BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1743
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Dave Jones, Chair
AB 1743 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Introduced: March 2,
2005
PROPOSED CONSENT
SUBJECT : CHILD SUPPORT: COMPROMISE of CalWORKs and
Foster-Care Debt for Reunited Families
KEY ISSUE : In order to facilitate family reunification and
help keep children close to their families, should the child
support compromise program for PARENTS OF children in foster
care be expanded to include all foster care CASES, as well as
Kin-GAP CASES WHERE CHILDREN ARE PLACED WITH relative
caregivers?
SYNOPSIS
This non-controversial Committee bill, sponsored by the County
Welfare Directors Association of California, seeks to clean-up
and expand the program established by AB 1449 in 2001 to limit
child support collection from parents with children in foster
care if such collection efforts would interfere with
reunification efforts. This bill would (1) clarify code section
references to ensure that the law applies to all types of foster
care placements, not just federally funded foster care; (2)
align required periodic reviews with the annual eligibility
redeterminations now required for CalWORKs and foster care; and
(3) expand the program to include cases under the Kinship
Guardianship Assistance Payments Program (Kin-GAP). Under
Kin-GAP, relatives can assume permanent guardianship of children
in their care and receive financial assistance. Kin-GAP not
only saves the state, counties and the courts money by
dismissing the dependency court case and eliminating case
management for the child welfare department, but it also helps
preserve ties between a child and his or her family since the
child is placed with a relative. The Family Law Section of the
State Bar supports this bill, and there is no known opposition.
SUMMARY : Cleans-up and expands the family reunification-child
support compromise program for foster care cases. Specifically,
this bill :
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1)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS), in
consultation with the Department of Child Support Services
(DCSS), to establish regulations by which the county welfare
department can determine if it is contrary to the best
interests of a child to refer his or her case to the local
child support agency for child support services, to include
not only federally funded foster care cases, but all other
foster care cases, as well as Kin-GAP cases.
2)Requires the county child welfare department to review
annually the determination that it is contrary to the best
interest of the child to refer his or her case to the local
child support agency for child support collection, coinciding
with required CalWORKs and foster-care eligibility
redeterminations.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Requires DCSS to establish regulations for the compromise of
child support arrearages owed as reimbursement for public
assistance when the child is returned to the custody of the
obligor in either of the following circumstances: (a) the
child had been adjudged a dependent of the juvenile court,
but has since been reunified with the obligor pursuant to an
order of the juvenile court; or (b) the child had been placed
with a guardian or relative caregiver, who received public
assistance for the child, and the child has since been
returned to the home of the obligor. (Family Code Section
17550.)
2) Provides that the compromise is only appropriate where the
obligor parent has an income less that 250% of the federal
poverty level, and the local child support agency (LCSA)
determines, pursuant to regulations, that the compromise is
necessary for the support of the child. Prior to
compromising the debt, the LCSA is required to consult with
the county child welfare department. (Family Code Section
17550.)
3) Requires DSS to establish regulations by October 1, 2002,
defining cases in which it would be contrary to the best
interest of the child for the county welfare department to
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refer a case to an LCSA for establishment of a support order
for the reimbursement of public assistance (AFDC-FC).
(Family Code Section 17552.)
4) Requires DSS and DCSS to report to the Governor and the
Legislature on the results of foster care-child support
collection limitation program no later than October 1, 2003.
(Uncodified Section 5, AB 1449 (Keeley), Chapter 463 of the
Statutes of 2001.)
5) Directs DCSS to establish a compromise of arrears program for
compromise of state-owed child support arrears for obligors
who are unable to pay their child support debt. (Family Code
Section 17560.)
6) States the legislative intent that the Kinship Guardianship
Assistance Payment Program (Kin-GAP) is intended to enhance
family preservation and stability by recognizing that many
children are in long-term, stable placements with relatives,
that these placements are the permanent plan for the child,
that dependencies can be dismissed with legal guardianship
granted to the relative, and that there is no need for
continued governmental intervention in the family life
through ongoing, scheduled court and social services
supervision of the placement. (Welfare & Institutions Code
Section 11361.)
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print, this bill is keyed
fiscal.
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to clean-up and expand the program
to limit child support collection from parents with children in
foster care if such collection efforts would interfere with
reunification efforts. According to the author:
Child support obligations can make it difficult for
parents of children in foster care to successfully
reunify with their children. This, in turn, can
result in longer stays in foster care, increasing both
the trauma to children and the costs to the state and
counties. AB 1449 (Kelley), Chapter 463 of the
Statutes of 2001, made reunification easier by
alleviating some of the burden of reimbursing the
state for public assistance when a child has returned
to the home of the obligor and the reduction of the
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payments is necessary to help the parent or guardian
support the child.
In addition to the provisions regarding arrearage collections,
AB 1449 also allowed county child welfare agencies to decide
up-front to forego the commencement of child support, if it is
determined that the collection of child support would conflict
with reunification efforts.
This bill seeks to clean-up and expand AB 1449 (Keeley) in three
areas to ensure the goals of that legislation are achieved.
First, this bill would clarify code section references to make
clear that the law applies to all types of foster care
placements, not just federally funded foster care. There is no
policy rational for applying the program to only parents with
children in federally funded foster care, rather it appears to
have been an oversight in the original legislation.
Second, this bill would align required periodic reviews with the
annual eligibility redeterminations now required for CalWORKs
and foster care under Welfare & Institutions Code Sections 11265
and 11401.5. Those review periods just changed last year, after
AB 1449, which required six-month reviews, was already enacted.
This bill would align the review periods, eliminating
unnecessary work and providing for greater case management
efficiency.
Finally, this bill would expand the program to include Kin-GAP.
Under Kin-GAP, relatives can assume permanent guardianship of
children in their care and receive financial assistance.
Kin-GAP not only saves the state, counties and courts money by
dismissing the dependency court case and eliminating case
management for the child welfare department, but it also helps
preserve ties between a child and his or her family since the
child is placed with a relative. Requiring child support in
Kin-GAP cases may make a relative who is considering whether to
assume the guardianship of a child reluctant to become a
guardian. This bill would put Kin-GAP cases on par with foster
care cases and help keep children close to their families.
The original legislation required both DCSS and DSS to report
results of the program to the Legislature by October 1, 2003.
DSS, which has only just now promulgated regulations to begin
the program, has not yet done a study. DCSS reported that from
October 2002 - June 2004 through the Family Reunification
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Compromise of Assigned Arrearages Program it approved 3,137
applications for compromise. The total amount compromised was
nearly $18 million. These cases include federal and state
foster care cases, as well as Kin-GAP cases. DCSS was unable to
provide data indicating how much might have been collected if
the arrearages have not been compromise, although the department
suggests that would have been a very low amount, or what affect
the compromise program has had on family reunification, although
anecdotally it appears to be effective.
The County Welfare Directors Association of California, the
bill's sponsor, finds that this bill is necessary to clean-up
consensus items identified by county welfare departments and DSS
as they worked to implement AB 1449: "AB 1743 will provide the
necessary clarifications to enable CDSS and the county child
welfare agencies to fully implement the intent of AB 1449."
The Family Law Section of the State Bar supports the bill,
holding that the policy of the reunification program is to "not
burden parents with child support (that is probably
uncollectible) who are in the process of reunification with
their children. The bill extends the law to KIN GAP where a
relative such as a grandmother is receiving money to care for a
child while the parent is rehabilitated. The family law section
supports this policy."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County Welfare Directors Association of California (sponsor)
Family Law Section of the State Bar of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334