BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1319
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Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1319 (Liu) - As Amended: June 11, 2012
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill makes changes to the Health and Safety and the Welfare
and Institutions Code relating to services for at-risk children
and foster youth. Specifically, this bill:
1)Deletes the sunset for crisis nurseries, thus allowing crisis
nurseries to operate as a temporary placement option for at
risk children under the age of six.
2)Deletes the requirement that foster family homes be subjected
to civil penalties for violations licensing violations, such
as fire clearance violations, overcapacity, or inoperable
smoke and fire alarms.
3)Deletes the sunset of statute requiring licensed community
treatment facilities serving seriously emotionally disturbed
children or wards and dependents of the court to have nursing
staff on-call rather than onsite if the facility meets
specified conditions.
4)Allows the Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS)
to extend a waiver of regulations to counties in increments of
three years to continue to participate in performance
agreements with the DSS to provide foster youth with
alternatives to group home care through the expansion of
family-based services programs.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs associated with this legislation should be minor and
absorbable within existing DSS resources.
SB 1319
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COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, this bill enacts minor
statutory changes related to the foster care program which
improve the efficiency of program administration and ensure
the continuation of valuable services and supports provided to
vulnerable children and families.
2)Crisis Nurseries . Established in 2004 by SB 855 (Machado),
Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004, crisis nurseries were
established as a separate licensing category to provide a
temporary housing and shelter facility placement option for
parents. The goal of crisis nurseries are to prevent the need
for child welfare services and to provide an alternative
placement option for families with young children who are
facing difficult or extreme challenges, financial, health, or
otherwise.
Prior to SB 855's adoption, child nurseries were subject to
licensure as a group home under the Community Care Licensing
Act. According to the Assembly Human Services Committee, 2004
analysis of SB 855, the author argued that group home
licensing requirements were "inappropriate for crisis
nurseries, since the demands of very young children who are
voluntarily placed by a parent are less serious than those of
older children who have been removed from parental custody by
county child protective services workers due to abuse or
neglect."
To allow for the monitoring and evaluation of this licensing
category, SB 855 was approved with a sunset of January 1,
2008. That sunset was extended by two subsequent measures to
the current sunset of January 1, 2014 to provide time to DSS
to establish licensing regulations. Crisis nurseries were
originally allowed to serve a limited number of foster youth,
however, that authority was eliminated effective January 1,
2012 pursuant to SB 1214, Chapter 519, Statutes of 2010. This
limits the role of crisis nurseries to only serve children
under the age of six who are voluntarily placed by their
parent or guardian under their temporary care.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
SB 1319
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