BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW
Mark Leno, Chair
Bill No: AB 1473
Author: Committee on Budget
As Amended: June 25, 2012
Consultant: Jennifer Troia
Fiscal: Yes
Hearing Date: June 25, 2012
Subject: Budget Act of 2012: Child Welfare Services (CWS)
realignment
Summary: Contains necessary statutory and technical
changes to implement provisions of the Budget Act of 2012.
Background: The 2011-12 budget realigned $1.6 billion in
state funding for the CWS, foster care, and adoptions
programs, to the counties. For the first year of the 2011
realignment, no changes were made to state law governing
CWS and adoptions programs. During the 2012-13 budget
process, however, the Administration proposed programmatic
trailer bill language related to the following major
themes, all of which are addressed by this trailer bill:
1)Flexibilities for Counties
2)Accountability and Oversight
3)Continuum of Care and Needs Assessment-Related Reform
4)Repeals of Sunsets and Change to Make Specified Programs
Statewide, and
5)Technical Changes.
The CWS system includes child abuse prevention, emergency
response to allegations of abuse and neglect, supports for
family maintenance and reunification, and out-of-home
foster care. Existing law also establishes the California
Child and Family Service Review System administered by DSS
to review all county child welfare systems.
The total 2011-12 budget for CWS (excluding Adoptions) is
$5.2 billion ($2.5 billion federal funds, $1.6 billion 2011
realignment funds, and $1.1 billion county funds). Around
half of those funds support counties to administer or
provide these programs and half support payments to
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families and other providers of foster care. The total
2011-12 budget for adoptions programs includes $121 million
($64 million 2011 realignment funding). In addition to
other adoptions-related responsibilities, before the 2011
realignment, there were seven Department of Social Services
(DSS) district offices that also directly provided agency
adoption services to 28 counties and independent adoption
services to 55 counties. The remaining counties were
licensed by DSS to provide those services.
Fiscal Effect: The changes contained in this bill largely
impact 2011 realignment funding, as well as corresponding
federal and county funds (and not the state General Fund).
Proposed Law:
This bill includes the following provisions related to:
1)Flexibilities for Counties
a) Makes statutory changes to make the following
programs optional for counties and to create more
flexibility within requirements related to them:
i. Specialized Care Increments that can be used to
supplement basic care and supervision rates in order
to pay for additional care and supervision needs;
and
ii. Clothing allowances for children living in
foster family homes (because of their incorporation
into recently revised rates applicable to foster
family homes).
a) Makes statutory changes to revise, or create more
flexibility within, requirements related to the
following programs, which already offer some degree of
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county option:
i. The Transitional Housing Program (THP)-Plus,
which provides housing and
supportive services to former foster youth ages
18-24;
ii. The Specialized Training for Adoptive Parents
(STAP) program, which is intended to
facilitate the adoption of children who are
HIV-positive or who were born to mothers
with substance-abuse problems;
iii. The Options for Recovery program, which is
intended to recruit and train specialized foster
caregivers;
iv. The Supportive Transitional Emancipation
Program (STEP), which is intended to assist youth up
to 21 years of age who have exited the foster care
system while they are participating in a program or
activity consistent with a transitional independent
living plan;
v. The Kinship Support Services Program (KSSP),
which provides community-based family support
services to relative caregivers and the children
they are caring for; and
vi. Stipends that supplement the Independent Living
Program and may support youth who have exited the
foster care system by assisting with bus passes,
housing rental deposits, work-related equipment, or
other needs.
1)Accountability and Oversight
a) Requires specified reporting related to the 2011
realignment of CWS programs, including an annual
report that summarizes outcome and expenditure data to
allow for monitoring of changes and the degree to
which programs are meeting designated outcome measures
over time.
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b) Clarifies that counties continue to be responsible
for and accountable to the Department for defined
program performance measures, and requires the
department to monitor county performance, on an
ongoing basis and via a comprehensive review at least
once every five years.
c) Specifies that the department and counties shall
develop agreed upon performance targets for
improvements, and that counties shall submit updates
regarding their progress no less than annually.
Indicates that the Department may require a corrective
action plan from a county that has not met those
established performance targets.
d) Clarifies that the Department is authorized to
conduct audits and reviews related to child welfare
programs, consistent with due process requirements
regarding counties' notice, opportunity to respond,
and the potential consequences of such an audit or
review.
e) Requires counties to report to the department on
the expenditure of savings realized as a result of
maximizing available federal adoption assistance
funding.
