BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1876
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Date of Hearing: April 19, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 1876 (Leslie) - As Amended: March 27, 2006
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill creates a pilot program to promote the use of
faith-based institutions to increase permanency solutions for
at-risk foster youth. Specifically, this bill:
1)Instructs the Placer County Department of Health and Human
Services to contact all faith-based institutions and other
appropriate nonprofit organizations within the county and work
with those entities to identify those willing to create
permanency solution efforts for at-risk foster youth.
2)Defines at-risk foster youth as African-American foster youth,
disabled foster youth, sibling groups of three or more foster
youth, foster youth over the age of 13 years of age and others
as determined by the county.
3)Prioritizes African-American foster youth as those that should
be first served by this program. Other at-risk children may
be served if funds allow.
4)Allows that a foster youth who has been placed in Placer
County in an out-of-county placement and who satisfies the
pilot program's eligibility requirements may participate in
the pilot program if Placer County obtains written consent
from the county of residence and participation in the pilot
program is consistent with the foster youth's individual plan.
AB 1876
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5)Requires Placer County to submit a report by December 31, 2008
evaluating the pilot. The final report is submitted to the
appropriate committees of the Legislature, the state
Department of Social Services (DSS) and other county
departments of human services.
FISCAL EFFECT
AB 1876 appropriates $100,000 (GF) to DSS to be allocated to the
Placer County Department of Health and Human Services for the
2007-08 fiscal year for the purpose of implementing the pilot
program described in the bill.
The cost of evaluating the pilot project could reach $300,000
(based on evaluation costs of other DSS pilot projects).
Therefore, the $100,000 appropriation is likely not sufficient
to cover the cost of the pilot
AB 1876
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COMMENTS
1)Rationale. While California has been successful in targeted
attempts to find adoptive homes for older, hard-to-place
foster children, thousands remain in the system and ultimately
are emancipated from foster care each year without finding a
permanent home. Among those children are a large number of
African-American children, who make up a disproportionate
portion of the foster care caseload. This bill is designed to
target those children and requires Placer County to establish
working relationships with local faith-based organizations in
an effort to find these children adoptive homes.
2)Faith-based Outreach. According to the author's office, 32
states currently use faith-based outreach to find permanent
homes for foster children. In California, counties are allowed
to adopt the same type of approach and target a portion of
their existing resources toward working with faith-based and
other community-based organizations to find adoptive homes for
harder to place children.
3)Affected Population. As of October 1, 2005, there were 10
African-American children in foster care in Placer County.
While African-American foster children constitute a
disproportionate amount of the foster children in California
(29%), in Placer County, those children count for less than 3
percent of the 350 foster care children in the county. Recent
amendments would allow children from other counties that are
placed with families in Placer County to participate in the
pilot project. According to the author's office, this could
increase the number of African-American children eligible for
these enhanced permanency services to 50.
4)Governor's Proposed Budget. In the 2006-07 budget, the
governor has proposed spending $12.5 million to increase the
adoption of foster children. Specifically, this initiative
will target older, harder to place foster youth.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081