BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1412
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Date of Hearing: April 27, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 1412 (Leno) - As Amended: April 7, 2005
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6-0
Judiciary 6-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill expands social worker responsibility to aid certain
foster youth in maintaining relationships with supportive adults
in their lives and gives certain foster children increased input
into their case plan. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires county child welfare social workers to ask foster
children ages 10 and over, regardless of placement, and who
have been in foster care for six months or more, about any
individuals, other than siblings, who are important in a their
life.
2)Adds case and permanency planning to the codified foster care
bill of rights.
3)Requires social workers to give children over 12 years of age
the right to participate in the development and review of
their case plans.
4)Requires the State of California to encourage the development
of policies that ensure children are actively involved in the
case and permanency planning process.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Annual costs in the range of $800,000 ($350,000 GF) for social
workers to ask children about important people in their lives,
conduct criminal background checks, and follow-up as
appropriate. This assumes there are about 5,000 children who
are 10 years old or older living in non-relative foster family
AB 1412
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homes or foster family agency homes for more than six months
and that social workers will spend 3 hours each year per child
on the provisions of this bill.
2)Annual costs in the range of $870,000 ($380,000 GF) for social
workers to include eligible children to participate in the
development of their case plans. This estimate assumes 8,200
children will be eligible and social workers will spend about
2 hours per year reviewing case plans with children.
3)Unknown off-setting savings to the extent this bill reduces
children's time in foster care via adoption or reduces
reliance on public benefits when foster youth exit care as
young adults. For example, basic foster care rates (for food
and housing costs, not medical care, mental health services)
range from between $10,000 and $63,000 (25 percent GF) per
year per child. Additional savings due to reduced juvenile
court time would also accrue. Savings would be reduced by
payments to adoptive families under the Adoptions Assistance
Program (AAP). The AAP payments are usually about $800 per
month and paid partly from the GF.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This bill, sponsored by the California Youth
Connection, is an expansion of AB 408 (Steinberg), Chapter
813, Statutes of 2003. AB 408 modified dependency laws to
increase the chances that older foster children in group home
placements will maintain connections with important people in
their lives. AB 408 requires that social workers will pursue
these connections with safe adults to increase permanency
options for foster youth.
AB 1412 expands the number of children for whom social workers
are to complete this work to all older foster children in
non-kin placements, who have been in foster care more than six
months. In addition, AB 1412 increases opportunities for
foster children 12 years and older to participate in case
planning efforts.
2)Existing Law . Foster care is an open-ended entitlement program
funded by federal, state, and local governments. Children are
eligible for foster care grants if they are living with a
foster care provider under a court order or a voluntary
agreement between the child's parent and a county welfare
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department. There are more than 75,000 children currently in
foster care in the state.
The AAP provides grants to parents who adopt difficult-to-place
children. State law defines these children, as those who,
without assistance, would likely be unadoptable because of
their age, racial or ethnic background, handicap, because they
are a member of a sibling group that should remain intact, or
because they come from an "adverse parental background."
Currently about 60,000 families receive a payment from AAP
monthly to support adopted children.
3)Older Foster Youth Need Permanency Options . Younger foster
children are more likely to be adopted in a timely fashion.
The older a child gets and the longer he or she is in care,
the less likely they are to be adopted. In recent years,
California has invested more time, funding, and focus to aid
these older foster children in connecting with key individuals
in their lives, finding adoptive homes, and transitioning from
foster care to healthy adult living. AB 408 and AB 1412, by
mandating certain case work activities emphasize the
importance of bolstering relationships on behalf of older
foster youth.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081