Public social services: foster care placement: funding.

Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate various out-of-home facilities and entities responsible for children and nonminor dependents in foster care, including foster family homes, group homes, and out-of-state group homes, and imposes training requirements on foster parents. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. Existing law provides for the placement of certain children in foster care under the supervision of the department and county welfare departments. Existing law also establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. Existing law requires the department to establish procedures to recover overpayments made to providers. This bill would provide for the reclassification of treatment facilities and the transition from the use of group homes for children in foster care to the use of short-term residential treatment centers, as defined. The bill would impose licensing requirements on those facilities, the violation of which would be a crime pursuant to the act, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would revise the foster parent training requirements imposed by the act. The bill would also provide for the development of child and family teams, as defined, to inform the process of placement and services to foster children and to children at risk of foster care placement. The bill would make conforming and related changes, including requiring the department to develop a new payment structure for funding placement options for children in foster care. The bill would also revise the procedures for recovering overpayments, and would make the failure to repay an overpayment grounds for termination of the provider's rate and cause the referral of the provider for license revocation. The bill would require, on and after January 1, 2017, all licensed foster family agencies to approve resource families, in lieu of certifying foster homes, in accordance with specified standards and requirements set forth in the bill. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to provide periodic progress updates to the Legislature on the implementation of the provisions of the bill. The bill would also include a statement of legislative intent. This bill would incorporate additional changes made by AB 1387, SB 238, SB 484, SB 524, and SB 794, that would become operative only if this bill is chaptered last. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.