BILL NUMBER: AJR 10 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 68
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JULY 7, 2005
ADOPTED IN SENATE JULY 1, 2005
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 5, 2005
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 5, 2005
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chu
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Aghazarian, Arambula, Baca, Bass,
Benoit, Berg, Bermudez, Blakeslee, Bogh, Calderon, Canciamilla, Chan,
Chavez, Cogdill, Cohn, Coto, Daucher, De La Torre, DeVore, Dymally,
Emmerson, Evans, Frommer, Garcia, Goldberg, Hancock, Harman, Shirley
Horton, Houston, Huff, Jones, Karnette, Keene, Klehs, Koretz, La
Malfa, La Suer, Laird, Leno, Lieber, Liu, Matthews, McCarthy,
Montanez, Mountjoy, Mullin, Nakanishi, Nation, Nava, Negrete McLeod,
Nunez, Oropeza, Parra, Pavley, Plescia, Richman, Ridley-Thomas,
Ruskin, Saldana, Salinas, Spitzer, Strickland, Torrico, Tran, Umberg,
Vargas, Villines, and Yee)
MARCH 15, 2005
Relative to foster care services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 10, Chu. Foster care services: funding: Title IV-E Waiver.
This measure would declare legislative support for, and urge
federal approval of, the California Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration
Project Application (the Title IV-E Waiver), submitted to the United
States Department of Health and Human Services. This measure would
memorialize the Congress of the United States, and would urge states
and counties, to enact laws and policies to allow for more flexible
use of federal child welfare funding to support the needs of children
and families at risk, even if the child is not removed from the home
or formally made part of the child welfare system. The measure would
urge designated federal, state, and local agencies to take related
actions in furtherance of the Title IV-E Waiver.
WHEREAS, Funds available under Title IV-E of the federal Social
Security Act are the largest source of federal funding for our state'
s foster care system, accounting for over one-third of all federal
foster care funding in California; and
WHEREAS, Title IV-E funds may only be accessed when a child has
been removed from his or her home and placed in foster care; and
WHEREAS, Under the current funding structure, a state has no
ability to use Title IV-E dollars to provide services that will work
to prevent child abuse, protect children within their homes,
strengthen fragile families, and divert families from the foster care
system; and
WHEREAS, Existing federal funding eligibility requirements, which
tie monetary allocations to the placement of children in out-of-home
care and the length of time a child spends in foster care, create
disincentives to service children within their homes; and
WHEREAS, There are not enough programs, either long-term or on an
emergency basis, that enable social workers to provide immediate
stabilization and family maintenance services to a child at risk
within his or her family of origin, even when it might be safe and in
the child's best interest to keep the family intact; and
WHEREAS, Current financing restrictions can leave children who are
at a low level of risk for abuse unattended until the point in time
when the risk to the child is so great that removal from the home is
necessary; and
WHEREAS, Title IV-E funding mechanisms encourage large caseloads
at the county level, leave counties without funds to provide services
unless the child enters the foster care system, and cause families
that could be kept together with the provision of services to instead
be separated; and
WHEREAS, The California Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project
Application (the Title IV-E Waiver) sought by the state will allow
California counties more flexibility in the use of foster care funds.
Specifically, the waiver will allow social workers to provide
front-end services to help attend to the needs of children and
families without removing the child from the home or initiating a
judicial proceeding, thereby maintaining the family unit when
appropriate, focusing dependency judicial and governmental
interventions on children and families most at risk, and decreasing
child welfare and judicial caseloads; and
WHEREAS, The Title IV-E Waiver will enable California counties to
better support vulnerable children and families and will create a
vehicle for providing a full range of cost-effective services, rather
than limiting the use federal foster care moneys to those children
who have been placed in foster care; and
WHEREAS, States that have received waivers and thereby are
released from federal funding constraints have exhibited positive
results and have implemented innovative programs that provide a
continuum of service shown to have significant success, including the
following: (a) Illinois has used its Title IV-E Waiver to improve
foster care services and has dramatically decreased the number of
children in foster care from over 50,000 foster youth to 19,000 in
just five years. Social worker caseloads consequently dropped from an
average of 45-60 cases to 14-18 cases, enabling those on the front
line to focus their time and attention on children and families most
in need. (b) Delaware used waiver authority to help parents overcome
substance abuse problems, reducing by nearly one-third the amount of
time children spent in foster care. (c) Maryland used waiver-based
innovations to move more than 300 children from foster care limbo to
permanent homes or guardianship. (d) Connecticut used the waiver
process to develop intensive mental health services, reducing the
duration and number of youth in highly restrictive settings and
helping kids return to home more quickly. (e) Most recently, Ohio was
granted waiver authority to enhance an array of services to help
facilitate reunification and to increase prevention services; and
WHEREAS, The Counties of Alameda, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Orange,
Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Yolo seek the
opportunity to work together with the state to create improved child
welfare services through the use of a Title IV-E waiver; and
WHEREAS, The 2003 federal review of California's foster care
system found that California failed all seven outcome measures. If
the state does not improve its services, it will incur up to $18
million in penalties; and
WHEREAS, The Pew Commission on Foster Care, an independent entity
chaired by the Honorable Bill Frenzel and the Honorable William Gray,
recommended that federal funds for foster care be reformed to
increase programmatic flexibility and reliability of federal funding.
A report released by a related Pew initiative similarly found that
"current federal funding mechanisms encourage an over-reliance on
foster care at the expense of services that move children to
permanent families and help keep families safely together"; now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature declares its strong support
for, and urges federal approval of, the California Title IV-E Waiver
Demonstration Project Application (the Title IV-E Waiver) submitted
to the United States Department of Health and Human Services on May
24, 2004; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature urges the State Department of
Social Services to work with counties and others to address ongoing
issues and to promptly submit a final revised Title IV-E Waiver
application addressing those issues; and be it further
Resolved, That the California State Legislature urges the United
States Department of Health and Human Services to expeditiously
approve the Title IV-E Waiver, thereby allowing the State of
California to make changes and innovations necessary to improve
outcomes and services for vulnerable at-risk, abused, and neglected
children; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature respectfully memorializes the
Congress of the United States, and urges states and counties, to
enact laws and policies that will allow for more flexible use of
federal child welfare funding to support the needs of children and
families at risk, even if the child is not removed from the home or
formally made part of the child welfare system.