Bill Text: CA AB2306 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Foster care: Independent Living Program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2022-09-18 - Vetoed by Governor. [AB2306 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB2306-Enrolled.html
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Enrolled
September 02, 2022 |
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Passed
IN
Senate
August 31, 2022 |
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Passed
IN
Assembly
August 31, 2022 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
August 22, 2022 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
August 01, 2022 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
May 19, 2022 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
April 20, 2022 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
March 28, 2022 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2306
| Introduced by Assembly Member Cooley |
February 16, 2022 |
An act to amend Sections 10609.3 and 10609.4 of, and to add Section 10609.41 to, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to foster care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2306, Cooley.
Foster care: Independent Living Program.
Existing law establishes the Independent Living Program (ILP), which has among its purposes providing training in daily living skills, budgeting, locating and maintaining housing, and career planning for foster youth up to 21 years of age. Existing federal law authorizes a state, under certain circumstances, to expand eligibility for the ILP to former foster youth who have not attained 23 years of age.
This bill would expand eligibility for the ILP to current and former foster youth up to 22 years of age, subject to an appropriation and the approval of the federal government.
The bill would also require the State Department of Social Services to take specified actions relating to the ILP, including updating and expanding the standards and requirements for the ILP to increase consistency in ILPs across
counties while retaining some flexibility in services and supports delivered by local ILPs and identifying a minimum set of specific core services and supports that all county ILPs are required to provide. The bill would specify certain services that are required to be included in the core services and supports, including, among others, direct services or linkage to programs and services that will reduce the incidence of homelessness. The bill would require a county to submit a plan for the operation of its ILP to the department and implement that plan within a specified timeframe. The bill would state that any of these provisions that require automation shall become operative on July 1, 2024, or the date the department notifies the Legislature that the statewide child welfare information system can perform the necessary automation to implement the ability to identify ILP core services and supports, whichever is earlier.
By creating new duties for counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would require the department to determine the funding necessary to expand eligibility for the ILP and the stipends described below to include former foster youth up to 23 years of age and to submit a report with that information to the Legislature during budget hearings for the 2023–24 fiscal year budget. The bill would require the department to implement these provisions by all-county letter or similar instruction until regulations are adopted and would make the implementation of certain provisions contingent on an appropriation by the Legislature for those purposes.
Existing law requires counties to maintain a stipend to assist youth who have exited the foster care system at or after 18 years of age with independent living needs, as specified.
This bill would expand the list of specified independent living needs for which the stipend is authorized. The bill would, subject to an appropriation, require counties to provide that stipend to former foster youth up to 25 years of age. By creating new duties for counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local 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: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Under the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), the State of California intended to implement a continuum of foster care services and programs that meet the needs of foster children, youth, and families.
(b) CCR also established the importance of ensuring that foster youth have a voice in decisions being made on where they are placed and services that they receive through a Child and Family Team process.
(c) Many youth are transitioning to the Extended Foster
Care (EFC) program, under which youth can live independently or with a foster family, receive a monthly stipend, and pursue education, training, and work with the continued support of the child welfare system.
SEC. 2.
Section 10609.3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:10609.3.
(a) By January 1, 1995, the State Department of Social Services shall complete, in consultation with county Independent Living Program administrators, placement agencies, providers, advocacy groups, and community groups, a comprehensive evaluation of the Independent Living Program established pursuant to the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-272) and develop recommendations available to the public on how independent living services could better prepare foster youth for independence and adulthood.(b) The department shall investigate alternative transitional housing models for youth between the ages of 17 and 18 who are in
out-of-home placements under the supervision of the county department of social services or county probation department. To the extent federal funds are available and it is in the best interests of the youth and young adults, the department shall develop and implement a transitional housing model for youth who are preparing for emancipation from foster care.
(c) The department shall also investigate alternative transition models for youth discharged from foster care to live on their own. As part of this investigation, the department shall consider the needs of youth for housing, transportation, health care, access to community resources, employment, and other support services.