1)Continuum of Care and Needs Assessment-Related Reform
a) Revises selection criteria that apply to
out-of-home foster care placements and
placement-related documentation required in a child
welfare services case plan.
b) Requires DSS to establish a workgroup, as
specified, to develop and submit to the Legislature
recommended revisions to the current Aid to Families
with Dependent Children-Foster Care rate-setting
system.
c) Requires the Department to establish a working
group to develop performance standards and outcome
measures for providers of out-of-home care placements,
as specified.
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d) Raises, on an interim basis, the monthly care and
supervision payment rates applicable to Intensive
Treatment Foster Care (ITFC) placement settings.
These settings are intended to offer lower-cost,
family based care to children and youth who would
otherwise be served in more expensive and restrictive
congregate care settings.
1)Repeals of Sunsets and Changes to Make Specified Programs
Statewide
a) Amends existing law related to development of a
unified resource family approval process to replace
existing multiple processes for licensing foster
homes, approving relatives and nonrelative extended
family members as foster care providers, and approving
adoptive families. Specifies selection process for
counties that will be called early implementation
counties and process for authorizing statewide
implementation.
b) Eliminates provisions that would otherwise sunset
statutes which prohibit peace officers from taking
into temporary custody, without a warrant, a newborn
who tested positive for exposure to illegal drugs and
who is the subject of a proposed adoption.
c) Eliminates provisions that would otherwise sunset
statutes which authorize the use of tribal customary
adoption. Tribal customary adoption means adoption by
and through the tribal custom, traditions, or law of
an Indian child's tribe. Termination of parental
rights is not required to effect a tribal customary
adoption.
1)Technical Changes
a) Authorizes or requires county adoption agencies to
perform activities for which 2011 realignment funding
has been directed to them without licensure by the
Department.
b) Makes technical changes to appropriately identify
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funding and expenditures for specified child welfare
and adoption programs, consistent with provisions
relating to the Local Revenue Fund 2011, commencing
with the 2011-12 fiscal year.
c) Establishes a new framework and sharing ratios for
the remittance of the federal share of foster care
overpayments.
d) Specifies the shares of costs required of tribes,
consortiums of tribes, or tribal organizations that
enter into an agreement with the state regarding the
care and custody of Indian children and jurisdiction
over Indian child custody proceedings.
e) Repeals several obsolete references and provisions.
1)Other
a) Revises licensing or certification standards
applicable to transitional housing, including the
Transitional Housing Placement-Plus-Foster Care
program, which is intended to serve non-minor
dependents between the ages of 18 and 20, inclusive.
b) Increases basic care and supervision rates paid to
foster families certified by foster family agencies
and applies an annual cost-of-living adjustment to
those rates, to bring them into parity with basic
rates paid to licensed foster family homes (which were
recently increased as a result of litigation).
Specifies that these changes shall not change the
remaining components of the foster family agency rate.
c) Allows specified non-minor dependents to receive
assistance during a window of time in which they might
otherwise have a gap in eligibility (e.g., if they
received assistance as an 18-year-old in 2012, but
attained 19 years of age prior to January 1, 2013,
when 19- year-old non-minor dependents become eligible
to remain in the foster care system). Further,
ensures that otherwise eligible non-minor dependents
who are 20-years-old will benefit from continued
support, effective January 1, 2014.
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d) Requires counties to expend family preservation and
support services funding in a manner that maximizes
federal financial participation.
e) Requires counties to submit specified data
regarding Independent Living Program expenditures and
restricts, consistent with federal requirements, the
amount that can be spent on housing. Further,
requires counties to ensure that eligible youth are
provided an opportunity to complete the National Youth
in Transition Database survey.
f) Specifies that after July 1, 2011, counties may
allow designated former state employees of the
department who become employed by counties to retain,
as a county employee, specified benefits they had
accumulated as state employees.
g) Authorizes the department to implement rule changes
related to specified provisions of this bill through
all-county letters or similar instructions until
regulations are adopted. Further, authorizes the
department, in limited circumstances and after
consultation with stakeholders, to implement newly
enacted federal laws by means of all-county letters or
similar instructions that would expire fifteen months
after issuance.
Support: Unknown
Opposed: Unknown
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