. 6)Authorizes the court to order a planned permanent living arrangement, as defined, for children age 16 or older and nonminor dependents for whom no other permanent plan is appropriate, as specified. 7)Requires permanency review hearing documents to include the following for children 16 years of age or older and in a planned permanent living arrangement, as specified: a) A description of the intensive and ongoing efforts of the child welfare agency to return the child to the home of the parent, place the child for adoption, or establish a legal guardianship, as appropriate; and b) The steps taken to: ensure the child's care provider is following the reasonable and prudent parent standard; and to ascertain whether the child has regular, ongoing opportunities to engage in age or developmentally appropriate activities, including consulting with the child about opportunities for the child to participate in the activities. SB 794 Page 4 8)Requires such documentation for children under 16 years of age with a permanent plan of return home, adoption, legal guardianship, or placement with a fit and willing relative to include any barriers to achieving the permanent plan and the efforts made by the child welfare agency to address those barriers. 9)Requires the case plan for a child who is 16 years of age or older and in a planned permanent living arrangement, as specified, to identify the intensive and ongoing efforts to return the child to the home of the parent, place the child for adoption, place the child for tribal customary adoption in the case of an Indian child, establish a legal guardianship, or place the child or nonminor dependent with a fit and willing relative, as appropriate. Requires such efforts to include the use of technology, including social media, to find biological family members of the child. 10)Expands the definition of sexual exploitation to include a person who sexually traffics a child or commercially sexually exploits a child, as specified. 11)Requires a county probation department or child welfare agency to immediately, and within no more than 24 hours, report to the appropriate law enforcement authority upon receiving information that a child or youth who is receiving child welfare services has been identified as the victim of commercial sexual exploitation, as defined. 12)Requires a county probation department or child welfare agency to immediately, and within no more than 24 hours, notify the appropriate law enforcement authority when a child or youth who is receiving child welfare services and is known SB 794 Page 5 or suspected to be the victim of sexual exploitation is missing or has been abducted, so that the incident can be entered into the National Crime Information Center database of the FBI and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 13)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to inquire about a dependent child's credit history at the age of 14 instead of 16 and for specified documentation to be included in a case plan of a youth 14 years of age or older. 14)Provides that a successor kinship guardian may be appointed by the juvenile court when death or incapacity of a child's or youth's kinship guardian has resulted in the termination of the kinship guardianship and the successor guardian is named in the kinship guardianship assistance agreements, as specified. 15)Requires that no less than 30% of savings realized from the provision of new federal funding for adoption assistance resulting from the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 be spent on post-adoption services, post-guardianship services, and services to support and sustain positive permanent outcomes for children who otherwise might enter into foster care. Requires that at least two-thirds of the 30% in savings be spent on post adoption and post guardianship services. 16)Adds to the requirement that the state reinvest adoption incentive payments through the implementation of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 a requirement that the state reinvest guardianship incentive payments received through the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act into the child welfare system, as specified. SB 794 Page 6 17)Replaces the term "independent living" with "successful adulthood" in describing requirements pertaining to a nonminor dependent's case plan. 18)Requires the case plan for youth 14 years of age or older and nonminor dependents to be developed in consultation with the youth. Provides that, at the youth's option, the consultation may include up to two members of the case planning team who are chosen by the youth, as specified. 19)Provides that for youth in foster care 14 years of age or older and nonminor dependents, the case plan shall include both of the following: a) A document that describes the youth's rights with respect to education, health, visitation and court participation, the right to be annually provided with copies of his or her credit reports at no cost while in foster care, and the right to stay safe and avoid exploitation; and b) A signed acknowledgement by the youth that he or she has been provided a copy of the document and that the rights described in the documents have been explained to the youth in an age-appropriate manner. 20)Requires the case plan for a child or nonminor dependent who is, or who is at risk of becoming, the victim of commercial sexual exploitation, to document the services provided to address that issue. SB 794 Page 7 21)Requires county child welfare agencies and probation departments, on or before September 29, 2016, to implement policies and procedures that require social workers and probation officers to do all the following: a) Identify children receiving child welfare services, including dependents or wards in foster care, nonminor dependents, and youth receiving services under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, who are or are at risk of becoming, victims of commercial sexual exploitation; b) Document those individuals identified in the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System and any other agency record as determined by the county; c) Determine appropriate services for a child or youth identified; and d) Receive relevant training in the identification, documentation and determination of appropriate services for any child or youth identified. 22)Requires county child welfare agencies and probation departments to develop and implement specific protocols to expeditiously locate any child missing from foster care and specifies minimum requirements for these protocols. 23)Requires DSS, in consultation with stakeholders, as specified, to develop model policies and procedures to assist the counties in addressing the needs of children missing from care, as specified. SB 794 Page 8 24)Requires DSS to ensure the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System is capable of collecting all of the following information to ensure compliance with federal reporting requirements: a) The number of dependent children or wards in foster care who were victims of commercial sexual exploitation before entering foster care; b) The number of dependent children or wards in foster care who became victims of commercial sexual exploitation while in foster care; c) The number of dependent children or wards in foster care who go missing, run away, or are otherwise absent from care and were commercially sexually exploited during the time away from placement; d) The number of dependent children or wards in foster care who are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation; and e) Specified information for children placed in group homes or short-term residential treatment centers and children or nonminor dependents who are pregnant or parenting. