Senate Human Services Committee

Senate Human Services Committee

SIGNIFICANT LEGISLATION, 2006

Contents

Section 1

Descriptions of each bill, by bill number Pages 2-8

Section 2

Bills listed by author’s name Pages 9-11

Section 3

Bills listed by general subject Pages 12-13

· Aging and Seniors

· Child Care and Development

· Child Welfare

· Developmental Services

· In Home Supportive Services

· Licensing and Community Care Facilities

· Welfare, Food Stamps, and Social Services

Appendix Pages 14 et seq.

Human Services bills included in the Senate

Office of Research’s 2006 Legislative Highlights.

Descriptions of each bill, listed by bill number

BILL AUTHOR TOPIC FINAL ACTION

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SB 1195 Alquist Child care: regional Died in committee

market rates rates.

Directs the State Department of Education (SDE) annually to adjust the income eligibility ceiling for families and to adjust the maximum payment for child care in order to reflect changes in the consumer price index (CPI).

SB 1212 Torlakson Continuing care retirement Chapter 529, Statutes of 2006

communities: provider

financial requirements.

This bill makes changes to the Continuing Care Advisory Committee in the Department of Social Services and also expands on existing rights of consumers and financial disclosure requirements for providers as it relates to their reserves.

SB 1270 Chesbro Developmental services: Chapter 397, Statutes of 2006

service models.

SB 1335 Soto Inspections: residential Held in Appropriations Comm.

care for children.

This bill would add any licensed facility housing children placed by welfare or probation departments to list of facilities requiring unannounced annual visits by the Department of Social Services.

SB 1376 Chesbro Community Services Block Chapter 807, Statutes of 2006

Grant Program: funding.

Amends the funding formula for community services block grants, establishing a base funding and allocation procedures for achieving that base. According to the author, for more than two decades, California has relied on a two-step system of allocating Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funds. First, agencies are allocated funds based on the proportionate share of the state's poverty population living in that agency's jurisdiction. Second, funds are reallocated to ensure that agencies whose allocation falls below a minimum level are brought up to that base. According to the author, this two-tiered system has generated a significant amount of controversy and debate over the years. In 2002, the Legislature passed AB 444 (Committee on the Budget, Chapter 1022, Statutes of 2002), changing the allocation of CSBG funds. That legislation also invited the California/Nevada Community Action Partnership (Cal/Neva) to present recommendations to the Legislature about future modifications to the CSBG funding system. This bill is a result of those recommendations. For twenty years before the passage of AB 444, the minimum funding allocation for smaller agencies was capped at $160,000. AB 444 intended to eliminate this cap and replace it with a base funding level of $173,556. Since 2002, the AB 444 funding formula has improved funding distributions provided to these smaller agencies. Nevertheless, according to the author, the $173,556 base has become a new cap. Smaller agencies believe that $173,556 does not provide them agencies with the funding necessary to provide adequate services to their clientele – nor was the base intended to be a cap. Cal-Neva believes that AB 444 was intended to serve as a short-term fix. CSBG funding formulas are controversial because one agency’s increase in funding can be at the expense of another agency’s budget. SB 1376 reflects the consensus of negotiations among the members of Cal-Neva – agencies large and small -- as to how the current mechanisms should be changed.

SB 1435 Ortiz IHSS pilot project: Vetoed by governor

purchase of service.

This bill would establish a four-year pilot project in three counties to offer persons ineligible for the state’s IHSS program to buy services at their own expense.

SB 1660 Romero IHSS: provider wage and Vetoed by governor

benefit increases.

This bill eliminates an expiring funding formula for state/county sharing of costs associated wage and benefit increases for IHSS workers. In its place it would simply establish a funding formula of 65% State and 35% County for any wage and benefit increases granted by counties.

SB 1688 Bowen Foster care: instruction Died in committee

and education pilot program.

