BILL ANALYSIS
AB 665
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 665 (Torrico)
As Amended July 23, 2009
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(June 1, 2009) |SENATE: |36-0 |(September 1, |
| | | | | |2009) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY : Expands the use of Improving Adoption Incentive bonus
dollars. Specifically, this bill :
1)Expands, from only "adoptions" to "any legal permanency
outcome," the number of ways the state is allowed to expend
federal Improving Adoption Incentive bonus dollars. Legal
permanency outcomes would include, but not be limited to,
adoption, guardianship and reunification.
2)Specifies that the bonus dollars be appropriated continuously
to the Department of Social Services (DSS) for allocation to
counties or to the department for counties in which DSS serves
as the adoption agency, regardless of the fiscal year, based
on documented legal permanency outcomes for older children in
each county.
3)Requires counties or DSS to expend incentive bonuses to
improve or sustain legal permanency outcomes for older
children.
4)Updates the name, from Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 to the
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act), of the federal
legislation that authorized the adoption incentive payments to
states.
The Senate amendments delete the provisions that:
1)Require counties to reinvest the additional savings from
successful permanent placements for older children into
additional activities that would result in the same outcomes.
2)Specify that the incentive payments received from the federal
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government would be continuously appropriated to DSS, and
instead, make these payments subject to the annual Budget Act
process.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for child welfare services, which are an array of
social services whose purpose is to protect and promote the
well-being of children, including foster care children.
2)Creates, under the federal Fostering Connections Act, a
monetary incentive system for states that increase finalized
adoptions for foster care youth year over year, and federal
law specifies that these incentive dollars be reinvested back
into children and family services.
3)Defines, under federal law, "older child adoption" as the
final adoption of a child who has attained age nine and who at
the time of adoptive placement, was in foster care under the
supervision of the state.
4)Requires, under state law, that California reinvest the
federal adoption incentive funds back into the foster care
system "in order to provide adoption services for older
children."
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the version passed by the Senate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the state is expected to receive approximately $1
million in new federal adoption incentive bonus funds. This
bill would allow those funds to be spent on a broader range of
permanency options for older foster children.
COMMENTS : According to the author, at any given time,
approximately 45,000 (60%) of all foster youth in California are
nine years of age or older. It is well documented that as a
foster youth ages, he or she is less likely to find a permanent
home. What is also well documented is that high percentages of
foster youth who do not find a permanent family, exit foster
care, and may find themselves homeless and/or incarcerated.
This bill seeks to ensure that federal incentive payments
awarded to California for its successful efforts in increasing
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the number adoptions of foster youth, ages nine or older, will
be distributed to counties to fund additional activities that
would further increase permanent homes for this group of
children. The incentive dollars may be used for services such
as post adoption services, family finding to locate relatives,
guardianship recruitment of adoptive families who will make
homes for entire sibling sets, preparing youth for permanency,
and numerous other services for children and family. The author
believes that the current language in statute needs to be
aligned with recent changes in federal law.
Adoption Incentive Grant program: In October of 2008, President
Bush and Congress passed some of the most significant foster
care legislation in recent time. The Fostering Connections to
Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (Act), among other
important provisions, renewed the 11-year-old federal Adoption
Incentive Grant Program (Program). The Program was created to
provide financial rewards to states for increasing numbers of
adoptions from foster care above established baselines. The Act
made the following significant changes:
1)Renewed the Program for five additional years;
2)Doubled the incentive bonuses to states, from $4,000 to
$8,000, per adoption of older foster youth;
3)Doubled the bonuses, from $2,000 to $4,000, for adoptions of
special needs foster youth;
4)Created a $1,000 payment per foster care youth adopted that
exceeds the state's highest rate of all adoptions from foster
care; and,
5)Updated the adoption baseline year, from 2002 to 2007, that
states receive incentives.
Bonuses are calculated on the number of increased adoptions year
over federal fiscal year (FFY) by the incentive amount per
category of child (e.g., special needs foster youth, older
foster youth) using the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and
Reporting System (AFCARS). The federal Program stipulates that
the bonus money must be reinvested into services for children
and families and that the funds cannot be used to supplant
existing programs or as a match for other foster care federal
funds. California would receive the bonus money one year later
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and will have 24 months to expend it. The author states that
directing this money to counties will not create a negative
fiscal impact on state general funds.
Per AFCARS, in FFY 2008, California finalized 7,580 adoptions,
and in FFY 2007, 7,481. The difference represents an increase
of 99 more adoptions resulting in $1.093 million in federal
bonuses. California would receive this money on 2009-10.
Senate amendments
When older children are successfully placed in permanent homes
not only does the child benefit but the state also realizes
savings by no longer having to fund the remaining years that the
child would have otherwise spent in foster care. Under this
bill, the county would have been required to take those savings
and reinvest them into activities that would improve permanency
outcomes for other older children. According to the author's
office, the deletion of this provision was necessary because it
implied a state mandate to track these additional savings and a
methodology to carry this out was not possible at this time.
Related legislation : AB 12 (Beall and Bass) 2009-10 opts
California in to new federal laws that allow for federal
financial participation in kinship-guardianship assistance
payments, beginning January 1, 2010, and transitional foster
care services for eligible youth between the ages of 18 and 21
years old, beginning October 1, 2010.
Analysis Prepared by : Frances Chacon / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
FN: 0002128