The Fostering Connections Resource Center gratefully acknowledges the National Conference of State Legislatures for sharing its tracking information about pending and enacted legislation. Please visit NCSL for additional information.
Enacted Kinship/Guardianship Legislation in California
Fostering Connections to Success Act
Bill: AB 12; Status: Enacted
Summary: Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.
Sponsored by Assembly Members Beall and Bass, with principal co-author, Senator Liu
Dependent Children & Relative Caregivers
Bill: AB 938, Chapter 261; Status: Enacted
Summary: Requires a social worker, when a child is removed from the home, to immediately begin conducting an investigation in order to identify and locate all grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult relative of the child, in order to provide those persons with specified information, including that the child has been removed from the custody of his or her parents or guardians and an explanation of various options to participate in placement of the child.
Sponsored by Assembly Judiciary Committee
Child Welfare Services for Foster Care & Adoption
Bill: SB 597, Chapter 339; Status: Enacted
Summary: Makes amendments necessary to be consistent with the requirements set forth in the federal Fostering Connections Act. These include requiring the State Department of Social Services to exercise diligence to identify and provide notice to all adult grandparents and close relatives of the child; requiring the Department, in consultation with pediatricians, health care experts, and experts in and recipients of child welfare services to develop a plan for the ongoing oversight and coordination of health care services for a child in a foster care placement; and requiring the department or licensed adoption agency to provide information regarding the federal adoption tax credit for any individual who is adopting or considering adopting a child in foster care.
Sponsored by Senator Liu
