BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1040
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
1040 (Hill)
As Amended August 15, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 39-0
------------------------------------------------------------------
|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Human Services |7-0 |Bonilla, Grove, | |
| | |Arambula, Lopez, | |
| | |Maienschein, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Mark Stone, Thurmond | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |20-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Obernolte, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood, | |
SB 1040
Page 2
| | |McCarty | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
establish a working group to examine the unique challenges
facing adoptive families, identify resources within the
community to assist families with these challenges and to make
recommendations to the Legislature as to services that will help
these families. Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes Legislative findings and declarations acknowledging that
certain adoptive families face unique challenges and stating
Legislative intent to ensure that adoptive families receive
necessary supports to maintain the family unit, and when
necessary, find new, permanent homes for youth.
2)Requires the DSS to create a working group, in consultation
with specified stakeholders and to convene by April 1, 2017,
to review the unique challenges facing families with adopted
children and children with special needs and to identify
resources within the community that will assist families with
these challenges, and to make recommendations to the
Legislature by April 1, 2018, as specified, regarding services
for these families.
3)Requires the working group, when developing its
recommendations, to consider all of the following:
a) Education and resources that would benefit prospective
adoptive families prior to an adoption, and whether certain
education and services should be required prior to the
completion of an adoption;
SB 1040
Page 3
b) The specific challenges facing families with children
with special needs, children adopted through the foster
care system, and internationally adopted children;
c) The distinct resources that are available to families
with specific circumstances, as specified;
d) Training and education necessary to equip mental health
professionals with the requisite tools to provide these
families with appropriate services;
e) Means for recruiting families capable of adopting
children coming out of disrupted adoptions;
f) The feasibility of creating a clearinghouse of
individuals with expertise in addressing the needs of, and
finding placements for, children at risk of unlawful
custody transfer, as specified;
g) Available state and local data for assessing the
frequency of postadoption instability and the associated
factors and causes, as well as the gaps or limitations in
postadoption instability data; and
h) Identified best practices for collecting and tracking
quantitative and qualitative data to understand the extent
of postadoption instability and to tailor supports to meet
the needs of children and families experiencing
postadoption instability; and
SB 1040
Page 4
i) An assessment of any gaps or limitations in existing law
relating to the solicitation to take custody of a minor and
the subsequent taking of custody of a minor and the
subsequent taking of custody of the minor without
initiating a lawful guardianship or adoption proceeding.
4)Defines "postadoption instability" to include regulated
circumstances, including but not limited to, adoption
nullification or dissolution, and unregulated circumstances,
including but not limited to, the unlawful transfer of custody
of an adopted child from the adoptive parent to another person
or entity.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Allows for a parent to relinquish a child to DSS, county
adoption agency, or licensed adoption agency for adoption by a
written statement signed before two subscribing witnesses and
acknowledged before an authorized official of the department,
county adoption agency, or licensed adoption agency. (Family
Code (FAM) Section 8700 et seq.)
2)Allows for agency and independent adoptions of children. (FAM
Section 8700 et seq. and 8880 et seq.)
3)Establishes a procedure to declare a child free from parental
custody and control. (FAM Section 7840 et seq.)
4)States that any person or organization without proper
authorization who advertises in any periodical or newspaper,
by radio, or other public medium, that they will place
children for adoption, or accept, supply, provide or obtain
children for option, is guilty of a misdemeanor. (FAM Section
SB 1040
Page 5
8609)
5)States that any person, other than a birth parent or any
organization, association, or corporation with proper
authorization, who places any child for adoption is guilty of
a misdemeanor. (FAM 8609)
6)States that every parent of any child under the age of 14, and
every person to whom any such child has been confided for
nurture, or education, which deserts such child in any place
with intent to abandon the child is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(PEN 271)
7)Requires prospective adoptive parents to meet certain
requirements prior to receiving custody of a minor. (FAM 8700
et seq.)
FISCAL EFFECT: According the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)One-time costs likely in the range of $125,000 to $145,000
(General Fund) to DSS to establish the working group,
collaborate with working group members to develop
recommendations, and submit the report to the Legislature.
2)Minor costs (General Fund) to the Judicial Council to
participate in the working group.
