BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: AB 719
A
AUTHOR: Lowenthal
B
VERSION: As introduced
HEARING DATE: June 23, 2009
7
FISCAL: To Appropriations
1
9
CONSULTANT:
Lane
SUBJECT
Transitional food stamps for foster youth
SUMMARY
Provides 12 month of federal food stamp benefits to youth
emancipating from foster care.
ABSTRACT
Current law
1)Establishes a system of child welfare services, including
foster care, for children who have been or are at risk of
abuse or neglect.
2)Authorizes the juvenile court to retain jurisdiction over
a child who has been adjudicated a dependent because of
abuse or neglect until the ward or dependent child
attains the age of 21 years.
3)Specifies that Aid to Families with Dependent Children -
Foster Care (AFDC-FC) benefits shall be paid on behalf of
any child under the age of 18 who meets additional
eligibility criteria. Exempts from this age-based
requirement foster children between the ages of 18 and 19
who are pursuing specified education-related goals.
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 719 (Lowenthal) Page
2
4)Establishes the food stamp program, in which food
assistance benefits are provided to eligible households
and administered by state and local agencies.
This bill
1)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
create a "transitional food stamp for foster youth"
program for independent foster care adolescents,
regardless of income and resources, who are not eligible
for CalWORKs or Supplementary Security Income program
benefits.
2)Provides the maximum food stamp benefit amount allotted
for a household size of one for an eligible individual.
3)Establishes the county in which the foster care case was
terminated as the county of jurisdiction for the food
stamp case.
4)Exempts eligible individuals from any quarterly or
semiannual reporting requirement during the 12-month
certification period.
5)Provides that individuals eligible for this program shall
not be subject to a fingerprint imaging requirement.
6)Makes the program contingent upon the availability of
federal participation and requires DSS to seek all
necessary federal waivers no later than March 1, 2010.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 719 (Lowenthal) Page
3
7)Specifies that DSS shall implement this program by an all
county letter or similar instruction from the director
and adopt regulations no later than January 1, 2011, if
needed.
8)Requires the department to establish a new aid code for
individuals receiving benefits pursuant to this section,
in order to differentiate these cases from the standard
non-assistance food stamp case.
FISCAL IMPACT
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this
bill would generate:
One-time costs of approximately $300,000
($75,000 General Fund) for automation costs
associated with creating a new aid code in the
medical eligibility determination system.
County administrative costs of $200,000
($80,000 General Fund) annually.
Minor and absorbable workload for DSS.
Approximately $9 million annually in new
federal funds coming to 4,200 former foster youth who
will receive $200 per month in food stamp benefits.
An estimated $250,000 in sales tax
generated annually by taxable expenditures of income
that would otherwise be spent on food.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The need for the bill
According to the author, youth who emancipate from foster
care are at risk as they transition to adulthood. They are
more likely to drop out of high school or to face
unemployment, incarceration, and unintended pregnancy than
their peers who were not in foster care. The author
provides statistics about these foster youth:
1)Fewer than four in ten had at least $250 in cash upon
emancipating.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 719 (Lowenthal) Page
4
2)Nearly half have not completed high school.
3)Sixty-five percent emancipate without a place to live.
4)Forty percent of persons living in homeless shelters are
former foster youth.
5)Foster youth who emancipate from foster care face a
disproportionately higher rate of unemployment; fifty-one
percent of emancipated foster youth are unemployed within
2-4 years of emancipation.
6)Emancipated foster youth earn an average of $6,000 per
year.
The author believes that providing a year of federally
funded food stamp benefits will give these young adults an
easier transition into adulthood.
Program implementation
This bill requires DSS to create a 12-month transitional
food stamp program that youth will enter automatically when
they leave foster care. The bill requires the state to
seek all necessary federal waivers to implement this
program. Once these waivers are secured, the food stamp
benefits would be federally funded in full. The federal,
state, and county government splits the administration
expenses for the program. The bill also limits
administrative processes by waiving quarterly or
semi-annual redeterminations of eligibility.
Economic benefits
The author reports that Moody's Investor Services, an
independent provider of credit ratings and financial
services research, finds that food stamps have the highest
economic multiplier effect of all government programs: for
every food stamp dollar spent, a $1.74 is generated in
economic activity. According to the author, the United
States Department of Agriculture finds this amount to be
$1.84.
In addition, the author provides studies that find that as
a household benefits from food stamps, about half of "freed
up" household income is spent on additional food and about
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 719 (Lowenthal) Page
5
half is spent on taxable items. Food stamps indirectly
generate sales tax revenue.
Previous votes
Assembly Floor 75-0
Assembly Appropriations 17-0
Assembly Human Services 6-0
POSITIONS
Support: County Welfare Directors Association of
California (sponsor)
All Saints Church Foster Care Project
American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees
and Family Services
California Alliance of Child and Family
Services
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
California Food Policy Advocates
California State Association of Counties
California State PTA
California Youth Empowerment Network
Children's Advocacy Institute
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles
City and County of San Francisco
County of Santa Barbara
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County Department of Children
Regional Council of Rural Counties
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Service Employees International Union
Urban Counties Caucus
Oppose: None received
-- END --
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 719 (Lowenthal) Page
6