BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Elaine K. Alquist, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2031
A
AUTHOR: Cohn and Bass
B
VERSION: March 29, 2006
HEARING DATE: June 27, 2006
2
FISCAL: Appropriations
0
3
CONSULTANT:
1
Martin/Hailey
SUBJECT
Foster children relative placement
SUMMARY
Requires the State Department of Social Services (DSS) to
work with stakeholders to draft best practices guidelines
for using advanced technology to assist counties in
identifying all relatives and non-relative extended family
members for foster children.
ABSTRACT
Current law
1. Declares the duty of the state to care for and protect
foster children.
2. Gives to DSS various powers and duties relating to
ensuring that the needs of foster children are met by local
child welfare agencies and foster care providers.
3. Requires the state to encourage the development of
specified child protection approaches in order to achieve
goals for foster children.
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2031 (Cohn) Page
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4. Establishes the Kinship Support Services Program, which
allows counties to apply for funds to work with
community-based, public-private partnership programs
offering support services to relatives caring for foster
children and children at risk of dependency.
5. Establishes the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment
Program, which provides financial assistance on behalf of
foster children placed with relative caregivers under
defined circumstances.
This bill
1. Requires DSS, in conjunction with the California Youth
Connection, the County Welfare Directors Association, and
the California Alliance of Child and Family Services among
other stakeholders, to draft guidelines outlining best
practices in the use of advanced technology to assist
counties in identifying all relatives and non-relative
extended family members at the earliest possible time for a
foster child.
2. Expands current law to require the state to encourage
the development of approaches that ensure that a search for
relatives available for placement is initiated before
placement decisions are made for children who are unable to
be reunited with their families.
3. Authorizes DSS to identify best practices for
implementing optimal foster child placement opportunities,
including those strategies reported by designated counties
that have developed kinship care programs.
4. Makes findings and declarations noting that eight
counties in California have initiated programs that use new
advances in technology to find a foster child's relatives
and extended families and that relative homes offer
stability to children and enhance family reunification.
5. Specifies that while the Legislature supports
reunification of families when it can be safely
accomplished, the search for permanent homes with relatives
should be initiated before placement decisions are made for
children who cannot return to their biological families.
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FISCAL IMPACT
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this
bill has minor absorbable workload costs to allow DSS to
draft the best practice guidelines.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
According to the author, "far too many children are placed
with strangers or in group homes due to the difficulty of
finding available relatives for the purposes of adoption,
relative care-giving or an established connection to the
youth's immediate family. As a result, these youth
experience emotional trauma, inadequate education,
homelessness and often criminal behavior."
The author also indicates that advanced technologies for
finding relatives and non-relative family members have
proven successful in eight California counties and in other
states such as Washington and Illinois. Internet searches
and other innovative approaches are used. The proposed
best practice guidelines are intended to promote the use of
these approaches in more counties so that more children are
reunited and placed with family members. Supporters of the
bill indicate that placing children with relatives or
extended family members increases the child's likelihood of
successful outcomes.
Last year, a nearly identical measure, AB 880 (Cohn),
passed the Legislature but was vetoed. In his veto
message, the governor said, among other things, "the bill
does not provide resources to develop the cost benefit
analysis of using locator technology." AB 2031, however,
does not require a cost benefit analysis.
PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor: 80 - 0Do pass.
Assembly Appropriations: 14 - 4Do pass.
Assembly Human Services: 6 - 0Do pass.
POSITIONS
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2031 (Cohn) Page
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Support: AFSCME
California State Association of Counties
California Alliance of Child and Family
Services
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles
Children's Advocacy Institute
County Welfare Directors Association
Judicial Council of California
Los Angeles County Inter-Agency Council on
Child Abuse and|
Neglect
National Center for Youth Law
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Oppose: None received
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