CLC-Sponsored Legislation

Children's Law Center has successfully sponsored several bills in the California legislature that make significant strides in improving the foster care system for the youth we represent. Recent legislation sponsored includes the following:

AB 298 - Supporting relative caregivers. If enacted, this bill would:

• Clarify that a relative caregiver's preference for legal guardianship over adoption, so long as it does not mean the relative is unwilling to accept full responsibility for the child, is not a reason to remove the child from the relative's home.
• Change the order of preference in the statute governing permanent planning hearings, Welf. & Inst. Code § 366.26(b), so that adoption by a current caregiver is still first, but legal guardianship by a current relative caregiver is ranked higher than adoption by an as-yet-unidentified family.
• Allow the juvenile court to approve a relative guardianship without requiring proof of a "compelling" reason not to terminate parental rights.
• Allow relative guardians who experience a crisis in caring for a child to receive family reunification services, to enable the child to return safely to the guardian's home.

AB 2216 - Child Welfare Leadership and Performance Accountability (Bass)

• This bill creates the California Child Welfare Council to provide leadership, collaboration, and accountability by those involved in providing services to and overseeing the lives of abused and neglected youth who come in contact with the courts and our child welfare system.
• The Council, to be co-chaired by the Secretary of Human Services Agency and the Supreme Court Chief Justice (or his/her designee), will include representatives from the many agencies, departments, groups and advocacy organizations charged with serving children and families in the system, and clients.

For further information see AB 2216

• The bill ensures that children in dependency court are appointed appellate counsel, when appropriate.
• As a result of work on the bill, efforts are now underway to promote the establishment of caseload standards for attorneys who represent foster children, permitting more effective advocacy.
• The bill establishes a presumption that children over the age of 12 are of sufficient maturity to invoke the psychotherapist-patient and physician-patient privileges.

For further information see AB 2480

• This bill reduces the stringent requirements faced by siblings who seek contact with one another, once an adoption has occurred.
• The minimum age of consent to file a confidentiality waiver is lowered from 21 to 18.
• The bill establishes a process for appointment of a confidential intermediary to assist in locating siblings, as well as attaining needed consents.

For further information see AB 2488

• This bill declares that a child whose parent is also a dependent of the court shall not be found to be at risk of abuse or neglect solely because of the age, dependent status or foster care status of the parent.
• Removes statutory barriers to receiving federal Title IV-E funds for children who are under the jurisdiction of the dependency court and are living in the same placement as their dependent parent.
• The bill requires teen parents and their caregivers to develop a "shared responsibility plan" aimed at clarifying the role the caregiver will play and the type of support to be provided to the teen with regard to the care of the baby.
• This bill authorizes increased funding for "whole family foster care" placements and homes aimed at creating family-like placements and additional supports for teens and their children, whether or not the baby is the subject of a dependency petition.

For further information see SB 500

• This bill extends the age of eligibility for participation in Transitional Housing for emancipated foster youth from 21 to 24, thereby allowing newly emancipated foster youth up to the age of 24 to access critical housing and support services.

For further information see AB 824

• The bill requires each county with a transitional housing program to identify current available transitional housing resources for parenting and pregnant teens, report on the sufficiency of these resources in relation to the number of emancipating pregnant and parenting teens, and identify a plan for meeting any unmet housing needs in each county for these emancipating teens.
• SB 436 also allocates a continuous expenditure of $250,000 from the General Fund for the purpose of meeting the housing needs of emancipating pregnant or parenting foster youth.

For further information see SB 436

• Under existing law, children who become "legal orphans" have no remedy – there is no way to undo a termination of parental rights, even if the factual predicate underlying that decisions is no longer valid, absent a finding of fraud.
• For some children, after termination of parental rights, circumstances change and it becomes clear that adoption is no longer either a workable plan or the best plan for the child.
• This bill would allow the child, in limited and exceptional cases and after the passage of time, to petition the court to reinstate parental rights.
• The bill would apply in cases where the child had been legally freed for at least three years, unless all parties stipulate to an earlier hearing on the petition. In order to reinstate parental rights, the juvenile court would be required to find that changed circumstances exist such that the child is no longer likely to be adopted and that reinstatement of parental rights would be in the child’s best interest. The burden of proof would be on the petitioning child.

For further information see AB 519

• This bill will strengthen and clarify certain education and welfare and institutions code provisions relating to school stability for children residing in out of home care.
• Provides that disputes arising in connection with the rights provided for in AB 490 (2003) are to be resolved in accordance with existing dispute resolution process available to any pupil served by the local education agency.
• The court’s authority to temporarily limit a parent’s educational rights in exceptional circumstances is clarified and expanded.

