BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1758
A
AUTHOR: Ammiano
B
VERSION: March 25, 2010
HEARING DATE: June 10, 2010
1
FISCAL: Appropriations
7
5
CONSULTANT:
8
Park
SUBJECT
County wraparound services program
SUMMARY
Makes changes related to the county wraparound services
program designed to keep children in their homes with
family-based support services as an alternative to group
home placement. Changes pertain to program evaluation,
retention of Medi-Cal benefits for children who participate
in the program, and other minor and technical clean-up that
reflect the program's change of status from pilot to
permanent in 2001.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1.Establishes a county wraparound services pilot project,
administered by the Department of Social Services (DSS),
which allows participating counties to provide tailored
community- and family- based support services to families
of children who would otherwise be placed in a group
home.
Continued---
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2.Defines eligible children as dependents or wards of the
juvenile court, who would be placed or are placed in a
group home, as specified, or a seriously emotionally
disturbed child, as defined, who would be voluntarily
placed in out-of-home care.
3.Defines "wraparound services" as community-based
interventions designed to emphasize the strengths of the
child and family through coordinated and individualized
services to address their needs and achieve positive
outcomes.
4.Requires participating counties to evaluate cost and
treatment effectiveness, including whether more
restrictive placements were avoided and the impact on
academic performance for eligible children.
5.Provides that general fund reimbursement for wraparound
services shall not exceed costs that would otherwise have
been incurred for group home placement.
6.Requires DSS to conduct child and family service reviews
of counties for their compliance with outcome measures
established by the California Child and Family Service
Review System, which comports with federal measures and
reviews all county child welfare systems, including child
protective services, foster care, adoption, family
preservation, family support, and independent living.
This bill:
1)Removes "pilot project" references related to the county
wraparound services program administered by DSS.
2)Adds nonrelative extended family members to the list of
family members and guardians eligible for wraparound
services.
3)Replaces "academic performance" with "stability in the
least restrictive school placement" as an outcome to be
measured by a participating county.
4)Requires DSS to work with the County Welfare Directors
Association of California to identify data elements to be
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collected to track the impact of the program on the
outcome indicators in the California Child and Family
Services Review System, such as safety, permanency and
child well-being.
5)Requires a county that terminates a wraparound services
program to ensure that all participating children's
service needs continue to be met without interruption
until his or her case is closed.
6)Provides that a dependent or ward categorically eligible
for Medi-Cal without a share of cost shall remain
eligible regardless of their placement during the
wraparound services program.
FISCAL IMPACT
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
analysis, no significant costs are associated with this
legislation.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Author's statement
According to the author, AB 1758 reaffirms California's
commitment to fostering permanency for at-risk youth by
removing the pilot status of the wraparound services
program. The author notes that, as of October 2009, 43
counties had wraparound programs.
Wraparound services
According to DSS, wraparound is an intensive,
individualized care management, collaborative team planning
process that allows for youth with serious emotional and
behavioral disorders to be served in their home and
community, rather than in group homes or institutional
settings and helps maintain family unity.
Children are eligible for a period determined by an
individualized services plan, if they have been adjudicated
as dependents or wards and would be placed in a group home
with a rate classification level (RCL) of 10 or higher, or
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if they are determined to be a seriously emotionally
disturbed child, as defined in federal law, and would be
voluntarily placed in out-of-home care through the special
education system.
According to DSS, most county programs are led by
community-based agencies. About 3,000 children statewide
are served by the wraparound program (with nearly half in
Los Angeles) as of November, 2009.
The state first administratively authorized foster care
funding for wraparound program services in Santa Clara
County in 1994. Several years later, California expanded
the use of wraparound services through participation in a
federal demonstration project, which authorized use of
non-federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster
Care (AFDC-FC) payments. The purpose of the wraparound
services pilots in California was to allow counties to
provide family-centered service alternatives to group homes
with tailored social and other support services designed to
meet each individual family's needs. By law, wraparound
services must be cost-neutral to the state.
Arguments in support
The California Alliance of Child and Family Services writes
that the bill makes technical, but critical, changes to the
statute governing the wraparound program by eliminating its
pilot status and codifying some elements of current
practice. The City and County of San Francisco notes that
Los Angeles County's wraparound program cites, for 2008,
higher family reunification rates, shorter lengths of stay
in foster care, fewer and less restrictive placements,
better scores on child and adolescent functioning tests,
and substantially lower average placement costs for
wraparound participants compared to their peers in group
homes.
The County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA), the
California State Association of Counties, and the County
Mental Health Directors Association writes that, since the
pilot was created more than a decade ago, the program
provides the necessary services and assistance to help
parents of children with mental health issues and provide
treatment services to the children. These organizations
state that the wraparound model has been shown to be
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successful and cost-effective in California and other
states.
The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors states that the
wraparound program has been helpful in reducing group home
placements by more than 50 percent since its inception in
2001.
Related and prior legislation
AB 295 (Ammiano), Chapter 427, Statutes of 2009, included
provisions substantially similar to those included in this
bill. These provisions were later amended out.
AB 429 (Aroner), Chapter 111, Statutes of 2001, was an
omnibus social services budget trailer bill wherein the
sunset date for county wraparound pilot projects was
repealed.
AB 2706 (Cuneen), Chapter 259, Statutes of 2000, extended
wraparound to children in, or at risk of placement in,
group homes with an RCL of 10-11.
SB 163 (Solis), Chapter 795, Statutes of 1997, expanded the
wraparound services pilot to any county with DSS approval,
and extended the sunset to 2003, for children who otherwise
would be placed in a group home with an RCL of 12-14.
AB 2297 (Cuneen), Chapter 274, Statutes of 1996,
established a five-year wraparound services pilot project
in Santa Clara County.
PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor: 74 - 0
Assembly Appropriations:15 - 0
Assembly Human Services: 6 - 0
COMMENTS
1. Author's proposed amendments. The author would like to
add the following amendments to clarify and streamline the
provision relating to retention of Medi-Cal benefits by
children participating in the wraparound program.
Page 6, line 9-27:
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18258. A child who is otherwise categorically eligible
for Medi-Cal benefits without a share of cost due to
receipt of benefits under the Aid to Families with
Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program shall
remain eligible for Medi-Cal benefits during
participation in the wraparound services program,
provided that the child remains an eligible child as
defined in subdivision (c) of Section 18251 and is
considered temporarily absent from a foster care
placement for which the child remains eligible for
AFDC-FC benefits pursuant to Section 18254. The
placement of a child who is participating in the
wraparound services program pursuant to this chapter
in his or her parental home shall not represent a
change in the child's foster care status for purposes
of Medi-Cal eligibility, provided that the child
remains an eligible child as defined in subdivision
(c) of Section 18251 and is considered temporarily
absent from a foster care placement for which the
child remains eligible for AFDC-FC benefits pursuant
to Section 18254 . Medi-Cal eligibility shall be
redetermined, consistent with applicable state law, if
the child is returned to the parental home and AFDC-FC
benefits are terminated. This section is declaratory
of existing law.
POSITIONS
Support: California Alliance of Child and Family Services
(co-sponsor)
City and County of San Francisco (co-sponsor)
County Welfare Directors Association (co-sponsor)
Aspiranet
California Communities United Institute
California State Association of Counties
California Probation Parole and Correctional
Association
Chief Probation Officers of California
County Mental Health Directors Association
County of Los Angeles
County of Los Angeles, Department of Children and
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Family Services
County of Del Norte
County of San Diego
Junior Leagues of California
National Association of Social Workers,
California Chapter
Oppose:None received
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