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Pass New Laws Ultimately, our elected officials make the laws that affect child welfare practice in our local communities. Caregiver families can make their voices heard in their state and federal legislatures to ensure that their needs are met. Understanding how to affect new laws that promote permanency for children in foster care is a skill that caregivers can learn. LAPP acknowledges the importance of foster, kinship and adoptive families to the well-being of the children in their homes and recognizes that elected representatives need first-hand information on how to improve the foster care system for foster youth and their caregiver families. LAPP provides information and technical assistance to state representatives in California and nationally on the needs of caregiver families. LAPP also participates with other child welfare stakeholders in national, state, and local policy discussions that improve child welfare agency and juvenile court practice. LAPP’s California Legislative Agenda 2006 Senate Bill 1641 (became law January 1, 2007) Senate Bill 1641 (Soto, D-Ontario), requires the California Department of Social Services to establish a Children’s Regulation Review Workgroup to revise all California Community Care Licensing (CCL) foster care regulations. The workgroup is charged with making recommendations for changes to the regulations that promote a more normalized life for foster children and youth encourage the recruitment of quality, capable caregiver families. The director of the California Department of Social Services must report to the legislature during the 2007-2008 budget hearings on the progress of the workgroup. The report will include: 1) a summary of the activities of the workgroup 2) a timeline for completion of workgroup activities 3) recommendations being considered for changes in foster care laws, regulations, or policies and plans to implement those changes.
Additionally, when an agency places a child with a caregiver or in a group home, the agency must ensure that the child is placed in a home that best meets the day-to-day needs of the child. A home that best meets the day-to-day needs of the child is a home where: 1) the child’s caregiver is able to meet the day-to-day health, safety, and well-being needs of the child 2) the child’s caregiver is allowed to maintain the least restrictive and most family-like environment that serves the needs of the child 3) the child is allowed to participate in reasonable, day-to-day activities that promote the most family-like environment for the child. Caregivers should use a “prudent parent” standard to decide what activities are appropriate for the child. To See This Law, Go To: Senate Bill 1667 (Kuehl) (became law January 1, 2007) Senate Bill 1667 (Kuehl, D-Los Angeles), requires child welfare agencies to attach a copy of the existing California Judicial Council Caregiver Information Form (JV-290) to the notice of court hearings form for review, permanency, and post-permanency hearings that is provided to foster and kinship parents (in the caregiver’s primary language, when available) along with instructions on how to file the form directly with the juvenile court. To see Senate Bill 1667, go to:http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1651-1700/sb_1667_bill_20060922_chaptered.html 2005 Senate Bill 358 (became law January 1, 2006) Senate Bill 358 (Scott, D-Pasadena), sponsored by LAPP, allows California foster parents to use their own “prudent parent” judgment to decide who can baby-sit their foster children for periods of less than 24 hours. There are no longer requirements that sitters have health screenings, take CPR and first aid and have criminal background checks. The new law affects both county-licensed and private foster family agency (FFA) foster parents in California. Caregivers must try to provide the babysitter with the following information about the child: 1) Information about the child’s medical or physical condition, behavior, or emotional condition, if any, that is necessary to provide care during the time the babysitter is caring for the child. 2) Any medication that should be given to the child during the time the babysitter is caring for the child. 3) Emergency contact information that is in effect during the time the babysitter is caring for the child. According to Regina Deihl, executive director of LAPP, “Foster families around the State are celebrating the legislature’s efforts to normalize the lives of foster families and their children. Foster families deserve to be treated like other families in our communities. Being able to have a babysitter once in a while without jumping through needless bureaucratic hoops will encourage more wonderful families to open their homes and hearts to children who need them.” To see Senate Bill 358, go to: To see the California Community Care Licensing Memo on Senate Bill 358, go to: Senate Bill 218 (became law January 1, 2006) Senate Bill 218 (Scott, D-Pasadena), allows foster and kinship parents who want to adopt their foster or kin child to ask the juvenile court to designate them as “prospective adoptive parents” once the legal rights of the child’s biological parents have