BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2216
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2216 (Bass)
As Amended August 22, 2006
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |53-27|(May 31, 2006) |SENATE: |26-11|(August 28, |
| | | | | |2006) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY : Creates the California Child Welfare Council (Council)
to improve outcomes for foster youth.
The Senate amendments :
1)Declare the intent of the Legislature to inspect other state
child welfare and foster care systems over the course of the
2007-08 Legislative Session for the purpose of examining
effective administrative structures of leadership.
2)Add four foster youth or former foster youth to the Council in
place of the three members of the California Youth Connection
(CYC).
3)Remove a requirement that the Council develop additional
outcomes to measure the rate of out-of-county placements.
4)Include leaders and representatives from labor organizations,
probation departments and tribal representatives to the
Council.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Established the Council to serve as an advisory body
responsible for improving the collaboration and processes of
the multiple agencies and the courts which serve foster youth
and children in the child welfare system.
2)Required the Council to issue advisory reports to the
Governor, Legislature, Judicial Council (JC), and the public
at least annually.
3)Specified that the report shall include, at a minimum:
AB 2216
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a)Recommendations for coordinating services, increasing
effectiveness of programs, increasing judicial excellence,
ensuring that all state Title IV-E plans, Program Improvement
Plans and Court improvement plans demonstrate effective
collaboration and increasing coordination between courts and
county, state and federal agencies; and,
b)Progress on strengthening and increasing the independence and
authority of the foster care ombudsperson; and,
1)Required the Council to be comprised of designated officials
of relevant state agencies administering programs and services
affecting foster youth, the Chief Justice of the California
Supreme Court, the administrative director of JC, the foster
care Ombudsperson, three youth members of CYC and the
chairperson of the Assembly Human Services Committee, among
other stakeholders.
2)Required the Council to develop additional outcomes to measure
youth transition to self-sufficient adulthood, the rate of
out-of-county placements, and foster youth school attendance
among many other outcome measures for foster youth.
3)Required JC to adopt performance measures designed to
complement and promote the outcome measures and the
performance goals and federal outcome standards as required by
the federal Child and Family Services Review.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, General Fund costs of $75,000 in fiscal year (FY)
2006-07 and $65,000 in FY 2007-08 to provide staff for the
Council, with potential off-setting savings to the extent its
activities prevent federal penalties.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "a recurrent criticism of
California's child welfare system is the failure to
effectively coordinate services administered by a vast array
of state and county agencies thereby leaving children subject
to injuries and without essential health, dental, mental
health, housing and educational services. There is no single
point of leadership that the state, counties and the courts
can look to for desperately needed statewide vision,
direction, oversight and accountability of a badly fractured
state system."
The author maintains that "(a)lthough progress has been made with
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the passage of the Child Welfare System Improvement and
Accountability Act of 2001 (AB 636, Steinberg, Chapter 678,
Statutes of 2001), statewide performance on the established
performance measures varies greatly, leaving children at risk and
the state subject to federal penalties for not meeting national
performance measures."
According to the outcome data gathered by the University of
California, Berkeley Child Welfare Performance Indicators
Project and presented in a joint hearing of the Assembly
Committee on Human Services and the Assembly Select Committee on
Foster Care, "every one of the (outcome) measures is changing in
the right direction. Given the short time frame, this kind of
?improvement is extremely impressive?"
However, a report by the National Center for Youth Law entitled
"Broken Promises: California's Inadequate and Unequal Treatment
of its Abused and Neglected Children," cites concerns about both
state and federal performance indicator improvements. "State
measures do not have standards by which to gauge performance," it
concludes.
Analysis Prepared by : Caitlin O'Halloran / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
FN: 0017084