Foster care.

Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge a child to be a dependent of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm, or a parent fails to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. Existing law establishes the grounds for removal of a dependent child from the custody of his or her parents or guardian, and establishes procedures to determine placement of a dependent child. This bill would make various changes to these procedures relating to the placement of dependent children, including, among other things, by revising the preference to make a placement with specified relatives and, instead, to grant a preference for placement with any relative. Existing law provides for the implementation, by counties and foster family agencies, of the resource family approval process, which is a unified, family friendly, and child-centered approval process that replaces the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving adoptive families. This bill would make various changes to the resource family approval process by, among other things, authorizing a county or a foster family agency to approve a resource family to care for a specific child; implementing processes to place a resource family on inactive status, transfer approval as a resource family between foster family agencies and between a foster family agency and a county, and certify respite care providers; and prohibiting a resource family from being licensed to operate certain other residential facilities on the same premises as the residence of the resource family. The bill would also make changes to the hearings that are currently a part of the resource family approval process by, among other things, authorizing the testimony of a child witness or similarly vulnerable witness in a resource family hearing to be taken out of the presence of the respondent if certain circumstances are present, and imposing limits, in a resource family hearing in which a child or other minor is the victim in an allegation of inappropriate sexual conduct, on the discovery and admissibility of evidence of specific instances of sexual conduct with victims other than the alleged perpetrator. The bill would require certain hearings relating to resource families, foster homes, or certified family homes of a foster family home to be confidential and not open to the public, but would authorize an administrative law judge to admit persons deemed to have a direct and legitimate interest in the particular case or the work of the court on a case-by-case basis. The bill would require the department to develop an intensive services foster care program to serve children with specific needs, including intensive treatment and behavioral needs and specialized health care needs, whose needs for safety, permanency, and well-being require specially trained resource parents and intensive professional and paraprofessional services and supports in order to remain in a home-based setting or to avoid or exit congregate care in a short-term residential therapeutic program, group home, or out-of-state residential center. Existing law, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, requires foster care providers to be paid a per child per month rate, established by the State Department of Social Services, for the care and supervision of the child placed with the provider. This bill would prohibit foster care payments from being considered as income of the foster parent or child for purposes of determining eligibility and benefits for specified state or federal programs unless required by federal law as a condition of the receipt of federal financial participation. Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure of short-term residential therapeutic programs and foster family agencies. Existing law requires the department to establish rates for short-term residential therapeutic programs and foster family agencies that include an interim rate that is effective January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, and that becomes inoperative on January 1, 2018. This bill would instead make that interim rate effective January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018, and make it inoperative on January 1, 2019. The bill would also require the department to develop, implement, and maintain a ratesetting methodology and rates schedule for specified transitional housing placement providers and, retroactive to January 1, 2017, to align the rate for county wraparound services with the rate paid to short-term residential therapeutic programs. The bill would require the department to develop performance standards and outcome measures for determining the effectiveness of the care and supervision provided to children placed in out-of-home family-based care placements. This bill would make various other related and conforming changes. By imposing additional duties on counties and by expanding the duties of foster family agencies for which the failure to comply is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Health Care Services to adopt regulations necessary to implement these provisions, Chapter 612 of the Statutes of 2016, and Chapter 773 of the Statutes of 2015, and would authorize those departments to implement and administer the changes made by this bill through all-county letters or similar written instructions until regulations are adopted. 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes proposed by AB 501, AB 811, AB 1006, SB 12, SB 612, SB 625, and SB 811 to be operative only if this bill and those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 specified reasons.