BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1712
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Date of Hearing: May 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1712 (Beall) - As Amended: April 26, 2012
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:5 - 0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill revises and expands the California Fostering
Connections to Success Act of 2010 (AB 12). Primarily, this
bill:
1)Shifts the licensing of Transitional Housing Placement Plus
Foster Care (THP+FC) facilities from the counties to the
state.
2)Specifies that non-minor dependents are eligible for adult
adoptions and tribal customary adoptions.
3)Specifies that non-minor dependents who are adopted as adults
are eligible to receive Adoption Assistance Payments (AAP) as
long as they meet participation requirements.
4)Specifies that active reunification services plans shall
remain in effect after a non-minor dependent reaches the age
of 18.
5)Allows non-minor dependents to remain in care through age 19.
Originally, 19 year-olds were not allowed to remain in foster
care until after January 1, 2013. This bill removes that
phase-in period.
6)Expands the definition of "kin" for kinship guardianship
placement to include tribal kin, extended family members,
family friends, committed caregivers, and other fictive kin.
FISCAL EFFECT
AB 1712
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1)Costs for removing the phase-in for 19-year olds will be
between $13 million and $20 million ($9 million and $14
million GF) in 2012-13 and $5 million ($3 million GF) in
2013-14 for the administrative and grant costs associated with
allowing the youth to remain in care.
2)GF savings of over $1 million in 2012-13, growing to over $15
million by 2016-17 due to the increased federal financial
participation associated with expanding the definition of
"kin" and allowing more families to move from non-related
legal guardian status (NRLG) to the kinship guardianship
program.
3)Up to $200,000 ($68,000 GF) per year in administrative savings
in the child welfare program for every 25 non-minor dependents
who leave the child welfare system through adult adoption or
tribal customary adoption.
COMMENTS
1)Background . The California Fostering Connections to Success
Act (AB 12; Beall & Bass; Chapter 559, Statutes of 2010)
allowed the state to opt in to two provisions of the federal
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act) (P.L. 110-351).
Specifically, the California Fostering Connections to Success
Act provided transitional foster care support to qualifying
foster youth ages 18 to 21, phased-in over three years,
beginning in 2012 and shifted California's existing state and
county-funded Kin-GAP program to align it with new federal
requirements and allow the state to bring federal financial
participation into the state kinship guardian assistance
program for the first time. In 2011, AB 212 (Beall), Chapter
459, Statutes of 2011, provided technical fixes to aid
implementation.
2)Purpose . The purpose of this bill, according to the author and
supporters, is to provide additional technical clean-up to AB
12 and AB 212. The author notes this bill reflects a
continued collaboration between the nine sponsor organizations
that worked on AB 12 and AB 212,as well as state and county
administrators.
Much of this bill is clarifying and technical. However, it
also contains significant policy changes.
AB 1712
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This bill shifts licensing of THP+FC facilities from the
counties to the state. Under current law, counties have the
option of licensing their own community care facilities or
handing that responsibility to the state. Most counties have
shifted that responsibility to the state and no longer have
the staff or expertise on hand to license facilities. Given
the state's current licensing structure, the author and
supporters believe it is more efficient to have the state
license THP+FC facilities.
In addition, recent communication from the federal government
greatly broadened the way states could define "kin" in
developing their federal kinship guardianship programs to
include fictive kin. This bill broadens the state definition
to reflect this direction from the federal government. In
doing so, the state will be able to shift more guardianship
cases from the state-only program to the federal program, thus
increasing the amount of federal funding available to support
the state's guardianship program.
The most significant policy change in AB 1712 is the removal
of the phase-in contained in AB 12 that was intended to reduce
the up-front costs of the program expansion. In AB 12,
expanding foster care eligibility to 19-year olds was not
intended to take place until January 1, 2013.
Supporters argue, however, that when the implementation work
began, county child welfare agencies realized many youth would
remain in traditional foster care beyond their 18th birthdays
and exit foster care into the AB 12 extended foster care
program before turning 19 during the 2012 calendar year,
therefore losing state eligibility for extended care before
the January 1, 2013 phase-in date for 19-year olds.
AB 1712 eliminates that gap in care by removing the phase-in
for 19-year-olds and allowing young people who are under age
19 at the time they enter the extended care option to remain
in extended care if they turn 19 during calendar year 2012, so
they do not end up being removed from the program for a few
months before being placed back in the program January 1,
2013.
AB 1712
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Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081