Foster care.

(1) Existing law provides for the implementation of the resource family approval process, which replaces the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, certifying foster homes by foster family agencies, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving guardians and adoptive families. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to provide a statewide fair hearing process for application denials, rescissions of approval, exclusion actions, or criminal record exemption denials or rescissions by a county or the department. Under existing law, a county's action on an approval is final, or for matters set before the State Hearings Division, an action is subject to dismissal, if the resource family, applicant, excluded individual, or individual who is the subject of a criminal record exemption denial or rescission does not file a timely appeal. This bill would remove the reference to the action before the State Hearings Division being dismissed, and instead, provide that in a matter before the State Hearings Division, an appeal shall be subject to dismissal if an appeal to the notice of action or exclusion order is not filed within the prescribed time. The bill would also make the county's action final, and the appeal before the State Hearings Division subject to dismissal, if the resource family, applicant, excluded individual, or individual who is the subject of a criminal record exemption denial or rescission withdraws the appeal or fails to appear at the hearing without good cause. Under the bill, good cause for failure to appear at the hearing would be as defined by the department in specified written directives or regulation Existing law authorizes the department to permanently exclude a resource family parent, applicant, or other individual from presence in any resource family home, from employment in, presence in, and contact with clients of, any facility licensed by the department or certified or approved by a licensed foster family agency, and from holding certain positions with a licensee of any licensed facility, for specified reasons. This bill would require a temporary exclusion of an individual following a county's denial of an application for resource family approval, rescission of approval, or denial or rescission of a criminal record exemption to only be imposed as set forth in certain written directives or regulations adopted by the department. To the extent the bill would impose new duties on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes the department, upon a finding of noncompliance with the law governing resource families, to require a foster family agency to deny a resource family application, rescind the approval of a resource family, or take other action deemed necessary for the protection of a child who is or who may be placed with the resource family. This bill would repeal those provisions. This bill would authorize a county and the department to coordinate the filing of actions related to resource families, file consolidated pleadings, or file a motion to consolidate multiple actions if a matter involves both a county and department action. (2) Existing federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) , governs the proceedings for determining the placement of an Indian child when that child is removed from the custody of the child's parent or guardian. Existing law requires counties to implement the resource family approval process and authorizes a federally recognized tribe to approve a home for the purpose of foster or adoptive placement of an Indian child pursuant to the ICWA. Existing law authorizes a tribal agency to request from the Department of Justice criminal history information when evaluating a tribal home for the placement of an Indian child into foster or adoptive care. Existing law requires that a tribal agency submit fingerprint images and related information for specified individuals for the purpose of obtaining information regarding the existence and contents of an individual's state and federal criminal record, including arrests, convictions, and matters pending trial or appeal. The bill would instead require a tribe or tribal organization, when licensing or approving a home for the purpose of foster or adoptive placement of an Indian child, to submit fingerprint images and related information to the department for the type and level of background check required for an adoption and would require the department to provide a state and federal level response to the tribe or tribal organization that includes background check information that is required for an adoption. (3) Existing law 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 State Department of Social Services to administer a state system for establishing rates in the AFDC-FC program. Existing law requires the department to implement a rate structure that is effective through December 31, 2021, for specified rates paid to certified family homes of a foster family agency and short-term residential therapeutic programs. This bill would provide a one-year extension for the payments of those rates. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to implement intensive treatment foster care programs for eligible children and exempts the rates for these programs from the current AFDC-FC foster family agency ratesetting system. Existing law requires the department from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021, inclusive, to implement an interim rate structure to reflect the appropriate level of placement and address the need for specialized health care, support services, and mental health treatment services for foster children served in these programs. Existing law provides the method to calculate current rates for these programs. This bill would extend the operation of this interim rate structure through December 31, 2022. (4) Existing law subjects a minor between 12 and 17 years of age, inclusive, who violates any federal, state, or local law or ordinance, who persistently or habitually refuses to obey the reasonable and proper orders or directions of the minor's parents, guardian, or custodian, or who is beyond the control of that person, who violates an ordinance establishing a curfew or is truant, and a minor under 12 years of age who is alleged to have committed specified serious offenses to, the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court. Existing law authorizes a probation agency to make an emergency placement of a minor ordered into its care, custody, and control with a relative or nonrelative extended family member after specified requirements are completed, including an in-home inspection and a criminal records check of any person over 18 years of age living in the emergency home. Existing law provides for the temporary or emergency placement of children and nonminor dependents with relative caregivers or nonrelative extended family members under specified circumstances. Existing law requires counties to provide a payment to an emergency caregiver that is equivalent to the resource family basic level rate if, among other things, the child or nonminor dependent is not otherwise eligible for AFDC-FC or the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Program while placed in the home of the emergency caregiver and the emergency caregiver has completed an application for resource family approval or the tribe or tribal agency has initiated the process for the home to become tribally approved. This bill would additionally require counties to provide this payment to an emergency caregiver on behalf of a ward placed in the home of the emergency caregiver, subject to the same requirements. By expanding the duties of counties under these provisions, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 11461.36 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by SB 354 to be operative only if this bill and SB 354 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (6) 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.