BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Kevin Murray, Chairman

                                           1570 (Alquist)
          
          Hearing Date:  5/25/2006        Amended: 3/27/2006
          Consultant:  John Miller        Policy Vote: Human Services 3 -  
          1
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          BILL SUMMARY: This bill would require the Health and Human  
          Services Agency to develop a plan by 2008 to transition the  
          current system of independent group care for foster children  
          into a system of residentially based services.  
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2006-07      2007-08       2008-09     Fund
           Planning/consultation  $ 375      $ 375       $ 0       GF
                                 $ 375      $ 375       $ 0       FF

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          STAFF COMMENTS: Suspense.

          Over the past thirty years legislative foster care policy has  
          focused on family reunification and preventing family  
          disintegration whenever possible. This focus has worked well for  
          less dysfunctional families or families where children have been  
          neglected rather than abused, and is intended to reduce  
          unnecessary institutionalization of foster children. However,  
          roughly 12,000 cases of severely troubled children are referred  
          to group homes, and these older, more difficult cases may  
          require specialized services. Group homes and other providers  
          have done considerable research on the delivery of additional  
          services in group homes, and are seeking mechanisms to implement  
          special services to children in group homes. This proposal seeks  
          to transform group homes serving very troubled foster children  
          from structured long-term living environments into more  
          intensive interventions intended to return these children to  
          stable family settings as quickly as possible.

          The bill specifies that the required study be completed by July,  
          2008. The measure strongly suggests that funding shall be based  










          on a budget appropriation. The current group home system costs  
          in California approach $800 million per year, and support an  
          average of 12,000 children/youth at roughly $5,000 per month per  
          child.  Federal matching administrative funds will be available  
          to the department for this purpose.