Foster care: relative placement: approval process.

Existing law generally provides for the placement of foster youth in various placement settings. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to implement a unified, family friendly, and child-centered resource family approval process to replace the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, certifying foster homes by licensed foster family agencies, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving guardians and adoptive families. This bill would require the department, notwithstanding any other law and on or before January 1, 2027, to adopt a simplified approval process for relative caregivers, as specified. The bill would condition implementation of the simplified approval process upon federal financial participation and approval, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to convene with tribes and communicate with other interested individuals and organizations to develop a simplified process for relative caregivers that achieve the goals of safety, permanency, and well-being for children in out-of-home care. This bill would require the department on or before September 30, 2026, to report to the Legislature for consideration the additional statutory changes required to fully implement separate resource family approval standards for relative caregivers. The bill would require the department, to the extent that the requested data can be tracked in the statewide child welfare information system, to track specified information on the approval process, including, among other information, (1) whether the placement of children or youth with relatives has increased, decreased, or remained the same over time, after January 1, 2023, and (2) existing barriers, if any, that affect implementation of the simplified approval process. The bill would require the department to report this information to the Legislature no later than 18 months after implementation of the simplified approval process. The bill would make these reporting and tracking provisions inoperative on June 30, 2030, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2031.