BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1402
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1402 (Bass) - As Amended: May 14, 2009
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:5 - 1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
support California-based applications for the federal matching
Family Connection Grant in order to connect foster children with
family members.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs associated with this legislation would be minor and
absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author is introducing this bill to ensure that
California participates in these additional federal resources
to help children reconnect with relatives and provide better
supports for kin caregivers. This bill would require DSS to
support California-based applications for the federal matching
Family Connection Grant in order to connect foster kids with
family members. The federal law appropriates $15 million for
each year from 2009 through 2013 for Family Connection grants.
According to the author, family finders and kinship navigator
programs have proven to be powerful tools in child welfare
efforts to reconnect foster kids to relatives, and to provide
those families with crucial supports. A family finder is a
relatively new concept where a social worker, using computer
search technology, looks for family members of "cold cases,"
children who spend years moving from foster home to foster
home. A kinship navigator is a person that connects these
relatives with the myriad of support services such as health,
AB 1402
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financial, and legal services than many of them are unaware
they are entitled to and crucially need to care for the child.
2)The Fostering Connections Ac t. 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 interest to this bill, the act creates a new
grant program, Family Connection Grants. These grants can be
used for family group decision-making meetings, Intensive
family finding activities, and residential family-based
substance abuse treatment, all of which can help children stay
safely with family members and out of foster care or, once in
care, return safely to their parents or find permanence with
other relatives.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081