Bill Text: CA AB919 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Foster youth: social security insurance.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB919 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB919-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 919 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dababneh
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
An act to amend Section 13753 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to foster youth.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 919, as amended, Dababneh. Foster youth: permanency.
social securit y insurance.
Existing law provides for the out-of-home placement, including
foster care placement, of children who are unable to remain in the
custody and care of their parents. Existing law requires the
juvenile court to hold a permanency hearing no later than 12 months
after a child has entered foster care to determine the permanent plan
for the child. Existing law authorizes the juvenile court to order
one of several permanent plans, including an order that the child be
placed in long-term foster care, subject to periodic review.
Existing law, the federal Social Security Act,
provides for benefits for eligible beneficiaries, including
survivorship and disability benefits and supplemental security income
(SSI) benefits for, among others, blind and disabled
children. Existing law also provides for state supplemental payments
(SSP) to supplement SSI benefits. Existing law requires the county to
provide specified information relating to SSI payments to a foster
youth receiving those benefits when he or she is approaching his or
her 18th birthday.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to
enact legislation that improves permanency outcomes and stability for
older children in foster care by, among other things, providing
resources and incentives to counties to improve permanency outcomes
for older children and youth in foster care. instead
require the county to provide that information to the youth when he
or she is approaching his or her 17th birthday. By increasing duties
on counties, this 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no
yes .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 13753 of the Welfare
and Institutions Code is amended to read:
13753. When a foster youth who is receiving SSI payments is
approaching his or her 18th 17th
birthday, the county shall do all of the following:
(a) Provide information to the youth regarding the federal
requirement that the youth establish continuing disability as an
adult, if necessary, in order for SSI benefits to continue beyond his
or her 18th birthday.
(b) Provide information to the youth regarding the process for
becoming his or her own payee, or designating an appropriate
representative payee if benefits continue beyond his or her 18th
birthday, and regarding any SSI benefits that have accumulated on his
or her behalf.
(c) Assist the youth, as appropriate, in fulfilling the
requirements of subdivisions (a) and (b).
SEC. 2. 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 nor otherwise be subject to Section 6 of Article
XIII B of the California Constitution.
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and
declares all of the following:
(1) As of September 30, 2014, there were 62,545 California
children living in the foster care system, with 16,561 children, or
approximately 26 percent, in foster care for over three years, and
9,780 children, or approximately 16 percent, in care for over five
years. Adult outcomes are often poor for the children who remain in
foster care long term. Within two years of exiting the foster care
system, approximately 50 percent will be homeless, in prison,
victimized, or dead.
(2) Families committing to adoption or guardianship of children in
foster care may face challenges unique to the adoption or
guardianship experience that result from the trauma of the child's
adverse childhood experiences. These challenges can create stress
that puts the adoption or guardianship at risk of disruption and
potentially result in the child's reentry into the foster care
system.
(3) Provisions of the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and
Strengthening Families Act (Public Law 133-183) address the need to
enhance efforts to improve permanency outcomes for older children in
care by eliminating the use of other planned permanent living
arrangements as a permanent plan for children under 16 years of age.
(4) The new federal law also requires documentation of intensive
and ongoing efforts to achieve permanence for youth with a case plan
for another planned permanent living arrangement, and adds additional
case plan and case plan review system requirements for children 16
years of age and older.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that
improves permanency outcomes and stability for older children in
foster care and brings California into compliance with provisions of
the Federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act
by doing all of the following:
(1) Providing resources and incentives to counties to improve
permanency outcomes for older children and youth in foster care by
updating current California law to require that any federal adoption
incentives received be used for that purpose.
(2) Improving the stability of adoptive and guardianship families
by requiring the State Department of Social Services, county adoption
agencies, county child welfare agencies, and licensed adoption
agencies to provide potential adoptive families and guardians
information, in writing, regarding the importance of working with
mental health providers that have specialized adoption or permanency
clinical training and experience if the family needs clinical support
and the desirable clinical expertise the family should look for when
choosing an adoption- or permanency-competent mental health
professional.
(3) Improving permanency outcomes for children in foster care by
doing all of the following:
(A) Requiring child-centered specialized permanency services prior
to deeming a child "unlikely to be adopted," "not a proper subject
for adoption," or "having no one willing to take legal guardianship,"
and prior to, and after, making a permanency plan for another
planned permanent living arrangement or ordering a child into
long-term foster care.
(B) Eliminating the use of another planned permanent living
arrangement as a permanency plan for children under 16 years of age.
(C) Adding "placement with a fit and willing relative" as a
permanency planning option.