(d) (1) The department shall, with the approval of the federal government, amend the
foster care state plan, provided for pursuant to Subtitle IV-E (commencing with Section 470) of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 670 et seq.), and the child welfare services state plan (42 U.S.C. Sec. 622), to permit all eligible children be served by the Independent Living Program up to 21 years of age.
(2) Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, the department shall, with the approval of the federal government, amend the child welfare services state plan to permit all eligible current and former foster youth to be served by the Independent Living Program up to 22 years of age.
(3) It is the intent of the Legislature, upon receipt of the report described in subdivision (f) of Section 10609.41, to enact legislation to expand eligibility for
the Independent Living Program to current and former foster youth up to 23 years of age.
(e) (1) Counties shall maintain a stipend to supplement and not supplant the Independent Living Program. The stipend may provide for, but not be limited to, assisting youth who have exited the foster care system at or after 18 years of age with the following independent living needs:
(A) Bus passes or other assistance to facilitate access to transportation.
(B) Housing rental deposits and fees.
(C) Housing utility deposits and fees or other housing-related costs necessary to obtain or maintain housing.
(D) Basic household necessities to establish or retain housing.
(E) Assistance with securing or retaining communications equipment, including, but not limited to, a cell phone.
(F) Work-related equipment and supplies.
(G) Training-related equipment and supplies.
(H) Education-related costs, including, but not limited to, tuition, school fees, equipment, and supplies.
(2) Notwithstanding Section 10101, the state shall pay 100 percent of the nonfederal costs associated with the stipend program in paragraph (1), subject to the availability of funding provided in the annual Budget Act.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), beginning in the 2011–12 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, funding and expenditures for programs and activities under this section shall be in accordance with the requirements provided in Sections 30025 and 30026.5 of the Government Code.
(4) Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, counties shall provide the stipends described in paragraph (1) to former foster youth up to 25 years of age.
SEC. 3.
Section 10609.4 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, as amended by Section 40 of Chapter 50 of the Statutes of 2022, is amended to read:10609.4.
(a) On or before July 1, 2000, the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with county and state representatives, foster youth, and advocates, shall do both of the following:(1) Develop statewide standards for the implementation and administration of the Independent Living Program established pursuant to the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-272).
(2) Define the outcomes for the Independent Living Program and the characteristics of foster youth enrolled in the program for data collection purposes.
(b) Consistent with federal law and reporting requirements, each county department of social services shall submit to the department an annual Independent Living Program report, which shall include the following:
(1) An accounting of federal and state funds expended for implementation of the program. A county shall spend no more than 30 percent of federal Independent Living Program funds on housing. Expenditures shall be related to the specific purposes of the program. It is the intent of the Legislature that the department, in consultation with counties, shall develop a process for reporting that satisfies federal law and reporting requirements. Program purposes may include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Enabling participants to seek a high school diploma or
its equivalent or to take part in appropriate postsecondary education, including, but not limited to, vocational training, and providing job readiness training and placement services, or building work experience and marketable skills, or both.
(B) Providing training in daily living skills, budgeting, financial management, including tax preparation and filing, locating and maintaining housing, and career planning.
(C) Providing for individual and group counseling.
(D) Integrating and coordinating services otherwise available to participants.
(E) Providing each participant with a written transitional independent living plan that will be based on an assessment
of the participant’s needs, that includes information provided by persons who have been identified by the participant as important to the participant in cases in which the participant has been in out-of-home placement for six months or longer from the date the participant entered foster care, consistent with the participant’s best interests, and that will be incorporated into their case plan.
(F) Providing participants who are within 90 days of attaining 18 years of age, or older as the state may elect under Section 475(8)(B)(iii) of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 675(8)(B)(iii)), including those former foster care youth receiving Independent Living Program Aftercare Services, the opportunity to complete the exit transition plan as required by paragraph (16) of subdivision (f) of Section 16501.1.
(G) Providing participants with other services and assistance designed to improve independent living.
(H) Convening persons who have been identified by the participant as important to them for the purpose of providing information to be included in their written transitional independent living plan.