For further information see AB 1261

2004 -Enacted

AB 1858 - Quality Education and NonPublic Schools (Steinberg)

• This legislation addresses the tremendous educational needs of the many youth in foster care whose special education needs cannot be met in a traditional classroom.
• AB 1858 raises the standards for oversight of nonpublic schools and thereby prevents the most challenged children from being allowed to languish in classrooms that don't always provide the type of education essential to their academic achievement.
• AB 1858 will require all nonpublic schools to staff each classroom with a teacher who holds a certificate, permit or other valid teaching credential equal to that of staff in a public school.
• AB 1858 will also require that students educated in nonpublic schools have access to the opportunities afforded other students -- college preparation courses, extracurricular activities, and career preparation/vocational training.
• The bill makes clear that nonpublic schools must provide instruction and services aimed at integrating pupils into public schools and reinforces the prohibition against a licensed children’s institution from requiring, as a condition of residency, that a child be required to attend a nonpublic schools.
• Finally, AB 1858 will ensure a more rigorous certification process, to include input from students themselves, and call for unannounced visits to schools under certain conditions.

For further information see AB 1858 

AB 1913 - Criminal Background Checks (Cohn)

• AB 1913 removes barriers to relative placement and clarifies ambiguities in the law governing background checks required for placement of abused and neglected children with relative caregivers.
• This bill clarifies that children can be temporarily placed with appropriate relatives based on a California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System ("CLETS") criminal record check and thereby spared the trauma of having to stay with strangers while final clearances are processed.
• AB 1913 also gives counties discretion to grant a temporary criminal record exemption to relatives based on CLETS results, thereby allowing more children to be promptly placed with appropriate relatives and spared interim stranger care. Final exemption decisions must still be based on fingerprint results so as not to jeopardize any child’s safety.

For further information see AB 1913

AB 129 – Crossover Youth (Cohn)

• This legislation will allow for a more comprehensive handling of the issues and concerns involving dependent youth at risk of, or already involved with, the juvenile justice system.
• AB 129 allows individual counties, with the agreement of a county’s child welfare director, chief probation officer, and supervising judge of the juvenile court, to create pilot programs permitting a "child to be simultaneously a dependent child and a ward of the court." This more flexible approach can lead to improved efficiency and consideration of all needs of the child and his or her family when a child transitions from one system to the other.
• Counties will have the ability to craft a mechanism to ensure appropriate and efficient transition of children out of delinquency and into dependency when they no longer require the supervision of probation and a delinquency court.

For further information see AB 129

SB 1178 - Teen Parents in Foster Care Act (Kuehl)

• This bill requires the court and responsible agencies to protect the best interests of a dependent minor parent and his or her child as a unit and make diligent attempts to place them together in a family-like setting.
• Requires that teen parents in foster care have access to services specifically targeted at supporting, maintaining, and developing both the parent child bond and the teen’s ability to provide a permanent and safe home for the child.
• Ensures that minor parents are permitted to attend school, complete homework, and participate in activities unrelated to and separate from parenting.
• Finally, child welfare agencies, the State and providers are directed to develop, identify and utilize whole family placements and placement models that provide supportive family focused care for dependent teens and their children.

For further information see SB 1178

AB 408 - Quality of Life and Permanency (Steinberg)

• Assembly Bill 408, effective January 1, 2004, seeks to improve the quality of life for foster children by establishing a right to participate in age-appropriate enrichment, extracurricular and social activities (WIC 362.05). Caregivers are expected to make normal day-to-day parenting decisions and are to act as prudent parents in determining whether to give permission for a child to participate in any of these activities.
• AB 408 also sets forth a series of reforms aimed at promoting and ensuring permanence through the development of lifelong connections to a committed, caring adult for all children in foster care.
• The bill assures that children 10 years of age or older receive notice of and have the right to attend their court proceedings.

For further information see AB 408

AB 490 - Educational Stability (Steinberg)

• Effective January 1, 2004, AB 490 establishes legislative intent that foster and probation youth shall be ensured access to the same opportunities to meet academic achievement standards to which all students are held, maintain stable school placements, be placed in the least restrictive educational placement, and have access to the same academic resources, services and extracurricular and enrichment activities as all other children. Makes clear that education and school placement decisions are to be dictated by the best interest of the child.
• Creates school stability for foster children by allowing them to remain in their school of origin for the duration of the school year when their placement changes and remaining in the same school is in the child’s best interests.
• Requires Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) to designate a staff person as a foster care education liaison to ensure proper placement, transfer and enrollment in school for foster youth.
• Makes LEAs and county social workers or probation officers jointly responsible for the timely transfer of students and their records when a change of schools occurs.
• Allows a foster child to be immediately enrolled in school even if all typically required school records, immunizations, or school uniforms are not available.

For further information see AB 490

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