BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1460
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 17, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
SB 1460 (Senate Human Services Committee) - As Introduced:
February 25, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Child Welfare
SUMMARY : This bill makes various changes to child welfare
statute to bring it into compliance with specified federal acts.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that county recruitment of potential foster parents
shall include diligent efforts to recruit individuals who
reflect the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity of foster
children.
2)Provides that a county child welfare agency or county
probation department may request and receive a relative's
name, social security number, most recent address, telephone
number, place of employment or other contact information to
identify, locate and notify relatives of children who are the
subject of juvenile court proceedings, including all
grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult relatives of the
child as specified.
3)Includes probation officers in the requirement that they
explain why siblings are not placed together and what efforts
the probation officer is making to place the siblings together
or why making those efforts would be contrary to the safety
and well-being of any of the siblings.
4)Provides that a ward's attorney and the attorney for the
siblings of the ward be notified by the placement agency if
there is a need for a change in placement that will result in
the separation of siblings currently placed together.
5)Provides that a federal criminal offender record check be
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received for all adults residing in a resource family home as
a condition of approval.
EXISTING LAW
1)Federal Law, pursuant to the Multi Ethnic Placement Act
(MEPA), requires states to have an identifiable process in
place to diligently recruit potential foster parents and
adoptive parents that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity
of children in the state for whom foster and adoptive homes
are needed. (P.L. 103-382)
2)State law requires the California Department of Social
Services (CDSS) to authorize county welfare departments to
undertake comprehensive recruitments programs, as specified,
to ensure an adequate number of foster homes are available to
meet the child welfare placement needs in each county. (H&S
Code 1515)
3)Federal Law establishes the Federal Parent Locator Service
(FPLS), a national automated service provided by the Office of
Child Support Enforcement to help states locate custodial and
noncustodial parents for child support and to establish,
modify and enforce child support obligations. Federal law
additionally permits the service to be utilized for the
purpose of finding non-custodial parents and relatives and
children who are in juvenile dependency proceedings. (45 CFR
302.35)
4)State law establishes the California Parent Locator Service
and Central Registry (CPLS) to collect and disseminate
specified information for the purpose of administering child
and spousal support enforcement. (Family Code 17506 and
8707.1)
5)Federal law establishes the Fostering Connections to Success
and Increasing Adoption Act of 2008 and requires that states
make diligent efforts to place siblings in out-of-home care
together, unless doing so would be detrimental to the health
and safety of one of the siblings. (P.L. 110-351)
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6)State law requires a social worker to explain why siblings are
not placed together and what efforts the social worker is
making to place the siblings together or why making those
efforts would be contrary to the safety and well-being of any
of the siblings. (W&I Code 16002)
7)State law provides that a dependent child's attorney and the
attorney for the siblings of the child be notified by the
placement agency if there is a need for a change in placement
that will result in the separation of siblings currently
placed together. (W&I Code 16010.6)
8)Federal law establishes the Adam Walsh Act requiring a
fingerprint check of a national criminal records database as
well as a check from the state child abuse and neglect
registries before a prospective foster or adoptive parent may
be approved for placement of a child. (P.L 109-248)
9)State law establishes the Resource Family Approval (RFA)
process, initially as a five county pilot, to replace the
multiple processes that currently exist for licensing foster
family homes, approving relatives and nonrelative extended
family members as foster care providers and approving adoptive
families. (W&I Code 16519.5)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Potentially significant ongoing costs (Local Revenue Fund
2011/General Fund) for increased duties involving county
agency recruitment efforts and probation officer efforts to
document sibling placement and provide attorney notifications.
To the extent the provisions of this bill are considered
necessary for state compliance with changes in federal
statutes or regulations that alter the conditions under which
federal matching funds are described in the 2011 Realignment,
the state may be required to provide at least 50% of the
nonfederal share (General Fund) of the increase in costs.
