BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1641
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Date of Hearing: June 27, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Noreen Evans, Chair
SB 1641 (Soto) - As Amended: June 20, 2006
SENATE VOTE : 27-9
SUBJECT : Foster care providers.
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS)
Director to report to the Legislature during the 2007-08 budget
hearings on the progress of the DSS residential regulation
review group. Specifically, this bill :
1)Acknowledges that DSS has convened a children's residential
regulation review workgroup which includes DSS staff and
stakeholders to review community care and foster care
statutes, regulations and polices to ensure that they promote
the safety and well-being of children and youth in foster care
and those who are leaving foster care.
2)Specifies that when a placement agency has placed a child with
a relative caregiver, nonrelative extended family member,
licensed foster family home or a foster family agency for
subsequent placement in a certified family home or group home
the placement agency shall ensure that the placement of the
child best meets the needs of a child.
3)Specifies criteria to satisfy the placement meeting the needs
of the child by promoting the least restrictive environment,
having appropriate access to household and personal cleaning
products, having access to over-the-counter medications and
learning reasonable self-care, having access to regular
activities commonly associated with living in a home with a
family.
4)Declares the intent of the Legislature to ensure that youth
placed in out-of-home placements are given the opportunity to
live in an environment that resembles as closely as possible
non-foster care families.
5)Makes additional findings and declarations regarding foster
care licensing.
SB 1641
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for the licensure of foster care providers in foster
family homes that provide care for no more that six children.
2)Specifies that a relative caregiver's home is exempt from
foster home licensure, but requires relatives and their homes
to be assessed by standards equivalent to licensure and
approval by a county social worker.
FISCAL EFFECT : Minor; undetermined administrative costs for
DSS.
COMMENTS : Last year the Legislature passed and the Governor
signed SB 358 (Scott), Chapter 628, Statutes of 2005. This
measure allowed foster parents to use a "prudent parent"
standard when hiring a short-term babysitter without obtaining a
fingerprint criminal background check clearance. This bill
stressed the importance of foster parents being able to use good
judgment while allowing foster youth and foster families the
same kind of lifestyle that birth or adoptive families have.
Both SB 1641 and SB 358 are aimed at changing the rigid and
often unnecessary rules that foster parents and potential
adoptive parents must follow.
According to the author, examples of impractical regulations
that stigmatize foster youth and their caregivers are: "a
seventeen-year-old youth [who] is never allowed to remain home
alone - even when his foster mother needs to run to the store to
pick up groceries for dinner; cleansing agents such as laundry
detergents [that] cannot be left in an accessible location for
foster teens who want to do their laundry; no more than two
children can share a bedroom even for a single night - for
example, when a relative, such as a grandparent comes for a
brief visit."
Supporters of the measure note that, "(i)f we trust caregivers
enough to provide homes to children in foster care, then we
should trust them to behave as prudent parents in making
decisions about conditions, activities, and supervision in their
homes."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
SB 1641
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National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) (co-sponsor)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Chief Probations Officers of California (CPOC)
Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI)
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (CLC)
County of San Diego
County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA)
Junior Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee
(SPAC)
Legal Advocates for Permanent Parenting
Los Angeles Affiliate of the National Association of Counsel for
Children (LA-NACC)
Straight From The Heart
The Foster Parent Association of Santa Cruz County
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Caitlin O'Halloran / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089