BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1336|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1336
Author: Jackson (D)
Amended: 8/25/16
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 4-0, 4/12/16
AYES: McGuire, Berryhill, Hancock, Liu
NO VOTE RECORDED: Nguyen
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 5/3/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hertzberg
SENATE FLOOR: 38-1, 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, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone, Vidak,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NOES: Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 8/30/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Dependent children: placement with relatives
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the juvenile court to make a finding
as to whether the social worker exercised due diligence in
conducting his or her investigation to identify, locate, and
notify the child's relatives, including whether specific actions
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were taken.
Assembly Amendments strike amendments to statute which would
have removed the requirement to evaluate a relative for foster
placement only when a child's placement needed to be changed,
this requiring an evaluation of relatives' for placement at any
time a relative came forward.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Places the care of a child who has been removed from his or
her parents or guardian under the jurisdiction of the juvenile
court and defines abuse and neglect criteria for such removal.
(WIC 300, et seq.)
2)Requires a social worker to immediately release a child in
temporary custody to the child's parent or guardian. Defines
the steps and timelines a county must take after detaining a
child, including specific steps and timelines to search for
relatives. Requires assessment of relatives or nonrelated
extended family members (NREFMs) who seek placement of the
child. (WIC 309; Cal. Rule Ct. 5.695 (f), (g).)
3)Defines the steps and timelines a county must take after
detaining a child, including creating a preference for the
child to be placed temporarily with a relative or NREFM. (WIC
309)
4)Requires the court, at the detention hearing, to take certain
steps to evaluate the case, determine whether the child can be
returned home safely, and, if not, to ensure the child is
placed in an appropriate placement, with priority
consideration for relatives, as specified. (WIC 319)
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5)Requires the court to read and consider the social study of
the child made by the social worker, and other relevant
evidence, as specified, prior to deciding the disposition of
the case. This may include the willingness of the caregiver to
provide legal permanency if reunification is unsuccessful.
(WIC 358 (b))
6)Creates preferential consideration for a request by a relative
of a child for placement, and requires, in determining whether
the placement is appropriate, the county social worker and the
court to consider a number of factors including the best
interests of the child, the wishes of the parent, placement of
siblings, and the nature of the relationship between the child
and the relative. Requires that whenever a new placement of
the child must be made, consideration shall again be to
relatives who have not been found to be unsuitable and who
will fulfill the child's reunification or permanent plan
requirements. (WIC 361.3)
7)Defines "relative" to mean an adult who is related to the
child by blood, adoption, or affinity within the fifth degree
of kinship, including stepparents, stepsiblings, and all
relatives whose status is preceded by the words "great,"
"great-great," or "grand," or the spouse of any of these
persons even if the marriage was terminated by death or
dissolution. Requires that the only relatives to be given
preferential consideration for the placement of the child are
an adult who is a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or sibling. (WIC
361.3 (c)(2))
8)Requires that when the sudden availability of a foster
caregiver requires a change in placement on an emergency basis
for a foster child, if an able and willing relative or NREFM
is available and requests temporary placement of the child
pending resolution of the emergency situation, the county
welfare department shall assess the suitability of the
relative or NREFM. Upon completion of this assessment, the
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child may be placed in the home. (WIC 361.45)
This bill:
1)Requires that whenever a child is removed from a parent's or
guardian's custody, the court shall make a finding as to
whether the social worker has exercised due diligence in
conducting the investigation, as specified, to identify,
locate, and notify the child's relatives, including both
maternal and paternal relatives.
2)Permits the court, when making the determination, to consider,
among other examples of due diligence, the extent to which the
social worker has made an effort to locate the child's
relatives, as specified, and has done any of the following:
a) Asked the child, in an age-appropriate manner and
consistent with the child's best interest, about his or her
relatives.
b) Obtained information regarding the location of the
child's relatives.
c) Reviewed the child's case file for any information
regarding the child's relatives.
d) Telephoned, emailed, or visited all identified
relatives.
e) Asked located relatives for the names and locations of
other relatives.
f) Used Internet search tools to locate relatives
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identified as supports.
Background
California's county-based child welfare system protects children
at risk of child abuse and neglect or exploitation by providing
intensive services to families to allow children to remain in
their homes, or by arranging temporary or permanent placement of
the child in the safest and least restrictive environment
possible. It is the legal "parent" for children in the foster
care system. As of October 1, 2015, approximately 62,600
children were in the child welfare system in California.
