BILL ANALYSIS
AB 743
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall, Jr., Chair
AB 743 (Portantino) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
SUBJECT : Foster care: sibling placement
SUMMARY : Requires social workers to make reasonable efforts to
place and keep siblings together when they have been removed
from their parents or guardians due to abuse or neglect.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires social workers to make reasonable efforts to place
siblings together when they have been removed from their
parents or guardian because of abuse or neglect.
2)Requires the social worker, if unable to place siblings
together, to report to the court why a joint placement would
be contrary to the safety or well-being of any of the
siblings.
3)Requires, absent emergency circumstances, the placing agency
to notify the child's attorney and the child's siblings'
attorneys as soon as the agency that placed the child becomes
aware of a need for a change of placement of a dependent
child.
a) Requires, except in the event of an emergency, at least
10 days notice of the planned change of placement if the
change will result in separation of siblings.
b) Allows the child's attorney to object to the change by
filing a notice of hearing "ex parte" (without the
necessity of initially involving the other parties).
c) Defines sibling to include half-siblings and adoptive
siblings.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires, a social worker, where possible and appropriate, to
place a child, who has been removed from his or her parents or
guardian because of abuse or neglect, together with his or her
siblings or half-siblings also being removed, or to describe
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continuing efforts to place them together if they are not
initially placed together, or to explain why placing them
together is inappropriate. (Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC)
Section 306.5.)
2)Requires, when the court has ordered the removal of a child
from his or her parents, to consider whether there are
siblings also under the court's jurisdiction, the nature of
the relationships between the siblings and the appropriateness
of developing or maintaining those relationships, and the
impact of those relationships on placement and permanency
planning. (WIC Section 361.2(i))
3)Requires the status review reports from the social worker to
the court to contain information on the nature of the
relationships between the siblings, and the appropriateness of
developing or maintaining those relationships, if the siblings
are not placed together an explanation of why not and the
frequency and nature of visits between the siblings, and the
impact of the relationships on placement and permanency
planning. Requires the court to consider this information at
the status hearing. (WIC Sections 366.1(f); 366.3(e)(9).)
4)Recognizes the importance of sibling relationships and
requires the responsible local agency to maintain sibling
togetherness and contact, whenever possible. Requires the
responsible local agency to make diligent effort in all
out-of-home placements of dependent children to develop and
maintain sibling relationships. Requires that, if siblings
are not placed together in the same home, the social worker
must explain why, what efforts are being exerted to place them
together in the same home, or why those efforts are not
appropriate. (WIC Section 16002.)
5)Requires a placing agency to notify the child's attorney as
soon as possible after the agency makes a decision regarding a
placement or a change of placement for the child. (WIC
Section 16010.6.)
6)Requires the dependency court to appoint counsel for a
dependent child unless the court affirmatively finds that the
child would not benefit from such appointment. (WIC Section
317.)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS : According to the author:
Maintaining sibling relationships is critical to foster
children's emotional stability, yet many children in foster
care in California are separated from one or more of their
siblings either from the outset of the dependency case or as
the case moves forward. For many foster children already
suffering the trauma of the circumstances that brought their
family into the child welfare system, along with the
additional trauma of being removed from their homes, being
placed with siblings is a critical lifeline that provides
emotional support. In keeping with our state's promise to
"parent" these vulnerable children, our obligation goes beyond
their physical safety; we must do everything we can to nurture
their emotional well-being and give them every available
opportunity to be connected to the people they love and are
closest to. As the child's advocate, the child's attorney is
uniquely positioned to work with all parties involved to
ensure that wherever possible and appropriate the siblings are
able to stay together.
Need for this bill : The author identifies several issues under
current law that this bill is intended to address: Current law
requires the child welfare department to notify the child's
attorney "as soon as possible" when a child has been moved to a
new placement, but does not require the notification to occur
within any prescribed timeframe. Current law does not require
the child welfare department to notify the attorney for the
sibling of a child being removed from a placement where the two
children are placed together. In addition, current law
requiring the child welfare departments to make efforts to place
siblings together does not comport with the "reasonable efforts"
requirement of recently enacted federal law-the Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (Fostering
Connections Act; HR 6893; Pub. L. 110-351).
The sponsor, Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (CLC), reports
that, often, a sibling group is initially placed together but
one of the children has difficulties or demonstrates behavioral
issues with which the caregiver struggles to handle. Many times
the remedy sought by the social worker is to remove that child
from that foster home, thus separating the siblings. CLC
believes that with the intervention of the child's attorney who
may have a different relationship with the caregiver and/or
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different ideas for resources to address the underlying issue,
many of these anticipated separations can be avoided.
Recent data provided by the author reveal that children in
foster care are often not placed with all their siblings. As of
October 1, 2008, foster children in California are placed
together with all their siblings in only about half of all
cases. Moreover, in approximately 29 percent of cases, foster
youth have been separated from all of their siblings. (Needell,
B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J.,
Exel, M., Glasser, T., Williams, D., Zimmerman, K., Simon, V.,
Putnam-Hornstein, E., Frerer, K., Ataie, Y., Winn, A., &
Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Child Welfare Services Reports for
California (2008).)
In October 2008, Congress passed and President Bush signed the
Fostering Connections Act, which will significantly improve the
lives of hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster
care by promoting permanent families for them through relative
guardianship and adoption, extending assistance to foster
children to age 21, and improving education and health care.
The federal act requires that states use "reasonable efforts" to
place siblings together unless that is contrary to their safety
or well-being. If siblings are not placed together, visitation
between the siblings must happen frequently unless it is
contrary to their safety or well-being. (42 USC Section
671(a).)
This bill seeks to keep siblings together in two ways. First,
it provides that social workers must, when children are first
taken into custody, make "reasonable efforts" to place siblings
together. If not, the social worker must explain to the court
either his or her continuing efforts to place the siblings
together or why a joint placement would be contrary to the
safety or well-being of one of the siblings. This provision
ensures that California is in compliance with the Fostering
Connections Act.
Second, this bill establishes a procedure to allow for
intervention if siblings who have been placed together are to be
separated. Existing law requires notice to a dependent child's
attorney when a decision is made about the child's placement or
change of placement. This bill requires that, absent an
emergency, a child's attorney and the attorneys for all the
child's siblings, be notified at least 10 days before a proposed
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separation of siblings that have been placed together. This
time period will allow the children's attorneys to investigate
the circumstances of the proposed separation. In the event that
one of the children's attorneys objects to the separation, this
bill allows the attorney to file an ex parte notice of hearing
to have the court resolve the issue. This should help prevent
siblings from being unnecessarily separated and then later,
after much disruption in their lives, being reunited.
SECOND COMMITTEE OF REFERENCE . This bill was previously heard
in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 14th, and was
approved on a 10-0 vote.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Youth Connection
Children's Advocacy Institute
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles (sponsor)
John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089