BILL ANALYSIS
AB 938
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 938 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Amended: April 20, 2009
Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:9 -
0
Human Services 7 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill provides relatives of children in foster care with
information on how to assist these children and provides parties
to dependency hearings a greater opportunity to participate in
their hearings. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires that when a child is removed from his or her parents
and placed in foster care, the child's social worker must
immediately begin conducting an investigation to identify and
locate the child's grandparents and other adult relatives, as
defined.
2)Requires the social worker to immediately provide specified
written notification and, when appropriate, oral notification
once a relative is located, except where the relative's
history of domestic violence makes such notification
inappropriate.
3)Requires that the notification explain that the child has been
removed from his or her parents and the various options
available to participate in the care and placement of the
child and support of the child's family.
4)Requires the court, at the initial petition hearing, to
inquire as to the efforts made by the social worker to
identify and locate the child's relatives. Requires the
social worker to provide the court and the parties with any
completed relative information forms that have been received.
AB 938
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5)Requires the social worker, as part of any report to the court
in advance of the disposition hearing, to report on the
activities undertaken to identify and locate relatives and the
results of those activities.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)The 2009-10 budget includes $1.5 million ($650,000 GF) for the
relative notification activities contained in this
legislation.
2)The 2009-10 budget includes $15 million ($6.7 million GF) for
the relative search and engagement activities contained in
this budget.
3)There are no new court costs associated with this legislation
because the bill is consistent with current court practices.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, AB
938 would implement federal law by requiring that, immediately
after a child has been removed from his or her parents due to
abuse or neglect, social workers attempt to locate
grandparents and other adult relatives (provided these
relatives are not involved with family or domestic violence)
and inform them of the removal and of options to be involved
in the child's life, including kinship care and visitation.
The bill would also allow relatives to provide the court with
information about the child's needs, thus helping increase the
likelihood that the child's rights to safety, permanency and
well-being are met.
2)The Fostering Connections Act. In October 2008, President Bush
signed H.R. 6893 (P. L. 110 - 351), the Fostering Connections
to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. That Act
seeks to improve the lives of children in foster care, provide
greater assistance to relative caregivers and improve
incentives for adoption. Key provisions of the legislation
allow for kinship guardianship assistance, similar to
California's Kin-Gap program, and extension of assistance to
foster children up to age 21. Of particular relevance to this
bill and in response to studies showing the benefits of having
foster children cared for by loving relatives, the federal
legislation requires that child welfare agencies provide
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notice to all adult grandparents and other relatives within 30
days of a child's removal from the parents and placement in
foster care. (42 U.S.C. Section 671(a).) California must
implement this requirement by January 1, 2010, or risk loss of
significant federal foster care funds.
3)Related Legislation . Several bills introduced this session
include provisions to implement various sections of the
federal Fostering Connections Act, including AB 12 (Beall and
Bass), AB 154 (Evans), AB 1067 (Brownley), AB 500 (Conway), AB
770 (Torres) AB 1402 (Bass), AB 743 (Portantino) and SB 597
(Liu).
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081