Court process. The process for determining the path through a
child welfare case is prescribed by a series of dependency court
hearings. When a child is first detained, the judge reviews the
facts and decides whether to remove the child from his or her
parents, or to return the child home, typically with
instructions that parents participate in services. At this
hearing, the court will also try to identify any suitable
relatives who may be able to care for the child while the case
is pending. The second hearing is a "jurisdictional hearing," in
which the merits of the case are decided, this may include a
trial on the facts. If the court decides that the allegations
are true, there will be a subsequent dispositional hearing,
where the judge will decide whether to return the child home or
to remove the child from parental custody. Subsequent hearings
evaluate the status of the parents' attempts to reunify with the
child, as well as the child's well-being.
Outcomes of children in foster care. Numerous national studies
have documented the poor outcomes of children and youth who are
removed from their homes into the child welfare system. Children
have increased rates of chronic health problems, developmental
delays and disabilities, mental health needs, and substance
abuse problems. Many youth have experienced traumatic events
that lead to symptoms such as depression, behavior problems,
hypersensitivity, and emotional difficulties. Twenty-five
percent of youth who age-out of care experience Post-Traumatic
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Stress Disorder-double the rate of U.S. war veterans. Studies
have shown that being removed from one's home is, in itself, a
traumatic event, leading to the separation from family, friends,
and neighbors.
Placement with relatives. State and federal statutes state a
preference to place children in out-of-home care with relatives.
State law provides an expedited approval process for family
members and NREFMs who step forward when the child is detained
in order to quickly place the child in a familiar home.
Studies have demonstrated significant benefit to children in the
child welfare system who are placed with relatives rather than
with strangers in foster homes or in group care. A 2008 study in
the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that
children placed into kinship care had fewer behavioral problems
three years after placement than children who were placed into
foster care. Researchers also found that children placed with
relatives were more likely to remain in their same neighborhood,
be placed with siblings, and have consistent contact with their
birth parents than children in foster care.
Recent efforts to encourage relatives to care for children in
the foster care system have resulted in several initiatives. The
Resource Family Approval Program (WIC 16519.5) was established
in 2012 as a five-county pilot project and designed to be a
unified, family friendly, child centered single process to
approve foster family homes, relative homes for foster care and
to approve families for legal guardianship or adoption. It
replaces multiple processes for licensing and approving homes of
relative and nonrelative caregivers. The 2015 passage of the
Continuum of Care Reform package, AB 403 (Stone, Chapter 773,
Statutes of 2015), made the pilot statewide.
The Approved Relative Caregiver funding program (SB 855, Senate
Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Chapter 29, Statutes of
2014) was established, initially as a county option, to provide
funding to family caregivers in an amount equal to the basic
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foster care rate. The program, which was made mandatory by the
passage of AB 403, remedies a rate inequity that left many low
income relatives with support payments from the CalWORKs program
only, which are significantly less than the basic foster care
rate.
Continuum of Care Reform. The California Department of Social
Services is in the midst of a significant reform effort focused
on diminishing the number of foster children in long-term
congregate care, such as group homes. A 2015 report,
"California's Child Welfare Continuum of Care Reform," outlines
a comprehensive reform of services including new models of care
for foster youth, more intensive services, and providing needed
treatment and services in homes rather than in group care. AB
403 began enacting these reforms.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 381 (Calderon, 2015) would have deleted the provision that
consideration for placement with a relative after a disposition
hearing be triggered by a new placement for the foster child.
The bill died in the Assembly Human Services Committee.
AB 2391 (Calderon, 2014) would have required that consideration
for placement with a relative subsequent to the disposition
hearing be given without regard to whether a new placement of a
child must be made. The bill died in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, to the
extent that some counties are not interpreting current law in
the manner described in this bill, those counties may incur
additional county social workers costs for the determinations
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and assessments that may result from this bill. The extent of
these costs is unknown.
SUPPORT: (Verified 8/29/16)
Alliance for Children's Rights
Children's Advocacy Institute
Children's Law Center of California
Dependency Legal Services
East Bay Children's Law Offices
Families NOW
Juvenile Court Judges of California
National Association of Social Workers
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/29/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The Children's Law Center of
California writes that "research has regularly demonstrated -
and we have seen firsthand in our practice - that when children
are placed with relatives, it increases the chances of being
reunified with parents, or for permanency with a relative if
reunification is unsuccessful.
"In order to ensure that relatives are considered, current law
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requires a social worker to locate kin to determine whether they
are willing to temporarily care for the child. However, this is
not always done. Practice varies county to county and dependency
court judges apply differing levels of scrutiny when determining
whether the social worker exercised 'due diligence' in the
search for relatives. Without some level of uniformity of what
is considered 'due diligence,' the identification and
recruitment of relatives will vary widely by county."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 8/30/16
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, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth,
Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk,
Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines, Harper, Olsen, Patterson
Prepared by:Mareva Brown / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524
8/30/16 20:00:19
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