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill will result in the following fiscal impact: 1)Federal compliance: Annual costs of $4.2 million ($1.7 million General Fund (GF)) for new workload to child welfare SB 794 Page 9 services and probation departments to comply with several provisions of federal law including the development of case plans, documentation related to the reasonable and prudent parent standards, and notification of relatives. Under Proposition 30, these costs are not reimbursable, but the bill will apply only to the extent the State provides annual funding for the cost increase. These costs are funded in the 2015-16 Budget. 2)Commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) protocols compliance: Annual costs to local agencies in the millions of dollars (GF/Local Funds/Federal Funds) to develop and implement policies and procedures that identify, document, and determine appropriate services for youth identified as runaways/missing or CSEC. Under Proposition 30, these costs are not reimbursable, but the bill will apply only to the extent the State provides annual funding for the cost increase. The 2015-16 Budget includes $20.2 million ($14 million GF) in 2015-16 to support both federally required and elective county program activities for CSEC. It is estimated $3.6 million GF will be utilized for federal compliance activities. 3)Child abuse reporting: Non-reimbursable local costs for reporting to law enforcement within 24 hours, as required by federal law. 4)Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) enhancements: Unknown, potentially significant automation costs (GF) to enable CWS/CMS to collect specified information on youth identified as missing/runaways or CSEC. COMMENTS: SB 794 Page 10 The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act: The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (Public Law 113-183) was signed by the President on September 29, 2014. The Act makes numerous changes to the title IV-E foster care program and enacts new requirements regarding sex trafficking prevention and reporting, data collection, reasonable and prudent parent standards, adoption incentives payments, successor guardianship, and successful adulthood. Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC): Commercial sexual exploitation of children is defined as the sexual exploitation of children at least primarily for financial or other economic reasons. Under this definition, the economic exchanges may be either monetary or non-monetary (e.g., for food, shelter, drugs). Sex trafficking of minors is defined as the "recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act" where the person is a United States (U.S.) citizen or lawful permanent resident under the age of 18. While human sex trafficking was once considered a predominantly international issue, FBI and other local law enforcement agency initiatives have become increasingly focused on the rapid-growing epidemic of the sexual exploitation of minors in the U.S. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in six child runaways in 2014 were likely sex trafficking victims, 68% of which are estimated to have been receiving child welfare services when they ran. A March 2013 report released by the California Child Welfare Council also made the connection between child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and foster youth, stating that 50 to 80% of CSEC are or were involved in the child welfare system. The report also indicated that early adolescence (ages 11 to 13 for boys and ages 12 to 14 for girls) is when most children fall victim to commercial sexual exploitation, and that the abuse and neglect they experienced that led to their involvement with child welfare services, in addition to frequently unstable SB 794 Page 11 placements, create the emotional vulnerabilities that are later exploited. The report also reveals that children who are commercially sexually exploited have a life expectancy of seven years after they are first exploited, and that the leading causes of death among exploited children are HIV/AIDS and homicide. The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act requires child welfare agencies to develop policies and procedures to strengthen child sexual exploitation prevention and intervention efforts, which are reflected in this bill. More specifically, it sets dates by which child welfare agencies need to do the following: 1)Implement policies and procedures to identify, document, and determine appropriate services for a child or nonminor dependent who is or who is at risk of becoming a sex trafficking victim, has run away from home, or is receiving services under the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program; 2)Develop and implement protocols to locate children and nonminor dependents missing from foster care, determine the factors that lead to the youth's absence from foster care and, to the extent possible, address those factors in subsequent placements, determine the youth's experiences while absent from care, including whether the youth is a sex trafficking victim, and report related information as required by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and 3)Report immediately, and within no more than 24 hours, to law enforcement when a child or nonminor dependent is identified to be a victim of sex trafficking. Agencies must also develop and implement protocols to report immediately to law enforcement, and within no more than 24 hours, information on missing or abducted youth receiving child welfare services who SB 794 Page 12 are identified as being, or are at risk of being, a victim of sex trafficking, for entry into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (APPLA): Among the myriad other changes to child welfare requirements included in the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act is the elimination of another planned permanent living arrangement, or APPLA, as a permanency option for a child under 16 years of age. APPLA is a long-term, out-of-home foster care placement type that a child or youth is expected to remain in until adulthood when other options such as reunification, relative placement, adoption, or legal guardianship have been ruled out. While it is intended to be identified as a last-resort option for permanency, current state statute outlining APPLA requirements is not restrictive enough to ensure certain steps are taken to avoid use of APPLA for dependent children. In addition to restricting the use of APPLA to youth 16 and older, this bill requires child welfare agencies to document, at each permanency hearing, the efforts to place a child permanently with a parent, relative, or in a guardianship or adoptive home. It also requires the court, during each permanency hearing, to ask the child about his or her desired permanency outcome, make a judicial determination that APPLA is the best permanency plan for the child, and to identify compelling reasons why it is not in the best interest of the child to return home, be placed for adoption, be placed with a legal guardian, or be placed with a fit and willing relative. Need for this bill: This bill makes statutory changes necessary to ensure state compliance with the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (Public Law 113-183), as identified by the California Department of Social Services. These include: child sex trafficking prevention and data collection; strengthening of the state's reasonable and prudent parent standards; additional reinvestment of state expenditure SB 794 Page 13 savings to fund post-adoption and guardianship services; the potential establishment of a successor kinship guardian for a child when a previous kinship guardian dies or becomes incapacitated; the elimination APPLA for children under age 16; and an overall focus on youth being provided the necessary services and supports to reach successful adulthood. This bill will ensure state statute maintains conformity with federal law and regulations, including requirements the state must meet in order to continue receiving federal funding participation for its child welfare services system. Analysis Prepared by: Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN: 0002233