BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1040|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1040
Author: Hill (D), et al.
Amended: 8/15/16
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 4/19/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 39-0, 5/31/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/18/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Postadoption instability: unlawful transfer of
custody
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the Department of Social Services
(DSS) to establish a working group to examine the unique
challenges facing adoptive families, and makes it unlawful for
anyone to solicit custody of a child without pursuing a legal
adoption or guardianship, as specified.
SB 1040
Page 2
Assembly Amendments remove provisions defining and penalizing
"rehoming" and narrow the bill to include only the working group
and the group's required report.
ANALYSIS:
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. (Fam.
Code Sec. 8700 et seq.)
2)Allows for agency and independent adoptions of children.
(Fam. Code Sec. 8700 et seq.)
3)Establishes a procedure to declare a child free from parental
custody and control. (Fam. Code Sec. 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. Code
Sec. 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. Code Sec. 8609.)
SB 1040
Page 3
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. Code Sec. 271.)
7)Requires prospective adoptive parents to meet certain
requirements prior to receiving custody of a minor. (Fam. Code
Sec. 8700 et seq.)
This bill requires DSS to establish a working group to review
the challenges facing families with adopted and special needs
children including the following:
1)Requires DSS to establish the working group in consultation
with child advocacy organizations, attorneys specializing in
adoption and guardianships, the Judicial Council, foster
caregiver organizations, the Office of the Attorney General,
local law enforcement agencies, and individuals with expertise
in the area of positive youth development.
2)Requires the working group to consider all of the following as
it develops recommendations to the Legislature as to the
services that may be helpful to these adoptive families:
The specific challenges facing the following families:
families with special needs children, families with
children adopted through the foster care system, and
families with internationally adopted children.
The distinct resources that are available to the
different types of families specified above, and whether
any of the resources available to one type of family would
also be beneficial to another type.
SB 1040
Page 4
The training and education that is necessary to equip
mental health professionals with the tools necessary to
provide the specified families with services tailored to
their unique needs.
How to effectively recruit more prospective adoptive
families that are able to provide new, permanent, and
loving homes to children coming out of disrupted adoptions.
The feasibility of creating a clearinghouse of persons
and entities that are knowledgeable in addressing the needs
of, and finding subsequent placements for, children at risk
of being rehomed, including adoption agencies, social
workers, attorneys, mental health professionals, and
prospective adoptive parents.
Data currently available at the state and local levels
for assessing the frequency of postadoption instability and
the factors and causes associated with postadoption
instability. The working group shall identify the gaps or
limitations in data on postadoption instability.
Identified best practices for collecting and tracking,
on an ongoing basis, both 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.
An assessment of any gaps or limitations in existing
law, including provisions within the Penal Code, relating
to the solicitation to take custody of a minor and the
subsequent taking of custody of the minor without
initiating a lawful guardianship proceeding or adoption
proceeding.
1)Requires the working group to meet no later than April 1,
SB 1040
Page 5
2017, and submit the recommendations in a report to the
appropriate policy committees of the Legislature on or before
April 1, 2018.
Background
Over the past few years, headlines highlighting dramatic
failures in international adoptions have captivated the public.
In 2010, Torry Hansen outraged the adoption community when she
sent her seven year old adopted son on a plane back to Russia
with a note claiming that the child was mentally unstable and
had violent and severe psychopathic issues/behaviors. (See
Page 6
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, one-time
costs likely in the range of $125,000 to $145,000 (GF) to DSS to
establish the working group, collaborate with working group
members to develop recommendations, and submit the report to the
Legislature, and minor costs (GF) to the Judicial Council to
participate in the working group.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/17/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/17/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author, "'Rehoming'
is an issue that has garnered public attention as headlines have
highlighted dramatic failures in international adoptions.
California laws already clearly prohibit parents from abandoning
their children, but there also needs to be clarity in the penal
code that soliciting and taking children unlawfully is a crime.
[This bill] allows prosecutors to go after these unscrupulous
criminals, many of which are human traffickers. Additionally,
[this bill] will help frame the conversation and inform the
Legislature on the unique needs of internationally adopted
children, many of which are from war-torn countries with
terrible emotional scarring. The working group led by
Department of Social Services will help provide feedback on how
better to help these children and families that adopt them."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/18/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon,
Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
SB 1040
Page 7
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, 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: Roger Hernández, Kim
Prepared by:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
8/19/16 19:29:27
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