Bill Text: CA AB2830 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Foster care: relative placement: approval process.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-24 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (April 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [AB2830 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB2830-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 15, 2024 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Robert Rivas |
February 15, 2024 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge a child to be a dependent of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm or illness as a result of the failure or inability of their parent or guardian to adequately supervise or protect the child. Existing law requires a county social worker to conduct an investigation, within 30 days of a child’s removal, to identify and locate adult relatives of the child, as specified, and to provide them with a notification that the child has been removed from the custody of the child’s parents, guardians, or Indian custodian, and an explanation of the various options to participate in the care and placement of the child. Existing law also requires the notice to provide information about, among other
things, additional services and support that are available in out-of-home placements.
This bill would specify that the additional services and support that are available in out-of-home placements in the notice from the social worker include, but are not limited to, mental health supports, childcare, and financial assistance intended to aid in the costs of providing care. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:SEC. 2.
Section 16519.3 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:16519.3.
(a) Notwithstanding any other law and no later than January 1, 2026, the State Department of Social Services shall implement a simplified approval process for relative caregivers to become foster care providers consistent with Section 1355.20 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations.SEC. 3.
Section 16519.4 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:16519.4.
(a) Upon implementation of the simplified approval process adopted pursuant to Section 16519.3, and no later than January 1, 2028, the department shall track and report to the Legislature all of the following:(a)Upon delivery to the social worker of a child who has been taken into temporary custody under this article, the social worker shall immediately investigate the circumstances of the child and the facts surrounding the child’s being taken into custody and attempt to maintain the child with the child’s family through the provision of services. The social worker shall immediately release the child to the custody of the child’s parent, guardian, Indian custodian, or relative, regardless of the parent’s, guardian’s, Indian custodian’s, or relative’s immigration status, unless one or more of the following conditions exist:
(1)The child has no parent, guardian, Indian custodian, or relative willing to provide care for the child.
(2)Continued detention of the child is a matter of immediate and urgent necessity for the protection of the child and there are no reasonable means by which the child can be protected in their home or the home of a relative.
(3)If it is known or there is reason to know the child is an Indian child, the child has been physically removed from the custody of a parent or parents or an Indian custodian, continued detention of the child continues to be necessary to prevent imminent physical damage or harm to the child, and there are no reasonable means by which the child can be protected if maintained in the physical custody of their parent or parents or Indian custodian.
(4)There is substantial evidence that a parent, guardian, or Indian custodian of the child is likely to flee the jurisdiction of the court, and, in the case
of an Indian child, fleeing the jurisdiction will place the child at risk of imminent physical damage or harm.
(5)The child has left a placement in which the child was placed by the juvenile court.
(6)The parent or other person having lawful custody of the child voluntarily surrendered physical custody of the child pursuant to Section 1255.7 of the Health and Safety Code and did not reclaim the child within the 14-day period specified in subdivision (g) of that section.
(b)In any case in which there is reasonable cause for believing that a child who is under the care of a physician and surgeon or a hospital, clinic, or other medical facility, cannot be immediately moved, and is a person described in Section 300, the child shall be deemed to have been taken into temporary custody and delivered to the social worker
for the purposes of this chapter while the child is at the office of the physician and surgeon or the medical facility.
(c)If the child is not released to their parent or guardian, the child shall be deemed detained for purposes of this chapter.
(d)(1)If a relative, as defined in Section 319, an extended family member of an Indian child, as defined in Section 224.1 and Section 1903 of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. Sec. 1901 et seq.), or a nonrelative extended family member, as defined in Section 362.7, is available and requests emergency placement of the child pending the detention hearing, or after the detention hearing and pending the dispositional hearing conducted pursuant to Section 358, the county welfare department shall initiate an assessment of the relative’s or nonrelative extended family member’s suitability for
emergency placement pursuant to Section 361.4.
(2)Upon completion of the assessment pursuant to Section 361.4, the child may be placed in the home on an emergency basis. Following the emergency placement of the child, the county welfare department shall evaluate and approve or deny the home pursuant to Section 16519.5. If the home in which the Indian child is placed is licensed or approved by the child’s tribe, the provisions of Section 16519.5 do not apply for further approval. The county shall require the relative or nonrelative extended family member to submit an application for approval as a resource family and initiate the home environment assessment no later than five business days after the placement.