Directs the Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish a pilot project for foster care parent and child home instruction and education. The author states the problem in this way: “Foster parents face challenges. There’s often a gap between becoming a foster parent and becoming an integral part of a young child’s learning. People have good intentions, but once they jump in with both feet, they’re often left to figure things out for themselves. As a result, foster children are commonly a step behind when entering kindergarten.” The solution offered by the bill, according to the author, is to take the HIPPY program, which operates in Los Angeles, and extend it to two other counties as a pilot. HIPPY is a home instruction program for parents of preschool children; through this bill, the state would contract with HIPPY to provide resources and materials to foster parents of preschool children to promote learning before a child enters kindergarten.

AB 107 Benoit Care facilities. Died in Appropriations Comm.

This bill has three primary components:

· To increase the number of licensing visits to all community care facilities.

· To change aspects of the departments monitoring and enforcement of child care regulations, in response to a report by the state auditor

· To give the department authority to impose civil penalties immediately for certain violations by any community care facility. These civil-penalty provisions are included at the request of the administration.

AB 633 Benoit Child day care facilities Chapter 545, Statutes of 2006

licensing.

This bill increases the number, scope, and mode of notifications that child care facilities would be required to provide to parents after inspections, citations, and other communications from licensing personnel. This bill was introduced after a young child drowned in a partially covered spa at a licensed family child care home in the author’s district. According to the author, this tragedy occurred even though state regulators had cited the facility for violations, including the spa cover being left off or ajar and the pool gate latch not working properly. The parents of the child did not know about these citations. Prior to 2003, state law required DSS to visit some child care facilities annually and others every three years. Since 2003, DSS must visit at least once every five years. According to the author, this measure is an alternative to increasing funding for additional site visits.

AB 1478 Frommer Developmental services. Vetoed by Governor

This bill would have directed the development of treatment guidelines for persons with autism spectrum disorders. It also authorizes regional centers to finance startup costs of housing programs.

AB 1601 Laird Child care: provider Vetoed by governor

background checks.

Adds aunts and uncles to the set of persons who must undergo criminal record and child abuse central index clearances in order to be paid for caring for state-subsidized children, and more quickly suspends from payment any person who is determined to have a criminal record of more than traffic infractions.

AB 1795 Bermudez Residential facilities: Vetoed by governor

licensure applications:

local notification.

Requires that the state or county licensing agency use certified mail to notify a city or county planning agency of an application for a new residential facility. According to the author, the current requirement that local planning agencies be notified when a new residential care facility application is under consideration is not always observed. Current law requires notice be sent to a local agency at least 45 days prior to approval of an application. This bill requires documentation of the sending and receipt of the required notices, and it prohibits approval of a new license until the licensing agency can document the planning agency’s receipt of the notice. The Department of Social Services reports that it issued 1,016 new licenses in 2005 that would have been affected by this bill: 735 for adult residential facilities, 212 for group homes, and 69 for small family homes serving persons with mental or developmental disabilities.

AB 1929 Berg Area agencies on aging: Vetoed by governor

electronic transfer of funds.

Requires the California Department of Aging electronically transfer funds to the Area Agencies on Aging.

AB 1979 Bass Community care facilities: Chapter 382, Statutes of 2006

criminal record info: fees.

This bill is intended to clarify that volunteers providing mentoring services to foster youth are subject to the requirement for a criminal background check, and that there are two processes by which a person may undergo the criminal background check process. One background check process is used when instigated by a licensed foster family agency or foster family home. Under current law, DOJ and DSS cannot charge a fee for the state criminal record background check for foster family agencies and foster family homes. A second background check process also used by volunteer mentors is through application as a Trustline provider. Trustline is California’s registry of unlicensed, in-home child care providers, tutors, and counselors.

AB 1982 Bass/Coto Public benefits. Died in Rules Committee

Extends eligibility for Kin-Gap assistance to wards of the juvenile court that meet specified criteria in addition to dependents of the juvenile court. Kin-Gap was created in 1998 to give relatives an option of taking permanent custody of foster children, avoiding continued supervision of the child welfare agency and juvenile court, and receive assistance at the higher foster care payment rate than would be available under the CalWORKs program. The program is intended to encourage permanent and stable placements of youth with family.