COMMENTS:
Adoption proceedings: Adoption is a legal process by which
SB 1040
Page 6
parental rights are given permanently to adoptive parents and a
child is taken into the home of a family as a permanent family
member. Many children are adopted out of the foster care
system, though some are placed for adoption by their biological
parents who choose to relinquish their parental rights and
forfeit custody of their child. Currently there are over 62,000
children and youth in California's child welfare system, and
while a number of these children eventually reunify with their
birth families, a significant portion of them remain in foster
care for long periods of time. While in foster care, children
may live temporarily with relatives, in foster family homes, or
in other settings. If a child is unable to be reunited with his
or her birth family, a county social worker may try and find a
safe and loving adoptive family for the child. Adoptions are
divided into several categories:
Agency adoption: In an agency adoption, a public or private
adoption agency that is licensed through DSS places a child for
adoption. The birth parent's parental rights are terminated by
the courts or by relinquishment of the parents, thus the
adoption agency becomes legally responsible for the care and
well-being of the child until an adoptive family is found. The
agency is responsible for reviewing and approving prospective
adoptive parents and ensuring that prospective families are
capable of handling the unique needs and challenges of the
child.
Independent adoption: In an independent adoption, birth parents
choose prospective adoptive parents and place the child directly
with them. Birth parents are required to receive an advisement
of rights, responsibilities, and options from an Adoption
Service Provider, and must sign an Independent Adoption
Placement Agreement. This agreement becomes an irrevocable
consent to adoption within 30 days, unless otherwise revoked
within the 30 day period.
SB 1040
Page 7
Intercountry adoption: Intercountry adoptions consist of
prospective parents adopting foreign-born children for whom the
federal law makes a special immigration entry visa available.
Intercountry adoptions are often facilitated by licensed private
adoption agencies that specialize in assisting families adopt
foreign-born children that have been classified as orphans by
the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In some cases, adoptions are unsuccessful. According to the
federal Office of the Administration for Children & Families,
between 10% and 25% of adoptions are disrupted. The term
"disruption" is used to define an instance when a child has been
placed with an adoptive family but the adoption is not yet
legal, while "dissolution" refers to the termination of the
legal relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted
child, either voluntarily or involuntarily. These instances
often result in the child returning to the child welfare system
or being placed with another adoptive family. Other times
however, postadoption instability can lead to harmful situations
for the child, including the practice of "rehoming."
Government Accountability Office report on unregulated custody
transfer: In September 2015, the United States Government
Accountability Office (GAO) published a report entitled "Child
Welfare: Steps Have Been Taken to Address Unregulated Custody
Transfers of Adopted Children," which examined recent media
reports of a practice known as "rehoming." Rehoming consists of
the unregulated custody transfer of adopted children by their
adoptive parents to new homes that are often found on the
internet or other unregulated networks. These unregulated
transfers are conducted without the safeguards and oversight of
the courts or the child welfare system and prospective homes are
not subject to the same scrutiny that prospective parents are
subject to when going through legal adoption processes,
including home studies, criminal background checks, and
pre-adoption training. Unlike adoptions that result in
disruption or dissolution, unregulated transfers occur when
SB 1040
Page 8
parents intend to permanently transfer custody of their child to
a new family without following the specific steps taken during
the disruption or dissolution process. Because unregulated
custody transfers are conducted outside the purview of the law,
it is unknown how many of these transfers occur.
Special needs of adopted children: The GAO report found that
adoptive families face unique challenges when adopting children,
particularly those children adopted internationally or from
foster care and who likely need special care as a result of
prolonged institutionalization and/or frequent trauma. Children
in foster care may be more likely to have special behavioral and
mental health needs than children that are not involved in the
child welfare system; a national survey conducted in 2009 found
that 42% of children ages 18 months to 17 years who were placed
in a foster family home were at risk for an emotional or
behavioral problem and potentially in need of mental health
services.
Studies indicate that abuse and maltreatment can cause physical
changes in the development of a child's brain, thereby
increasing a child's vulnerability to depression, post-traumatic
stress disorder, and other behavioral issues.
Institutionalization, for example, can lead to deprivation of
affection and neglect for children placed in these facilities
and can result in poor attention span, hyperactivity, difficulty
in regulating emotion, increased levels of anxiety, and the
potential for attachment disorders. Severe behavioral or mental
health issues can result in the violent behavior by the adopted
child. According to the GAO report, in 2014, 23% of dissolved
adoption cases nationwide were the result of the adopted child
posing a threat to the safety of other children in the home.
Need for this bill: According to the author, "[This bill] will
help frame the conversation and inform the Legislature of the
unique needs of internationally adopted children. Many are from
war-torn countries and suffer from terrible emotional scarring.
SB 1040
Page 9
A working group led by the Department of Social Services will
help provide feedback on how to better help these children and
the families that adopt them."
Analysis Prepared by:
Kelsy Castillo / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN:
0004165