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2)Potentially significant ongoing increase in workload to the
Department of Child Support Services to accept and process
requests from probation and county welfare departments for
personal information on relatives, as specified. To the extent
the additional workload cannot be absorbed, additional
resources (General Fund) would be required. Senate
Appropriations Committee staff notes that providing local
agencies with the specified information is not required under
federal law, but rather federal law provides that state child
support agencies may share information with child welfare
agencies for child welfare purposes.
COMMENTS : This is a Senate Human Services committee bill that
implements various non-controversial state compliance issues
regarding the Multi Ethnic Placement Act, the Federal Parent
Locator Service, the Fostering Connections to Success and
Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, and the Adam Walsh Act.
California statute must comply with federal requirements
pertaining to child welfare in order to ensure the uninterrupted
flow of California's Title IV-E allocation for child welfare
services, which is over $1 billion annually. This bill
implements necessary changes to statute identified by the
California Department of Social Services.
The Multi Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) (P.L. 103-382) : MEPA
requires states to have an identifiable process in place to
diligently recruit potential foster parents and adoptive parents
that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the
state for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed. State
statute authorizes counties to operate recruitment programs to
ensure an adequate number of foster homes are available to meet
their child welfare placement needs. However, statute does not
address the recruitment of foster families who reflect the
diversity of children for whom foster homes are needed nor
requires the diligent recruitment of adoptive homes at all.
According to CDSS, the federal government has specifically
inquired as to what California will do to meet the requirements
of the MEPA. This bill explicitly requires that an agency that
recruits foster and adoptive parents undertake diligent efforts
to ensure that recruitments reflect the diversity of the
children needing placement.
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The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) is a national
automated service provided by the Office of Child Support
Enforcement to help states locate custodial and noncustodial
parents for child support and to establish, modify and enforce
child support obligations. The FPLS and its state-level
counterpart, the California Parent Locator Service (CPLS)
provides access to a parent's address, employment, income,
assets, and social security number information.
Family find requirements : Pursuant to the federal Fostering
Connections Act, AB 1751 (Pan) Chapter 637, Statutes of 2012,
allowed county child welfare departments and county probation
departments to access the FPLS and CPLS for the purpose of
locating a child's non-custodial parent. However, this
authority did not extend to finding other relatives of a child,
as provided for under federal law (45 CFR 302.35). This bill
permits the FPLS and CPLS to be used in the identification and
notification of relatives of a child who is the subject of a
juvenile court proceeding. Additionally, this bill authorizes
child welfare agencies and county probation to access the
information for this purpose.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions
Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351) requires states to make diligent
efforts to place siblings in out-of-home care together, unless
doing so would be detrimental to the health and safety of one of
the siblings. State statute was revised to conform to this
provision, however the changes failed to clearly state that
probation officers are also required to make these efforts as
required by federal law. Because, in practice, probation
officers follow the same procedures as social workers for
placing children in foster care and federal law makes no
distinction between children in the care and custody of a county
child welfare department and children in the care and custody of
a county probation department, this bill explicitly applies the
federal requirements to probation officers.
Adam Walsh Act (P.L. 109-248) : This Act requires a fingerprint
check of a national criminal records database as well as a check
from the state child abuse and neglect registries before any
prospective foster or adoptive parent may be approved for
placement of a child.
Current state statute regarding caregiver background checks as
part of the Resource Family Approval (RFA) process for foster
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care and adoptive placements require that state criminal history
information be received and processed for clearance prior to
approval. However, as a result of the previously slow process
time for the federal records check, the RFA background check
process merely requires the federal check be submitted, and does
not require that the results be received, prior to approval.
This is in conflict with federal law. Additionally, federal
response times to background check requests have since
significantly improved.
To comply with the requirements of the Adam Walsh Act, this bill
provides that approval as a resource family can be granted only
after federal criminal history information is received.
The RFA Program was initially authorized pursuant to AB 340
(Hancock) Chapter 464 Statutes of 2007, and was further
implemented through SB 1013 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2012.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County of San Diego
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089