(3)If the sole issue preventing an emergency placement of a child with a relative or nonrelative extended family member is a lack of resources, including, but not limited
to, physical items such as cribs and car seats, the agency shall use reasonable efforts to assist the relative or nonrelative extended family member in obtaining the necessary items within existing available resources. The department shall work with counties and stakeholders to issue guidance regarding reasonable efforts requirements.
(e)(1)If the child is removed, the social worker shall conduct, within 30 days, an investigation in order to identify and locate all grandparents, parents of a sibling of the child, if the parent has legal custody of the sibling, adult siblings, other adult relatives of the child, as defined in paragraph (2) of subdivision (h) of Section 319, including any other adult relatives suggested by the parents, and, if it is known or there is reason to know the child is an Indian child, any extended family members, as defined in Section 224.1 and Section 1903 of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act
of 1978 (25 U.S.C. Sec. 1901 et seq.). As used in this section, “sibling” means a person related to the identified child by blood, adoption, or affinity through a common legal or biological parent. The social worker shall provide to all adult relatives who are located, except when that relative’s history of family or domestic violence makes notification inappropriate, within 30 days of removal of the child, written notification and shall also, whenever appropriate, provide oral notification, in person or by telephone, of all the following information:
(A)The child has been removed from the custody of their parent or parents, guardian or guardians, or Indian custodian.
(B)An explanation of the various options to participate in the care and placement of the child and support for the child’s family, including any options that may be lost by failing to respond. The notice shall
provide information about providing care for the child while the family receives reunification services with the goal of returning the child to the parent or guardian, how to become a resource family, and additional services and support that are available in out-of-home placements, including, but not limited to, mental health supports, childcare, and financial assistance intended to aid in the costs of providing care, and, if it is known or there is reason to know the child is an Indian child, the option of obtaining approval for placement through the tribe’s license or approval procedure. The notice shall also include information regarding the Kin-GAP Program (Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 11360) of Chapter 2 of Part 3 of Division 9), the CalWORKs program for approved relative caregivers (Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 11200) of Part 3 of Division 9), adoption, and adoption assistance
(Chapter 2.1 (commencing with Section 16115) of Part 4 of Division 9), as well as other options for contact with the child, including, but not limited to, visitation. The State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California and other interested stakeholders, shall develop the written notice.
(2)The social worker shall also provide the adult relatives notified pursuant to paragraph (1) with a relative information form to provide information to the social worker and the court regarding the needs of the child. The form shall include a provision whereby the relative may request the permission of the court to address the court, if the relative so chooses. The Judicial Council, in consultation with the State Department of Social Services and the County Welfare Directors Association of California, shall develop the form.
(3)(A)The social worker shall use due diligence in investigating the names and locations of the relatives, as well as any parent and alleged parent, pursuant to paragraph (1), including, but not limited to, asking the child in an age-appropriate manner about any parent, alleged parent, and relatives important to the child, consistent with the child’s best interest, and obtaining information regarding the location of the child’s parents, alleged parents, and adult relatives. Each county welfare department shall do both of the following:
(i)Create and make public a procedure by which a parent and relatives of a child who has been removed from their parents or guardians may identify themselves to the county welfare department and the county welfare department shall provide parents and relatives with the notices required by paragraphs (1) and (2).
(ii)Notify the State Department of Social Services, on or before January 1, 2024, in an email or other correspondence, whether it has adopted one of the suggested practices for family finding described in All-County Letter 18-42 and, generally, whether the practice has been implemented through training, memoranda, manuals, or comparable documents. If a county welfare department has not adopted one of the suggested practices for family finding described in All-County Letter 18-42, the county welfare department shall provide a copy to the State Department of Social Services of its existing family finding policies and practices, as reflected in memoranda, handbooks, manuals, training manuals, or any other document, that are in existence prior to January 1, 2022.
(B)The due diligence required under subparagraph (A) shall include family finding. For purposes of this section, “family finding” means conducting an investigation,
including, but not limited to, through a computer-based search engine, to identify relatives and kin and to connect a child or youth, who may be disconnected from their parents, with those relatives and kin in an effort to provide family support and possible placement. If it is known or there is reason to know that the child is an Indian child, as defined by Section 224.1, “family finding” also includes contacting the Indian child’s tribe to identify relatives and kin.
To the extent that this act has an overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for programs or levels of service mandated by the 2011 Realignment Legislation within the meaning of Section 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, it shall apply to local agencies only to the extent that the state provides annual funding for the cost increase. Any new program or higher level of service provided by a local agency pursuant to this act above the level for which funding has been provided shall not require a subvention of funds by the state or otherwise be subject to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