(2) Counties shall ensure timely and accurate data entry into the statewide child welfare information system for all youth receiving services pursuant to this section.
(3) Counties shall ensure that eligible foster care youth continue to receive information about, and are provided with an opportunity to complete, the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) survey,
based on an updated process that shall be developed jointly by the department, in consultation with counties to ensure maximum participation in the survey completion and compliance with federal requirements, as follows:
(A) Counties shall provide information to the youth about the NYTD survey within 60 days prior to the date the current or former foster youth is required to be offered the survey.
(B) Within 45 days following the youth in foster care turning 17 years of age, counties shall ensure that each youth has an opportunity to complete the NYTD survey as required by federal law.
(C) Counties shall contact the youth who completed the survey at age 17, in order to request that they complete the followup survey
before their 19th and 21st birthdays.
(D) Counties shall provide opportunities for current and former eligible foster youth to take the NYTD survey online at child welfare services and probation offices.
(c) The county department of social services in a county that provides transitional housing placement services pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 11403.2 shall include in its annual Independent Living Program report a description of currently available transitional housing resources in relation to the number of emancipating pregnant or parenting foster youth in the county, and a plan for meeting any unmet transitional housing needs of the emancipating pregnant or parenting foster youth.
(d) In
consultation with the department, a county may use different methods and strategies to achieve the standards and outcomes of the Independent Living Program developed pursuant to subdivision (a).
(e) In consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association, the California Youth Connection, and other stakeholders, the department shall develop and adopt emergency regulations, no later than July 1, 2012, in accordance with Section 11346.1 of the Government Code that counties shall be required to meet when administering the Independent Living Program and that are achievable within existing program resources and any federal funds available for case management and case plan review functions for nonminor dependents, as provided for in the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-351). The
initial adoption of emergency regulations and one readoption of the initial regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare. Initial emergency regulations and the first readoption of those regulations shall be exempt from review by the Office of Administrative Law. The initial emergency regulations and the first readoption of those regulations authorized by this subdivision shall be submitted to the Office of Administrative Law for filing with the Secretary of State and each shall remain in effect for no more than 180 days.
(f) The department, in consultation with representatives of the Legislature, the County Welfare Directors Association, the Chief Probation Officers of California, the Judicial Council, representatives of tribes,
the California Youth Connection, former foster youth, child advocacy organizations, labor organizations, dependency counsel for children, juvenile justice advocacy organizations, foster caregiver organizations, and researchers, shall review and develop modifications needed to the Independent Living Program to also serve the needs of nonminor dependents, as defined in subdivision (v) of Section 11400, eligible for services pursuant to Section 11403. These modifications shall include the exit transition plan required to be completed within the 90-day period immediately prior to the date the nonminor participant attains the age that would qualify the participant for federal financial participation, as described in Section 11403, pursuant to Section 675(5)(H) of Title 42 of the United States Code. Notwithstanding the Administrative Procedure Act, Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part
1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, through June 30, 2012, the department shall prepare for implementation of the applicable provisions of this section by publishing all-county letters or similar instructions from the director by October 1, 2011, to be effective January 1, 2012.
(g) Beginning in the 2011–12 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, funding and expenditures for programs and activities required under this section shall be in accordance with the requirements provided in Sections 30025 and 30026.5 of the Government Code.
SEC. 4.
Section 10609.41 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:10609.41.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The Independent Living Program (ILP), as authorized through the federal Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-169), subsequently renamed the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, as originally authorized, provided foster youth, from 16 years of age up to 21 years of age, with critical skill-building services and supports designed to aid in the transition to adulthood. ILP services are intended to provide a broad range of services and supports to help eligible transition-aged foster youth, such as building daily living skills, training in skill building, including
financial management, educational support, employment assistance, mentoring, and preventative health activities, and up to 30 percent of federal funds may be used to support housing needs such as room and board to eligible youth.
