BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2161
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 26, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 2161 (Hancock) - 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 project for five counties selected by
the Department of Social Services (DSS) that would allow county
welfare departments to merge duplicative processes for licensing
and approving relatives, foster families and adoptive parents
within the child welfare system. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires DSS, in consultation with various stakeholders, to
develop a resource family approval process that replaces the
current approval process for approving relatives, foster
parents and adoptive parents.
2)Defines a resource family as one that has been approved to
care for foster children and subsequently as an adopted
parent, rather than going through two separate approval
processes.
3)Requires DSS to adopt standards for the assessment and
licensing of resource families prior to implementing the pilot
program.
4)Requires completion of a permanency assessment within 90 days
of the child's placement in the approved home unless good
cause exists.
5)Requires counties to report to DSS on a quarterly basis the
number of families whose permanency assessment goes beyond 90
days and summarize the reasons for such delays.
6)Requires counties to submit an implementation plan for the
pilot project.
AB 2161
Page 2
7)Requires DSS to prepare a report on the results of the pilot
no later than 180 days after the conclusion of the pilot
program.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Several hundred thousand dollars in state personnel costs for
overseeing the development and implementation of the pilot
project. In addition, up to $300,000 would be needed to do an
evaluation of the success of the pilot project.
2)Streamlining the approval process and eliminating duplicative
steps for foster/adoptive parents will lead to offsetting
savings for county welfare departments in the child welfare
services program.
COMMENTS
Rationale . Currently, foster parents that subsequently decide
to adopt the foster children in their care need to go through an
additional, and often duplicative, assessment and screening
process before they are allowed to adopt. This process can delay
the time to adoption, or in some cases may disrupt the child's
placement if the parents are unable to get an approval for the
adoption. This bill is designed to streamline this process by
creating a system that assesses and licenses "resource families"
who would then be cleared as both foster parents and adoptive
parents. This new process would eliminate the need for
additional background checks and home assessments for foster
parents that may have been caring for a child for years before
moving to adopt them.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081