From Sacramento and Your Neighborhood

Greetings Neighbors! Over the course of the 2005 legislative session, one of my proudest moments was shepherding through my package of foster care youth initiatives into law. These four pieces of legislation will help to provide our foster youth with the stability they need to become successful citizens. I would like to share with you some of the changes these new laws will bring when they become effective on January 1st.

The first bill, AB 519, addresses the problem of “legal orphans” -- children who have been freed for adoption, but have yet to be adopted. These children, separated from parents who may have abused or neglected them, also suffer the permanent loss of their legal relationships to grandparents, siblings, and other relatives. Roughly one in six children in foster care for more than three years falls into this category. And under previous law, juvenile courts had no power to set aside, change, or modify an order terminating parental rights once made -- even when all parties agreed that there had been a material change of circumstances in which it was now in the child’s best interest to have a parental relationship restored.

AB 519 allows legally-orphaned children, through their court-appointed dependency attorneys, to petition the court to restore parental rights if, after the passage of at least three years, they can show that they are no longer likely to be adopted and that reinstatement of parental rights would be in their best interest.

The second bill, AB 1412, will help ensure that, eventually, no child will be emancipated from the foster youth system without a loving connection to a committed adult -- a top-priority bill sponsored by the San Francisco-based California Youth Connection, an organization of current and former foster youth working for positive change in the foster care system. Currently, social workers are required to ask foster youth over the age of 10 who have been placed in group homes for periods longer than six months about important relationships they may have with caring adults, and work to maintain those relationships during the youth’s time in foster care.. This bill sets forth an orderly phase-in that will eventually extend this requirement to maintain important adult relationships for every foster youth over the age of 10, regardless of her/his foster care placement.

This new law will help foster youth maintain relationships with committed adults to help them through the bad times, provide guidance and celebrate their successes. Foster youth point to the need for a “forever family” as their most critical need as they age out of foster care and begin life on their own.

The third bill, AB 1261 recognizes the importance of stability and continuity of school placement in the success of foster youths’ educational outcomes. Frequent placement moves, delays and difficulties in transferring educational records, and the general upheaval associated with family crises make it difficult for foster youth to keep up and do well in school. This bill, in conjunction with a landmark 2003 law, clarifies that foster children have the right to remain in their school of origin until the end of the school year and requires that school records be immediately transferred and granted immediate enrollment even if there are outstanding fees, fines, textbooks or other items due to the school last attended. While a good education is critical to every child’s successful transition to adulthood, it is especially true for children who spend long periods of their childhood in foster care.

Finally, pursuant to the passage of ACR 85, the State of California proclaimed last month, November 2005, to be Court Adoption and Permanency Month, in which California’s courts and local communities showcased their joint efforts to decrease the number of children waiting for permanent, safe homes and families.

It is my hope that these new laws will help strengthen our foster youth system. But it is not only foster youth who need our care and guidance

That is why I hosted our 2nd Annual Young Women’s Conference, “Own It: Your Body, Mind and Life” on October 21st, meant to give our City’s young high-school women the opportunity to share personal struggles and common goals. One hundred young women from nine of our area high schools and youth centers took part in the conference. The event was co-sponsored with Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (PPGG) and featured such speakers as District Attorney Kamala Harris, Community Youth Center’s Sarah Wan, PPGG’s Dian Harrison, African-American Art Culture Complex’s London Breed, Asian Women’s Shelter’s Beckie Masaki, CHALK’s Taneika Jones, and the Center for Young Women’s Development’s Marlene Sanchez. Additionally, this month I will host our 2nd Bi-Annual Young Men’s Conference.

Our young people are truly our greatest resource, and we must do everything we can to give them what they need to thrive. Each of them deserves protection, guidance, resources, understanding and love. We all have the opportunity to provide these essentials to young people in one way or another. It’s our job to seek out those opportunities.

If you would like more information about my package of foster youth laws that will take effect this January, or on my local youth conferences, please feel free to contact my office here in San Francisco, 415-557-3013, or email me directly at Assemblymember.Leno@asm.ca.gov.