BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1473
Author: Assembly Budget Committee
Amended: 6/25/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE BUDGET & FISCAL REVIEW COMMITTEE : 9-1, 6/25/12
AYES: Leno, Alquist, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Lowenthal,
Negrete McLeod, Simitian, Wolk, Wright
NOES: Anderson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, La
Malfa, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Budget Act of 2012: Child Welfare Services
realignment
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill contains necessary statutory and
technical changes to implement provisions of the Budget Act
of 2012.
ANALYSIS : The 2011-12 Budget realigned $1.6 billion in
state funding for the Child Welfare Services (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
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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
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
Department of Social Services (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
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 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.
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:
(1) Specialized Care Increments that can be used
to supplement basic care and supervision rates in
order to pay for additional care and supervision
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needs; and
(2) Clothing allowances for children living in
foster family homes (because of their
incorporation into recently revised rates
applicable to foster family homes).
B. Makes statutory changes to revise, or create more
flexibility within, requirements related to the
following programs, which already offer some degree
of county option:
(1) The Transitional Housing Program-Plus, which
provides housing and supportive services to former
foster youth ages 18-24;
(2) The Specialized Training for Adoptive Parents
program, which is intended to facilitate the
adoption of children who are HIV-positive or who
were born to mothers with substance-abuse
problems;
(3) The Options for Recovery program, which is
intended to recruit and train specialized foster
caregivers;
(4) The Supportive Transitional Emancipation
Program, 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;
(5) The Kinship Support Services Program, which
provides community-based family support services
to relative caregivers and the children they are
caring for; and
(6) 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.
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2. 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.
B. Clarifies that counties continue to be responsible
for and accountable to the DSS for defined program
performance measures, and requires the DSS to monitor
county performance, on an ongoing basis and via a
comprehensive review at least once every five years.
C. Specifies that the DSS 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
DSS may require a corrective action plan from a
county that has not met those established performance
targets.
D. Clarifies that the DSS 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 DSS on the
expenditure of savings realized as a result of
maximizing available federal adoption assistance
funding.
3. 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
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with Dependent Children-Foster Care rate-setting
system.
C. Requires the DSS to establish a working group to
develop performance standards and outcome measures
for providers of out-of-home care placements, as
specified.
D. Raises, on an interim basis, the monthly care and
supervision payment rates applicable to Intensive
Treatment Foster Care 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.
4. 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.
5. Technical Changes
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A. Authorizes or requires county adoption agencies to
perform activities for which 2011 realignment funding
has been directed to them without licensure by the
DSS.
B. Makes technical changes to appropriately identify
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.
6. 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
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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.
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 DSS
who become employed by counties to retain, as a
county employee, specified benefits they had
accumulated as state employees.
G. Authorizes the DSS 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
DSS, 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 15 months after
issuance.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee,
the changes contained in this bill largely impact 2011
realignment funding, as well as corresponding federal and
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county funds (and not the state General Fund).
CTW:k 6/26/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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