BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1983
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 17, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 1983 (Bass) - As Amended: May 3, 2006
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Social Services to convene
a workgroup of stakeholders, including county welfare directors,
mental health and health organizations, local housing agencies,
and employer and employee unions to identify services that are
most useful to former foster youth and to make recommendations
to improve outreach efforts to those youth.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs are likely absorbable within the participating state
agencies' existing budgets.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author's office, a state level,
interagency workgroup could bring together the key people that
offer services for former foster youth. This would give the
stakeholders the opportunity to better coordinate their
services, understand the array of services available, and
develop strategies for informing current and former foster
youth of the services and supports that are available to them.
In addition, once the workgroup has ascertained the existing
resources available to foster youth, they will be able to
determine which areas are lacking in services and how best to
fill those gaps.
2)Background . In 2004-05, 4,255 foster youth aged-out of the
foster care system without finding a permanent home. Studies
AB 1983
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of foster youth show that they face significant challenges
once they become independent.
a) 65 percent of the emancipated foster youth in California
leave foster care without a permanent place to live.
b) 67 percent of female foster youth who emancipated had at
least one child within 5 years of leaving foster care.
c) Foster youth suffer post traumatic stress disorder at
rates nearly twice as high as United States war veterans.
d) Over 22 percent of former foster youth report being
homeless for one day or more after leaving foster care.
e) One third had incomes at or below the United States
poverty level.
f) Over 16 percent receive public assistance.
3)Concern . While the data suggests that the state needs to
provide more coordinated services for foster youth and work at
outreach in order to assist emancipated foster youth in
accessing currently available services, creating a workgroup
to study the problems and develop recommendations would likely
just further delay the receipt of existing services. In
addition, the work of the stakeholders would likely be
duplicative of work that has already been done by a number of
private foundations and non-profit organizations that have
studied the barriers facing foster youth and proposed various
solutions.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081