Public social services.

Existing law authorizes, in certain circumstances, a child who has been removed from their parent or guardian to be placed with a relative or nonrelative extended family member if the relative or nonrelative extended family member is either an approved resource family or has been assessed by a county social worker or a county probation agency and, among other things, the relative or nonrelative extended family member has not been convicted of a crime for which a criminal record exemption cannot be granted, has been granted a criminal record exemption, or, in certain circumstances, a criminal record exemption is pending. This bill would, notwithstanding those provisions, authorize the court to order placement with a relative, regardless of the status of any criminal exemption or resource family approval, if the court finds that the placement does not pose a risk to the health and safety of the child. The bill would require the county welfare department, if the sole issue preventing an emergency placement of a child with a relative or nonrelative extended family member is a lack of resources, to use reasonable efforts to assist the relative or nonrelative extended family member in obtaining the necessary items. By imposing new duties of county welfare departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Program (ARC) for the purpose of making the amount paid to relative caregivers for the in-home care of children placed with them who are ineligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care program (AFDC-FC) payments equal to the amount paid on behalf of children who are eligible for AFDC-FC payments. Existing law also provides financial support to emergency caregivers with a pending resource family approval application who have a child placed in their home who is ineligible for AFDC-FC payments. Existing law requires a county to pay an approved relative caregiver or an emergency caregiver a per child per month rate that is equal to the basic rate paid to foster care providers and that is funded, in part, through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. This bill would expand eligibility for ARC to include relatives with whom a child is authorized to be placed by the court, as described above, when the placement is ineligible for emergency caregiver financial support or AFDC-FC payments due to the denial of resource family approval. The bill would also expand eligibility for emergency caregiver financial support to include emergency caregivers who had a child placed with them pursuant to additional provisions of law. By expanding county duties relative to these funding programs, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law subjects foster care provider applicants, resource family applicants, and certain other adults in those homes, to a criminal records check and requires the applicant or other adult in the applicant's home to obtain a criminal record clearance or criminal record exemption prior to licensure or approval. Existing law prohibits the State Department of Social Services or other approving entity from granting a criminal record exemption to an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home who has been convicted of certain felonies. With regard to an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home who has been convicted of a crime other than those for which an exemption cannot be granted, existing law either authorizes or requires, depending on the crime for which an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home has been convicted, the department or other approving entity to grant an exemption if, among other things, the applicant or other adult in the applicant's home is of present good character, as specified. This bill would instead limit the convictions for which an exemption cannot be granted to those that occurred within the last 10 years. The bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services or other approving entity, for the purpose of the resource family approval process described below, to grant an exemption from disqualification for the conviction of a felony for which a criminal record exemption cannot be granted if the applicant is seeking placement of a specific relative child or children, the applicant or other adult living in the home is of present good character necessary to justify granting the exemption, and the applicant or other adult living in the home has not been convicted of certain felonies within the last 5 years. The bill would specify that a criminal record exemption granted pursuant to this provision is not transferrable to another community care facility. This bill would also expand the types of convictions for which the department or other approving entity is required to grant an exemption and revise the standards used to determine if a permissive exemption should be granted. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature, by July 1, 2024, regarding certain data relating to criminal record exemptions for resource family applicants who have applied for resource family approval, or tribally approved homes who applied for approval, to care for a relative child. The bill would require foster family agencies to submit that data to the department. Because the failure of a foster family agency to comply with this requirement would be a crime, this bill would expand the scope of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. Existing law generally does not require a criminal record exemption for foster care provider applicants, resource family applicants, and certain other individuals in those homes, or for applicants for licensure or a special permit to operate certain community care facilities and other individuals associated with those community care facilities, if an individual only has a conviction for a minor traffic violation. This bill would instead specify that a criminal record exemption is not required if those individuals only have a conviction for an infraction. 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, among other things, requires a resource family to demonstrate the financial ability within the household to ensure the stability and financial security of the family. This bill would authorize that requirement to be waived for relative and nonrelative extended family member resource families on a case-by-case basis and would specify that, for the purposes of that requirement, there is not a minimum income requirement. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 16519.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 366 and SB 584 to be operative only if this bill and AB 366, this bill and SB 584, or all 3 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.