(SACRAMENTO, CA)  The Assembly Human Services Committee passed a bill authored by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, that will require the state to develop criteria for monitoring the use of psychotropic drugs by foster youth to determine if they are being overmedicated.

Assembly Bill 1330 passed with a vote of 5-0.  It now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for further review.

“I have heard horror stories about foster youth being given pills instead of counseling in order to cope with anxieties from being in state care,” says Evans.  “Medication without counseling isn’t treatment.  We need to see if abuses are occurring to protect these children.”

Sponsored by the California Chapter of the NAACP, AB 1330 would require the state Department of Social Services to collect data about foster youth who are prescribed psychotropic medication, including:

• The youth’s sex, age, ethnicity or race;
• The number of years the youth has been in the foster care system;
• The type of placement within the system; and
• The type of drug prescribed.

“There is no way for the state to know how many foster kids are taking these medications that can have very strong side effects,” adds Evans.

Nationwide, more than 500,000 children live in foster care.  In California, we have nearly 80,000 children in foster care.  This is the largest foster care population in the nation and it has tripled in the past 20 years.  In other states, including Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, inspections have discovered high numbers of foster youth on psychotropic drugs.  No such data, however, is available for California to study. 

“This bill is a good first step to help assure that foster youth are receiving the care they deserve,” concludes Evans.

Further information about AB 1330 is available online at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov.