Child welfare.

(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to, authorize a county welfare department to undertake comprehensive recruitment programs to ensure an adequate number of foster homes are available. Existing law regulates adoption services by the department, county adoption agencies, licensed adoption agencies, and other adoption service providers, and requires the department to adopt regulations pertaining to those services. This bill would require that recruitment to include diligent efforts to recruit individuals who reflect the ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity of foster children and adoptive children, but would not affect the application of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. (2) Existing law requires a social worker to conduct, within 30 days of a child being removed from the custody of his or her parents or guardians, an investigation in order to identify and locate all grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult relatives of the child. This bill would authorize county child welfare and probation departments to request and receive from the California Parent Locator Service and Central Registry and the federal Parent Locator Service information to identify and locate those family members. (3) Existing law requires the local child welfare agency to make a diligent effort in all out-of-home placements of dependent children, including those with relatives, to place siblings together in the same placement, and requires the social worker to explain why the siblings are not placed together and what efforts he or she is making to place the siblings together or why making those efforts would be contrary to the safety and well-being of any of the siblings. This bill would also require a probation officer to provide that explanation. (4) Existing law authorizes the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with specified groups, to implement a unified, family friendly, and child-centered resource family approval process relating to foster care and adoption placements. This bill would make nonsubstantive, conforming changes. (5) Existing law requires a foster home to be licensed by State Department of Social Services, and authorizes up to five counties, selected by the department, to approve a resource family, as defined, for foster care placement. This bill would exempt a resource family, as defined, from those licensure requirements, and would allow additional counties to volunteer to be selected by the department to also be authorized to approve a resource family. (6) Existing law specifies the entities, that may receive criminal history information from the Department of Justice. This bill would authorize a tribal child welfare agency to receive that information. (7) Existing law provides for the transfer of custody proceedings including proceedings involving an Indian child from a county juvenile court to the jurisdiction of the child's tribe. This bill would require a county juvenile court to transfer the entire child case file, as defined, to the tribe having jurisdiction, and would require both the county juvenile court and the tribe to document the finding of facts supporting jurisdiction over the child. (8) Existing law allows a court to remove a child from the home of one or both of his or her parents and to be placed under the supervision of a social worker who may place the child in the home of a noncustodial parent, relative, or approved nonrelative extended family. This bill would additionally allow for the child to be placed in an approved home of a resource family, as defined, and would make conforming changes relating to this provision. (9) The Federal Indian Child Welfare Act, authorizes a federally recognized tribe to approve a home for the purpose of foster or adoptive placement of an Indian child. This bill would conform state law to that provision and would specify the duties of a tribal child welfare agency, as defined, in conducting related background checks. (10) Existing law requires the department to report specified information regarding provision of health care to children in foster care. This bill would require a county child welfare agency to provide the department with information necessary for the department to meet those reporting responsibilities. (11) Existing law authorizes state departments to adopt regulations in accordance with the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services, until emergency regulations are filed with the Secretary of State, to implement specified changes proposed by this bill, through all-county letters or similar instructions from the Director of Social Services. (12) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 17506 of the Family Code proposed by SB 1066, to be operative only if SB 1066 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 361.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by SB 977 and SB 1099, to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 727 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 2607, to be operative only if AB 2607 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 16002 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by SB 1099, to be operative only if SB 1099 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. (13) By expanding the duties of local agencies, this bill would create 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.