BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1319
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1319 (Liu)
As Amended June 11, 2012
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :37-0
HUMAN SERVICES 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Beall, Jones, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Grove, Hall, Portantino | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes five statutory 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 statutory sunset for "crisis nurseries," thus
allowing "crisis nurseries" to operate as a temporary
placement option for at risk youth under the age of six.
2)Deletes the requirement that foster family homes be subjected
to civil penalties for violations of Health and Safety Code
Section 1548.
3)Deletes the statutory sunset for 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)Preserves the provisional rate setting methodology for
"severely emotionally disturbed" (SED) children placed in
group home settings until the Department of Mental Health can
establish a permanent rate methodology.
5)Allows the Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS)
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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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, costs associated with this legislation should be
minor and absorbable within existing DSS resources.
COMMENTS :
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.
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 establish
the current sunset of January 1, 2014, to provide additional
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 (Wolk), 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.
Should this sunset be allowed to take effect, crisis nurseries
would again have to comply with group home licensing
requirements under the California Community Care Licensing Act
(CCCLA). According to the California Alliance of Child and
Family Services, co-sponsor of this measure, "there have been no
significant problems in the care provided to young children by
crisis nurseries."
Foster Family Homes Penalties . In 2008, the state adopted AB
978 (Benoit), Chapter 291, Statutes of 2008, which permitted
counties and DSS to levy civil penalties upon foster family
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homes, but exempted certified family homes for any serious
violation of the California Community Care Facilities Act
(CCCFA). However, according to the County Welfare Directors
Association, this exemption should have also included foster
family homes. This allowance for foster family homes to be
subject to civil penalties for each day they violate the CCCFA
is substantial creates a significant financial disincentive for
people to become foster care providers. There are already a
number of mechanisms in place to provide for the proper
proportional response to violations of the CCCFA, which include
the authority of a county welfare agency (CWA) or DSS to require
a corrective action plan for a foster family home to remedy a
minor violation, and to temporarily suspend, suspend or revoke
their license, including removing the foster youth from the
home.
Community Treatment Centers Nursing Staff Requirements . Since
2003, the state has adopted several measures to allow for
community treatment centers to have on staff rather than onsite
at least one licensed nursing staff available to respond to
needed care within one hour. This permission was initially
adopted in 2003 by AB 1370 (Yee), Chapter 575, Statutes of 2003,
with a sunset of January 1, 2007. This sunset has been extended
an additional two times via legislation. This measure would now
eliminate that sunset and permanently allow community treatment
centers that meet specified conditions to have nursing staff on
call.
The Legislature has three times prior established and extended
this sunset, which has allowed for the efficient and appropriate
care of children in specified community treatment centers under
the oversight of the Department of Mental Health (DMH). It is
appropriate to allow this sunset to be lifted to remove the
limitation of this permission. Should the Legislature deem this
permission unnecessary, it can always revisit this issue via
legislation.
Rate Setting Methodology for Foster Care Group Homes Serving SED
Children . With the repeal of AB 3632 of 1984 by AB 114 (Brown),
Chapter 1747, of Statutes of 1984, the education budget trailer
bill for the 2011-12 state budget, it transferred the
responsibility to provide mental health services to special
education students from county mental health departments to
county offices of education. As a part of this transfer, it
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created an ambiguity as to how rate classification levels (RCL)
are calculated for foster care group homes serving special needs
children with mental health needs. Group home funding is set
based upon its RCL.
Prior to the repeal of AB 3632, a group home serving both foster
youth and special education children with mental health needs
was allowed to count both categories of children towards the
calculation of its RCL. However, according to the California
Alliance of Child and Family Services, which is a co-sponsor of
this measure, DSS is interpreting AB 114 to limit the RCL
calculation to only the number of foster youth served and not
special education pupils with mental health needs. This results
in a lower funding rate equivalent to lower service needs of
children in care, even though the group home continues to serve
high needs children.
This measure would allow a group home's rate classification to
be provisionally calculated based upon all children served by
the group home until DSS issues revised regulations or policies
via All County Letter(s) governing the setting of a group home's
RCL.
Performance Agreement Waivers . Current law allows the Director
of DSS to provide waivers of foster care payments or the
operation of group homes to enable CWAs to enter into agreements
with local non-profit child and family services agencies to
provide alternatives to group home care. The purpose is to
provide an alternative placement to a locked juvenile facility,
such as a camp-oriented group home or other less restrictive
environment to provide for a more positive youth environment.
Initially established by SB 933 (Thompson), Chapter 311,
Statutes of 1998, waivers were authorized to be in effect for
three years with an additional three-year extension as requested
by the CWA. Since the establishment of this waiver authority,
one additional measure was adopted (AB 388 (Torres and Hagman),
Chapter 445, Statutes of 2009), which allowed for an additional
three-year waiver extension. This measure would allow the
Director of DSS to extend the waiver in increments of three
years, as long as the CWA submits a report and independent
evaluation of the performance agreement, and provides adequate
justification for the waiver and demonstrates its ability to
continue to comply with the performance agreement.
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Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0004774