BILL ANALYSIS �
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1319|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1319
Author: Liu (D)
Amended: 8/20/12
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/10/12
AYES: Liu, Emmerson, Berryhill, Hancock, Wright, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Strickland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 37-0, 5/14/12
AYES: Alquist, Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Calderon,
Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Dutton,
Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Harman,
Hernandez, Huff, Kehoe, La Malfa, Leno, Lieu, Liu,
Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio,
Simitian, Steinberg, Vargas, Walters, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Strickland, Wyland
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/22/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Child welfare
SOURCE : Boys Republic
California Alliance for Child and Family
Services
California Welfare Directors Association
DIGEST : This bill makes five statutory changes to the
CONTINUED
SB 1319
Page
2
Health and Safety and the Welfare and Institutions Code
relating to services for at-risk children and foster youth.
Assembly Amendments provide that program audits of foster
care group homes which establish the classification level
of a group home that accepts a mixture of Aid to Families
with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) eligible and
ineligible children shall reflect an adjustment to the
ratio of weighted hours for services provided to the
capacity of the home by the ratio of AFDC-FC eligible
children to all children in placement, delete the sunset
repeal of existing law which defines and regulates crisis
nurseries and which authorizes the use of volunteers as
caregivers in a crisis nursery, as specified, delete the
sunset repeal of existing law which includes crisis
nurseries in the list of entities exempt from the
California Child Day Care Facilities Act (Act), and address
chaptering out conflicts with AB 1991 (Smyth) and SB 1009
(Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee).
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1. Enacts the Act which provides for the licensure and
regulation by the Department of Social Services (DSS) of
community care facilities, as defined, including foster
family agencies that certify foster family homes and
licensed foster family homes.
2. Defines "foster family agency" to mean any organization
engaged in the recruiting, certifying, and training of,
and providing professional support to, foster parents,
or in finding homes or other places for placement of
children for temporary or permanent care who require
that level of care as an alternative to a group home.
3. Defines "foster family home" to mean any residential
facility providing 24-hour care for six or fewer foster
children that is owned, leased, or rented and is the
residence of the foster parent or parents, including
their family, in whose care the foster children have
been placed.
4. Defines "small family home" to mean any residential
facility, in the licensee's family residence, that
CONTINUED
SB 1319
Page
3
provides 24-hour care for six or fewer foster children
who have mental disorders or developmental or physical
disabilities and who require special care and
supervision as a result of their disabilities.
5. Requires the DSS, in establishing regulations for foster
family homes and certified family homes of foster family
agencies, to consider these homes as private residences,
and to establish regulations for them as a separate
regulation package from regulations for all other
community care facilities.
6. Requires the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to
establish, by regulation, specified program standards
for any facility licensed as a community treatment
facility.
7. Defines "community treatment facility" to mean a
residential facility that provides mental health
treatment services to children in a group setting and
that has the capacity to provide secure containment.
8. Provides that, until January 1, 2013, community
treatment facilities shall not be required by DMH to
have 24-hour onsite licensed nursing staff, but shall
retain at least one full-time registered nurse onsite
under certain conditions.
9. Provides that a county may enter into performance
agreements with nonprofit agencies to encourage
innovation in the delivery of children's services, to
develop services not available in the community, and to
promote change in the child welfare services system.
10.Authorizes DSS to waive regulations relating to foster
care payments and the operation of group homes for a
period of up to three years, in order to facilitate
these performance agreements. Existing law authorizes
the DSS to extend the regulation waivers for up to three
additional years.
This bill:
1. Deletes the statutory sunset for "crisis nurseries,"
CONTINUED
SB 1319
Page
4
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" children placed in
group home settings until the DMH can establish a
permanent rate methodology.
5. Allows the Director of 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 : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, costs
associated with this legislation should be minor and
absorbable within existing DSS resources.
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/8/12) (per Senate Human Services
Committee analysis - prior version of the bill)
Boys Republic (co-source)
California Alliance for Child and Family Services
(co-source)
California Welfare Directors Association (co-source)
California State Association of Counties
City of Chino
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the California
CONTINUED
SB 1319
Page
5
Alliance for Child and Family Services, the Boys Republic
facility has been in operation for more than 100 years and
is widely recognized as a model of rehabilitation for young
men and women with significant behavior issues and with
moderate to serious offence histories. According to the
Alliance, this model of care serves as a placement
alternative to locked juvenile detention facilities and to
the state-run Division of Juvenile Justice. The Alliance
further states that this bill gives the DSS the flexibility
to extend waivers it has already granted to counties, and
is essential for Boys Republic to continue to operate its
highly successful program for delinquent youth.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/22/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley,
Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter,
Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell,
Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller,
Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby,
Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao,
Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bill Berryhill, Roger Hern�ndez
CTW:k 8/22/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED