BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2583
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 2583 (Dababneh) - As Introduced: February 21, 2014
SUBJECT : Foster Parent Evaluations
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Social Services
(DSS) to develop and implement a foster parent evaluation
process. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires DSS, in consultation with the County Welfare
Directors Association (CWDA), foster parents, caregivers, and
current and former foster youth, to develop and implement a
foster parent evaluation process.
2)Specifies that the evaluation process shall allow a foster
youth over 12 years of age and nonminor dependents to provide
feedback on the quality of care they receive in licensed
foster care homes or group homes every six months, and upon
exit from those homes.
3)Requires the development of an evaluation tool that allows
foster youth to provide feedback on the caregiver's:
a) Participation in the implementation of the foster
youth's case plan;
b) Parenting skills and their ability to include the foster
youth as a full member of the family and respect his or her
culture, religion, and ethnicity, physical or psychological
needs, sexual orientation, gender identification or
expression, and family relationships;
c) Ability to honor the rights of foster youth, respect and
support their ties to his or her biological family, as
specified, and assist the youth in visitation and other
forms of communication;
d) Advocacy for the youth with the child welfare system and
community agencies, including schools, and health and
mental health providers;
e) Participation in the youth's medical, psychological, and
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dental care, including scheduling regular health and mental
health exams and coordinating transportation for the youth;
f) Encouragement and support of the youth's educational
goals and school success, as specified, and working with
the youth's educational representative or surrogate, if one
has been appointed;
g) Provision of developmentally appropriate opportunities
to allow the youth to learn and practice life skills and
have hands-on experiences in preparation for transition to
adulthood, as specified;
h) Provision of opportunities to develop the youth's
interests and skills, as specified; and
i) Efforts to ensure any transition from home to foster
care respects the youth's developmental stage and
psychological needs and allows for ongoing relationships.
4)Requires DSS, as specified to consider how information
gathered from the evaluations can inform continuous
improvement in existing and future efforts to recruit, train
and retain high quality foster parents.
5)Requires DSS to implement the foster parent evaluation process
and promulgate all necessary regulations no later than January
1, 2016.
EXISTING LAW
1)States that the purpose of foster care law is to provide
maximum safety and protection for children who are currently
being physically, sexually, emotionally abused, neglected, or
exploited, and to ensure the safety, protection, and physical
and emotional well-being of children who are at risk of harm.
(W&I Code 300.2)
2)States the intent of the Legislature to preserve and
strengthen a child's family ties whenever possible and to
reunify a foster youth with his or her biological family
whenever possible, or to provide a permanent placement
alternative, such as adoption or guardianship. (W&I Code
16000)
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3)States the intent of the Legislature that persons desiring to
become, or to continue being, foster parents shall receive
training in order to assist them in being effective substitute
caregivers and to enhance the safety and growth of children
placed with them. (H&S Code 1529.1)
4)Further states the intent of the Legislature that there is a
need to provide basic curriculum, a program for continuing
education, and specialized training for parents caring for
children with unique needs. (H&S Code 1529.1)
5)Requires licensed foster parents to undergo a minimum of 12
hours of foster parent training before any foster youth is
placed in their home, as specified. (H&S Code 1529.2(b))
6)Requires group home administrators to have a master's degree
in behavioral sciences from an accredited college or
university, have served no less than one year as a social
worker, and undergo 40 hours of continuing education for
purposes of recertification, as specified.
7)Requires relative and nonrelative extended family members
(NREFMs) to comply with foster home licensing requirements.
(W&I Code 309(d))
8)Establishes the Foster Youth Bill of Rights, which enumerates
various rights of foster youth and includes, but is not
limited to, the right to live in a safe, healthy, and
comfortable home where he or she is treated with respect, to
receive medical, dental, vision, and mental health services,
and to have caregivers and child welfare personnel who have
received instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity
relating to, and best practices for, providing adequate care
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in
out-of-home care. (W&I Code 16001.9)
9)Requires foster youth placed in a group home to be visited at
least once per month by their social worker, which shall
include a private conversation between the youth and the
social worker to remain confidential unless otherwise
specified. (W&I Code 16516.5)
10)Establishes the Foster Care Ombudsman Program as an
autonomous program within the Department of Social Services
(DSS) with the purpose of responding to and helping to resolve
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issues related to the placement and provision of care and
services to foster youth.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Rights and protections for foster youth : Current law provides a
variety of avenues for foster youth to address and respond to
concerns or issues that arise while under the care of the child
welfare system. Complaints or issues can be filed or reported
to their social worker, the county welfare agency responsible
for their care and supervision, the juvenile court, DSS'
community care licensing division, or the Foster Care Ombudsman
to address any concerns they may have.
Additionally, the foster youth bill of rights provides specific
rights to foster youth. However, the existing infrastructure
provided to address concerns or complaints of foster youth does
not include a mechanism for foster youth to proactively provide
constructive feedback or input on the nature of services and
care they are receiving.
Much of the structure of California's CWS system is currently
organized in a manner that responds to, rather than anticipates,
the needs of its children. The very context provided under a
system that receives complaints is one that waits for something
problematic to happen rather than to anticipate and avoid
problems. Although a response-based system helps to address
issues as they arise, it makes it difficult for the system as a
whole to act in a preventative manner so that children do not
have to experience problematic or otherwise negative situations
in the first place.
Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) : Like the Florida QPI, but
smaller in scope in terms of implementation, California's QPI
project began in 2009 as the Caregiver Recruitment and Retention
Pilot. The goal of the pilot was to change the dynamic and
impressions of foster care to enact recruitment and retention
strategies in a small number of counties. It has since expanded
and been renamed the QPI. A collaboration between DSS, the
Youth Law Center (YLC) and the County Welfare Directors
Association (CWDA), it remains a county-by-county pilot, which
is now operating in 18 counties throughout the state.
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The QPI project has helped to redefine what foster parenting
entails, translating it into an expectation of what it means to
be a foster parent and the expectations of the CWS system, and
helps counties align their practice and policies with these
expectations. This has involved assessments focused on the
array of services provided to a foster youth, their experience,
and the needed support for a foster parent, both for maintaining
an improved level of service for the child and to enhance the
outcomes for the child.
Nexus between the QPI and the foster parent evaluation : The QPI
project has been successful in effecting system-wide
administrative, cultural and at-times policy changes that have
helped to reduce reliance on the CWS system, have reduced
placement in group care environments, and have increased
successful reunification of children with their families. Woven
within the implementation of this project, the QPI involves both
foster parents and foster youth, in addition to a number of
other essential stakeholders. Over time, however, as the QPI
potentially becomes the norm rather than the exception, it is
important that there is a continuous feedback loop that provides
input on the challenges and success of the QPI. The evaluation
created in this bill can help provide supplemental material that
can contribute to increasing the value of the QPI, as well as
recruitment and retention efforts for high quality foster
caregivers.
Need for the bill : Stating the need for the bill, the author
writes:
Foster youth are removed from their homes because of abuse
or neglect and placed in the care of families or agencies
that have stepped forward to care for them and to ensure
their needs are met. In order to ensure that these
vulnerable young people are properly placed in families
that will be a good fit for them or in agencies that can
meet their unique needs, the state needs a better system of
tracking how they are doing in the environments we place
them in. We can learn a lot about how our foster care
system is working from foster youth themselves.
Staff comments : This measure is a reintroduction of AB 196
(Mansoor) from 2013, which was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Youth Connection (CYC) sponsor
California Youth Empowerment Network
Children's Law Center of California
Children's Law Center of California
Children's Rights Project at Public Counsel
John Burton Foundation
3 Individuals
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089