BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1412
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 19, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Dave Jones, Chair
AB 1412 (Leno) - As Amended: April 7, 2005
SUBJECT : DEPENDENT CHILDREN: OUT-OF-HOME PLACEMENTS
KEY ISSUES :
1)IN ORDER TO HELP MORE FOSTER CHILDREN MAINTAIN SUPPORTIVE
ADULT RELATIONSHIPS, SHOULD THE CLASS OF DEPENDENT CHILDREN
FOR WHOM SOCIAL WORKERS MONITOR AND SUPPORT SUCH RELATIONSHIPS
BE EXPANDED TO INCLUDE ALL CHILDREN AGE 10 AND OVER,
REGARDLESS OF THEIR TYPE OF RESIDENTIAL FOSTER PLACEMENT?
2)IN AN EFFORT TO INVOLVE OLDER CHILDREN IN THE PLANNING FOR
THEIR FOSTER CARE AND POSSIBLE PERMANENT PLACEMENTS, SHOULD
CHILDREN 12 AND OLDER BE GIVEN THE RIGHT TO RECEIVE, REVIEW,
AND SIGN A COPY OF THEIR CASE PLANS AS WELL AS BE NOTIFIED OF
CHANGES TO THEIR CASE PLANS?
SYNOPSIS
This bill, sponsored by California Youth Connection and
supported by children's services organizations, requires that
all children age ten and over, who have been in out-of-home
placements for six months or longer, have the help of a social
worker to maintain their supportive adult relationships. Under
current law, this service is available only to children in group
homes because they were found to be most at risk for losing
supportive adult relationships. Supporters point out that
foster children often lack any meaningful, adult relationships
and that efforts to maintain such relationships should be
available to all children in out-of-home placements. Several
supporters acknowledge, however, that such provisions could
place a financial burden on county welfare agencies.
This bill also allows older children in foster care, as
appropriate, to participate in developing their case plans which
identify goals and successes of their out-of-home placements.
Children age 12 and older would be allowed to review their case
plans and receive notification of changes to the plan.
According to the sponsor, this change is very important because
youth deserve the chance to contribute to plans for their life
AB 1412
Page 2
and their living arrangements. There is no opposition to the
bill.
SUMMARY : Expands the class of dependent children that social
workers must help to maintain relationships with supportive
adults and gives foster children greater input in the
development of their case plans. Specifically, this bill :
1)States as a legislative finding that a child's input in his or
her case plan is valuable and necessary to developing a plan
that best meets the child's unique needs.
2)Expands the population of foster youth for whom social workers
must help maintain important relationships with supportive
adults to children 10 and over who have been in any
out-of-home placement for six months or longer.
3)Gives foster youth the right to be involved in the development
of their own case plans and plans for permanent placement, as
age and developmentally appropriate.
4)Gives foster youth age 12 and older the right to review, sign
and receive a copy of their case plans and to receive
information about out-of-home placements, including being told
of changes to their case plans.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Authorizes the juvenile court to declare a child a dependent
of the court if there is evidence that the child has suffered
or is at risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, neglect
or exploitation. (Welfare & Institutions Code sections 300
and 300.2.)
2)Allows the court to order removal of an at-risk child and
placement in the home of a non-custodial parent, the home of a
relative, the home of an extended family member, a foster
home, a licensed community care facility, a foster family
agency, a group home facility or a temporary shelter care
facility. (Welfare & Institutions Code section 361.2.)
3)Requires social workers or other agencies to perform periodic
evaluations of children in out-of-home placements. (Welfare &
Institutions Code section 365.)
AB 1412
Page 3
4)Requires the court to monitor efforts to maintain
relationships between children 10 and older who are placed in
a group home for six months or longer with individuals other
than the child's siblings who are important to the child,
consistent with the child's best interests. Social workers
shall ask every child who is 10 years of age or older to
identify such individuals. (Welfare & Institutions Code
sections 366, 366.1, 366.21, 366.26, and 366.3.)
5)Gives children over age 12 the right to review their case
plans, to receive information about case plans and out-of-home
placements, and to be notified of changes to their case plans.
(Welfare & Institutions Code section 16001.9.)
6)Requires social workers to develop case plans to ensure that
the child receives protection and safe and proper care, that
services are provided to the child and parent or other
caretakers in order to improve the conditions in the parent's
home, and that the needs of the child are addressed while in
foster care. (Welfare & Institutions Code section 16501.1.)
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print, this bill is keyed
fiscal.
COMMENTS : In 2003, the Legislature passed AB 408 (Steinberg)
to comply with the federal McKinny-Vento Act, also known as the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This bill expands the
provisions of AB 408, specifically the class of dependent
children for whom important relationships are maintained while
in out-of-home placements. This bill also gives older children
in out-of-home placements more opportunities to work with social
workers in developing their case plans, allows children 12 and
older to review and sign their case plans, and gives all foster
children the right to be actively involved in the case plan and
permanency planning process. According to the author, this bill
is intended to "further the goal that we emancipate no child
from foster care without a relationship to a loving and
committed adult." The author also argues that:
[O]ver half of the children in foster care are over the age
of 11 and will remain in foster care for the majority of
their childhood. The confidentiality of the foster care
system makes it difficult for committed adults other than
siblings to maintain their relationships with foster
children that they care about.
AB 1412
Page 4
As a result, many foster youth leave care without a single
lasting relationship or connection with any adult. Many
youth have relationships only with adults that serve as
their social worker or other professional service
providers. In those cases, the relationships rarely
outlast the youth's time in foster care.
Two years ago (2003), the Legislature unanimously supported
AB 408 (Steinberg) which required social workers to ask
children aged 10 and older, who had been in group homes for
six months or longer, about relationships they might have
with adults that are important to them - people who make
them feel safe. Social workers are now required to
determine the appropriateness of those relationships and
work to maintain at least one important relationship with a
committed adult. The Steinberg bill also required the
court to check on progress made by the social worker in
finding and maintaining important supportive relationships
with adults.
My bill simply expands that good policy to benefit all the
older children in foster care, regardless of their
residential placement.
Similarly, the California Youth Connection, Alameda County
Foster Youth Alliance, Honoring Emancipated Youth and Social
Advocates for Youth all say in support that:
Older foster youth greatly want connections with adults and
need permanency as much as younger children because they
are so close to leaving the foster care system and losing
all services and support and being completely alone. Most
of the negative outcomes experienced by foster youth
including homelessness, dependency on public assistance,
and criminal activity are a result of having nobody to turn
to for help and support.
Children in out-of-home placements are often physically and
emotionally separated from their parents, and according to this
bill's supporters, they are also limited in their ability to
maintain meaningful relationships with other adults as well.
Current law requires social workers to help children ten and
older who have been in a group home for six months or longer to
maintain such relationships. This bill expands the class of
AB 1412
Page 5
children eligible for such services from children ten and older
in group homes to all children ten and over who have been in any
out-of-home placement for six months or longer.
The difficulty of maintaining prior relationships is not limited
to children placed in group homes. Children in foster care,
temporary shelters, community care facilities or those placed
with extended family might also be isolated from adults with
whom they share supportive relationships. If a child is forced
to change schools or relocate because of an out-of-home
placement, he or she might lose touch with a favorite teacher,
coach, church leader or other supportive adult. These
relationships, if maintained, could provide a displaced child
with a support system beyond what foster care or social workers
can provide.
In addition, this bill allows children, as age and
developmentally appropriate, to assist in the development of
their case plans. A case plan helps social workers identify
certain goals for the out-of-home placement and monitor a
child's progress. According to the bill's sponsor, the
California Youth Connection:
Youth want and deserve to be centrally involved in plans
for their life and living arrangements as they have
valuable ideas about who is important to them and where
they may want to live.
This bill also gives children 12 and older the right to review,
sign and have a copy of their case plans and receive
notification of any changes to their case plans. According to
legislative findings, a child's input in his or her case plan is
valuable and necessary to developing a plan that best meets the
child's unique needs. Allowing more children to have input in
the development of their case plans should serve the twin goals
of empowering youth to participate in plans for their future and
developing the best case plan to meet an individual child's
needs.
While they agree that supportive adult relationships can be very
beneficial to children in foster care, two supporters, the
California Association of Adoption Agencies and the County
Welfare Directors Association of California (CDWA) have serious
concerns about the ability of financially-strapped counties to
undertake these additional services. The CDWA says that:
AB 1412
Page 6
AB 1412 would expand the AB 408 requirements to every child
in foster care, regardless of the type of placement in
which they live. This expansion would add a significant,
unfunded workload to an already overburdened child welfare
system. County child welfare agencies are severely
underfunded to meet even their existing mandates, and
cannot absorb new requirements without concomitant funding
increases.
Both groups support amending this bill to include funding for
counties to implement the additional requirements. In addition,
CDWA suggests a phase-in period to identify the categories of
foster youth most likely to be without such supportive adult
relationships.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Youth Connection (sponsor)
Alameda County Foster Youth Alliance
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Association of Adoption Agencies
County Welfare Directors Association of California (if amended)
Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services, Inc. (GLASS)
Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY)
National Center for Youth Law
State Bar of California, Family Law Section
Social Advocates for Youth
Youth Law Center
Three Individuals
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon and Meredith Nixon /
JUD. / (916) 319-2334