(2) Legislation, including the California Fostering Connections to Success Act (Chapter 559 of the Statutes of 2010), which exercised the option under the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-351) to extend eligibility for foster care benefits to youth and young adults up to 21 years of age, and the federal Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-123), provides states that have extended foster care benefits, as California has done, with the option of extending the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program to former foster youth up to 23 years
of age. Several other states have availed themselves of this option, while California has not.
(3) California’s statewide model for the Independent Living Program has largely remained unchanged despite the implementation of the extended foster care program and the unique challenges faced by California’s transition-aged youth and nonminor dependents (NMDs), specifically, the high cost of housing and cost of living, compounded by their unique trauma, lived experience, and disproportionate representation of persons of color in the child welfare system.
(b) In consultation with current and former foster youth, the County Welfare Directors Association of California, the Chief Probation Officers of California, and other stakeholders, as appropriate, the department shall do all
of the following:
(1) Update and expand the standards and requirements for the Independent Living Program (ILP) established pursuant to Section 10609.4 to increase consistency in ILP programs across counties, while retaining some flexibility in services and supports delivered by local ILPs based on the needs of current and former foster youth and nonminor dependents served by ILPs.
(2) Establish guidelines for county ILP plans.
(3) Identify a minimum set of specific core services and supports that all county ILPs shall provide and best practices for county ILPs. The best practices identified shall be informed by promising practices in California and other states that remove barriers to services and supports in ILP service
delivery.
(4) Provide guidance on the allowable uses of federal and state funds for stipends and direct supports for ILP participants.
(5) Develop statewide procedures to annually collect and post on the department’s internet website information relating to ILP
participation rates, services offered, and outcomes.
(c) The core services and supports identified pursuant to subdivision (b) shall include, at a minimum, all of the following:
(1) Supporting transition-aged youth and young adults in developing or maintaining connections to family, family-like adults, or other important adults, as well as peer connections, to increase well-being and decrease isolation. This support shall include consideration of how the ILP can link transition-aged youth and young adults to specialty mental health services or other health and mental health services through use of peer support specialist services, as defined in Section 14045.12.
(2) Direct services or linkage to programs and
services that will reduce the incidence of homelessness.
(3) Outreach and education through social media and other technologies utilized by current and former foster youth and nonminor dependents to increase outreach, engagement, and connection to supportive services. The department shall provide counties with technical assistance and guidance to facilitate access to technologies in compliance with all applicable privacy laws.
(4) Stipends or incentives that are universally available to ILP program participants to facilitate participation in ILP activities.
(5) Supporting transition-aged youth and young adults in entering and completing postsecondary education and pursuing employment and career goals.
(6) Referring transition-aged youth and young adults to services that provide free tax filing and tax literacy resources.
(d) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), a county shall submit to the department a plan for the operation of its ILP that complies with the guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b). The plan shall be submitted within nine months of the department’s issuance of an all-county letter and county fiscal letter implementing this section. The county shall fully implement the ILP plan within 12 months of the department’s issuance of an all-county letter and county fiscal letter implementing this section.
(2) The department may, upon a showing of good cause, extend the
deadlines described in paragraph (1).
(e) In order to increase available ILP services and supports to current and former foster youth as soon as practicable, it is the intent of the Legislature that funds appropriated for the purposes of this section be allocated to counties prior to the department’s completion of activities specified in subdivision (b).
(f) (1) The department, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California, shall determine the funding necessary to expand eligibility for the ILP and the stipends for emancipated youth described in Section 10609.3 to include former
foster youth up to 23 years of age. The department shall submit a report with this analysis to the Legislature during budget hearings for the 2023–24 fiscal year budget.
(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(g) Notwithstanding the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), the department shall implement this section through all-county letter or similar instructions until regulations are adopted.
(h) The implementation of subdivisions (c) and (d) and related reporting requirements shall be contingent on an appropriation by the
Legislature for those purposes.
(i) Any provision of this section that requires automation shall become operative on July 1, 2024, or the date the department notifies the Legislature that the statewide child welfare information system can perform the necessary automation to implement the ability to identify the ILP core services and supports, whichever is earlier.
