Bill Text: CA AB2359 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Foster care placement: resource family rights.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [AB2359 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2359-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2359 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Williams
FEBRUARY 18, 2016
An act to add Section 16001.1 to the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to foster care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2359, as amended, Williams. Foster care placement: resource
family rights.
Existing law provides for the placement of certain children in
foster care, relative placement, adoptive homes, or resource families
under the supervision of the State Department of Social Services and
county welfare departments. Existing law establishes rights for
minors and nonminors in foster care, including the right to live in a
safe, healthy, and comfortable home where he or she is treated with
respect.
This bill would establish specified rights for foster
families, kinship guardians and relative placements, adoptive
families, and resource families, including the right to receive
specified information from the department and the right to be treated
with dignity, respect, trust, and consideration as a member of the
professional team caring for foster children. require
the State Department of Social Services to convene a resource family
rights working group made up of specified participants, including,
among others, a representative of the Office of the State Foster Care
Ombudsperson. The bill would require the working group, by January
1, 2018, to evaluate existing resource family rights and make
recommendations to the Legislature for revising existing resource
family rights and establishing new resource family rights. The bill
would require the working group to consider recommending to the
Legislature specified resource family rights, including, among
others, the right to be treated with dignity, respect, trust, and
consideration as a resource family and a member of the professional
team caring for foster children. The bill would also require the
working group, by July 1, 2018, to, among other things, develop
standardized information regarding existing resource family rights
and its proposed revisions of, and additions to, those rights.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 16001.1 is added to the Welfare and
Institutions Code, to read:
16001.1. (a) It is the policy of the state that all
caregiver members of a foster family, adoptive family, or resource
family or a kinship guardian shall have the following rights:
(a) In order to develop resource family rights and educate
resource families and the public about those rights, the State
Department of Social Services shall convene a resource family rights
working group.
(b) The working group shall do all of the following:
(1) By January 1, 2018, evaluate existing resource family rights,
if any, and make recommendations to the Legislature for revising
existing resource family rights, if any, and establishing new
resource family rights. The working group shall consider recommending
the establishment of the resource family rights identified in
subdivision (d).
(2) By July 1, 2018, do all of the following:
(A) Develop standardized information regarding existing resource
family rights and the working group's proposed revisions of, and
additions to, those rights.
(B) Develop recommendations regarding methods for disseminating
the information developed pursuant to subparagraph (A).
(C) Develop recommendations for measuring, and a plan for
increasing, resource families' knowledge of their rights.
(c) The working group shall be composed of all of the following:
(1) A representative of the Office of the State Foster Care
Ombudsperson.
(2) A representative of the County Welfare Directors Association
of California.
(3) A representative of the Chief Probation Officers of
California.
(4) A representative of the County Behavioral Health Directors
Association of California.
(5) At least one current and one former foster youth.
(6) At least one resource family.
(7) Representatives from children's advocacy groups.
(8) Representatives from foster care facilities' associations.
(9) Any other parties identified by the department.
(d) Pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b), the working
group shall consider recommending to the Legislature the
establishment of all of the following resource family rights:
(1) The right to be treated with dignity, respect, trust, and
consideration as a resource family and a member of the professional
team caring for foster children.
(2) The right to receive from the department information about
available training and support for the purpose of improving skills in
providing daily care, meeting the special needs of the child in
foster care, and understanding the rights and responsibilities of a
resource family.
(3) The right to be provided a current explanation of the role of
the State Department of Social Services and a means by which the
resource family can contact the department 24 hours a day, seven days
a week week, for the purpose of
receiving assistance.
(4) The right to work with the department to facilitate the
placement of a child who can participate in, and benefit from, the
resource family's customs and routines.
(5) The right to refuse placement of a particular child within
their home.
(6) The right to receive the child's needs and services plan and
health and education summary within 30 days of a first placement and
48 hours on subsequent placements. In addition, the department shall,
prior to placement, provide available information about the child's
characteristics and behaviors that may assist the resource family in
meeting the child's needs and safeguarding the health and safety of
all members of the resource family.
(7) The right to receive timely financial reimbursement as per
state rate-setting guidelines found in the State Department of Social
Services Manual of Policies and Procedures for the care of a child
in foster care.
(8) The right to be provided by the department with a copy of the
child's written case plan with timely updates as the plan evolves,
including, but not limited to, all available information regarding
the child's contact with his or her birth family.
(9) The right to provide input to the department concerning the
child's case plan, including issues of safety, permanency, and
well-being, and the right to have that input considered in the
ongoing development of the child's case plan.
(10) The right to be invited and encouraged by the department to
actively participate in the case planning and decisionmaking process
regarding the child. This includes attending team decisionmaking
meetings and other meetings, as appropriate.
(11) The right to be permitted by the department to communicate
pertinent information pertaining to a child in their care with
professionals who work with the child, including the child's doctors,
dentists, school personnel, and any other professionals approved by
the department.
(12) The right to be provided a current explanation and
understanding of the role of the department and the role of the
members of the child's birth family in the child's foster care, with
updates as the child's case plan evolves.
(13) The right to be notified by the department of all court
hearings pertaining to the child. This notification shall include,
but is not limited to, notice of the date, time, and location of the
hearing, the court case number, and the caretaker statement form. The
notification shall be made according to the time frames required by
law, and at the same time that notification is issued to birth
parents.
(14) The right to be considered by the department as a permanent
placement for the child, who, after being in the resource family's
home, becomes free for adoption or permanent foster care placement.
(15) The right to request training, counseling, or other
assistance to preserve the child's placement.
(16) The right, after the resource family's and department's joint
efforts to preserve the placement have failed, to request, upon
seven days' notice to the department, the removal of a child for good
reason.
(17) The right to be provided by the department with timely
notification of changes to or termination of the placement and the
reasons for the changes to or termination of placement, except in
instances of immediate response for the protection of the child or in
compliance with orders of the court.
(18) The right to receive notice of termination of foster care
placement seven days prior to termination, unless the child is
physically or psychologically endangered, the court orders removal, a
parent or guardian in a voluntary placement orders removal, there is
a signed waiver from a parent member of the resource family, or
removal is from an interim placement directly into an adoptive home.
In addition, the resource family shall have the right to utilize the
department's grievance procedures to request a hearing on the reasons
for termination of the placement.
(19) The right to be considered as the fourth in line for
placement, after a previous noncustodial parent, a family member, or
a nonrelative extended family member, when a foster child formerly
placed with the resource family is to be reentered into foster care.
(20) The right to receive from the department, upon request,
copies of documents contained in the department's licensing file
regarding the resource family home, except those that are deemed
confidential by state law unless released pursuant to court order.
(21) The right to confidentiality regarding contact information in
the resource family home, unless disclosure is ordered by the court.
(22) The right to be free from discrimination, as defined by
Section 16013, coercion, and retribution by the department.
(23) The right, if a child abuse or neglect investigation against
the resource family ensues, to have the investigation initiated
within 10 days of the department's receipt of the allegation, and the
right to be kept informed of the status of the investigation.
(24) The right to be advised by the department of complaint and
grievance procedures.
(25) The right to file a complaint or, when applicable, a
grievance in response to violations of this section using the
department's established grievance procedures.
(b)
(e) For purposes of this section "resource family"
means a foster family, adoptive family, relative placement or kinship
guardian, or a resource family.