been terminated. If a foster or kinship parent has already been designated by the court or is eligible to be designated, the child welfare agency cannot move the child without first giving the prospective adoptive parents the chance to ask the juvenile court judge to review the agency’s decision to move the child. The prospective adoptive parents, the child, the child’s attorney, or the court can request a court hearing within 5 court days or 7 calendar days (whichever is longer) on whether the move is in the child’s best interest. The court hearing must take place within 5 days after the request is made. The agency can move the child immediately, though, if the child is at risk of abuse or neglect, but the agency must still notice the court, the prospective adoptive parents, the child and the child’s attorney within 2 court days that the move happened and give any of those people a chance to request a court hearing on whether the move was in the best interest of the child. In order to qualify as a prospective adoptive parent, the child must have lived with the caregiver for at least six months, the caregiver must express their intention to adopt the child, and the caregiver must have taken at least one step to facilitate the adoption. Steps to facilitate the adoption could include (but are not limited to): applying for an adoption homestudy; cooperating with an adoption homestudy; being designated by the court or the licensed adoption agency as the adoptive family; requesting de facto parent status; signing an adoptive placement agreement; discussing a post-adoption contact agreement; working to overcome any problems that have been identified by the State Department of Social Services and the licensed adoption agency; or attending classes required of prospective adoptive parents. “In the rare instances when parties do not agree, we want to make sure that the recommendation for placement is in the best interests of the child,” stated the legislation’s author, Senator Jack Scott (D-Pasadena). To see Senate Bill 218, go to: To see proposed new California court rules and forms to implement Senate Bill 218, go to: 2004 Senate Bill 1357 (became law January 1, 2005) Senate Bill 1357 (Scott, D-Pasadena), requires that foster family agencies (FFAs) that receive notices of court hearings for children placed in their certified foster homes pass those court notices along in a timely way to the foster parents who are caring for the child. The law also clarifies that a child’s foster or kinship caregiver, and the child’s tribe (in the case of an Indian child), must be allowed to provide information for multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs) about the child in their home. The information must be considered by the team and the caregiver and tribe must be allowed to attend the meeting, if the team agrees. Caregivers and tribal representatives who attend MDT meetings must sign a form that says they will not disclose any confidential information they hear during the team meeting. To see Senate Bill 1357, go to: 2003 Senate Bill 591 (became law January 1, 2004) Senate Bill 591 says that the California legislature recognizes that foster and kinship parents are one of the most important sources of information about the children in their care and expresses the legislature’s intent that courts, lawyers and social workers have the benefit of caregivers’ perceptions about the children placed in their homes. Agencies must give foster and kinship parents, at the time of placement, a placement agreement that has certain information on it, including contact information for the social worker and her supervisor, the child’s social security number, Medi-Cal or group health plan number, and the child’s agency I.D. number as well as any medication the agency has for the child and instructions on how to use it. Foster and kinship parents must be given the name, address, telephone number and fax number of the child’s attorney and Court Appointed Advocate (CASA) if they ask for it. As soon as possible after placement, agencies must provide caregivers with proof of the child’s age. Within 30 days after receiving a copy of the child’s birth certificate or passport, the agency must give a copy of it to the child’s caregiver. Caregivers must be given a copy of the plan outlining the child’s needs and the services the agency will provide to meet those needs as well as information about any court-ordered visits with parents or siblings as soon as possible after a judge makes the order. Agencies must tell the judge as soon as possible whether the child’s caregiver is willing to keep the child permanently if the child cannot return home. The child’s attorney must contact the child’s foster or kinship parents, and the child if she is over 10 years of age, with information on how to contact him/her within 10 days after receiving notice from the agency where the child is living. If the agency decides to move a child, the agency must notify the child’s attorney as soon as possible to give the attorney the child’s new address, telephone number and the name of the child’s new foster or kinship parent. To see Senate Bill 591, go to: To see a Sacramento Bee news article about Senate Bill 591, go to: |
