BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1336| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 SB 1336 Page 2 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) SB 1336 Page 3 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 SB 1336 Page 4 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 SB 1336 Page 5 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 SB 1336 Page 6 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 SB 1336 Page 7 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 SB 1336 Page 8 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 SB 1336 Page 9 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 **** END ****