AB 2031 Cohn Dependent children. Vetoed by governor

Requires the State Department of Social Services (DSS) to work with stakeholders to draft best practices guidelines for using advanced technology to assist counties in identifying all relatives and non-relative extended family members for foster children. The author indicates that advanced technologies for finding relatives and non-relative family members have proven successful in eight California counties and in other states such as Washington and Illinois. Internet searches and other innovative approaches are used. The proposed best practice guidelines are intended to promote the use of these approaches in more counties so that more children are reunited and placed with family members. Supporters of the bill indicate that placing children with relatives or extended family members increases the child’s likelihood of successful outcomes.

AB 2060 De La Torre Naturalization services. Chapter 515, Statutes of 2006

Establishes the Naturalization Services Program that is to be administered within the California Department of Community Services and Development (DCS). This bill codifies the Naturalization Services Program, which is an existing program funded in the Budget Act for the past eight years. During the 2004-05 fiscal year, $1.5 million was approved for this program.

AB 2184 Bogh Residential facilities Chapter 746, Statutes of 2006

land use regulations.

Provides that the state statute governing zoning and conditional use permits for residential care facilities for six or fewer persons shall not be construed to prohibit a local public entity from enforcing a local ordinance.

AB 2192 Bass CalWORKs. Vetoed by governor

Permits persons convicted of felony crimes involving use or possession of drugs to qualify for California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) under specified circumstances. This bill partially opts California out of the lifetime ban on CalWORKs benefits for persons convicted of drug-related felonies to the same extent that AB 1796 (Leno), Chapter 932, Statutes of 2004, opted the state out of the ban as applied to food stamps. According to estimates from the Department of Social Services, 373 persons are denied CalWORKs each month because of the drug felon prohibition. The Assembly Appropriations Committee estimates that about half of these individuals will qualify for cash aid under the provisions of this bill. This bill is identical to last year's AB 855 (Bass), which was vetoed by the governor.

AB 2193 Hancock Developmental services To inactive file

direct-care workers.

Establishes budgeting standards based on optimal caseload standards for the child welfare services program. According to the author, “excessive workloads for county social workers seriously impede services to children and families and thwarts counties from reaching desired outcomes in child welfare. As a result, children and families suffer. A number of factors have contributed to increased workload. The past 20 years has seen a significant increase in drug use, family violence and family dysfunction. These issues have exacerbated the complexity and severity of the problems that face the children and families served by our child welfare system. New, often unfunded state laws, regulations and court decisions further strain social workers in meeting various mandates. As a result, social workers today face tremendous hardship in meeting workload demands within a complex child welfare system.”

AB 2194 Bass Independent Living Program. Died in Appropriations Comm.

To the extent funds are available, continues foster care independent living program (ILP) services for foster care youth placed with nonrelative guardians and expands ILP services to include foster adopted after 14 years of age. ILP services are provided by counties to current and former foster youth to assist in the transition to independent living. Services vary greatly by county. Among other services, ILP services may include job placement, assistance with employment training and education, classes on budgeting and housekeeping, and help accessing health care and housing. Foster youth typically become eligible to receive ILP services sometime between age 16 and the date of emancipation from foster care, usually at age 18, depending on the services provided by the county. Federal ILP funds may be used for youth still in foster care and between the ages of 16 and 21, plus 14 and 15 year olds who are deemed likely to emancipate.

AB 2195 Bass Foster caregivers: Chapter 383, Statutes of 2006

placement options.

Establishes procedures for emergency assessment and approval of relatives or non-relative extended family members as caregivers when the primary foster caregiver becomes unable to provide care. This bill clarifies existing law to allow the use of emergency placements with relatives or non-relative extended family members throughout a child’s stay in foster care. This bill would establish procedures for the assessment and approval of these emergency placements when the primary foster caregiver suddenly becomes unavailable to provide care. The proposed procedures for assessment and approval would be similar to the existing procedures used when a child first enters foster care and is placed with a relative.