SARA STEFFENS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
March 1, 2006
"We know that the outcomes for foster children are nothing short of tragic in many cases," said Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-El Cerrito, who is among the bills' sponsors
"I think this is the absolutely best shot that we have to make a major improvement in a system that everyone acknowledges is broken."
Contained in 23 separate Assembly and Senate bills, the proposed reforms touch on nearly every aspect of foster care -- from reducing the size of social worker caseloads to increasing stipends for foster families to allowing youth to voluntarily remain in the system through age 21.
Hancock said the package marks the first time she's seen a bipartisan effort to address a major state problem in a coordinated way.
"If we can get this package passed and signed by the governor, it will be a great step forward," she said. "It's long overdue."
The recommendations grew from the work of the Assembly's Select Committee on Foster Care, of which Hancock is a member.
Founded by Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-
Many agencies helped shape the ideas in the reform package, including the California Youth Connection, which advocates for current and former foster youth, the National Center of Youth Law, the Alliance for Children and Families and the state's County Welfare Directors Association.
"I think the political environment around child welfare services and foster care has definitely changed," said Frank Mecca, executive director of CWDA. "The needs of abused and neglected kids and their families is finally about to get the priority attention it deserves."
With about 100,000 children in foster care at any given time, California runs the nation's largest child welfare system.
But the state also has an abysmal record: less than half of foster youth finish high school, most are unemployed the year after they age out of care and as many as a third become homeless within a year of leaving the system.
Among other things, the reform bills call for:
* free tuition for foster youth at UC and CSU schools;
* annual dentist and doctor visits for all foster youth;
* increased stipends for foster families;
* an annual clothing allowance for children who become permanent charges of their relatives;
* allowing youth to voluntarily remain in foster care until age 21;
* restoring annual licensing visits to foster-care homes;
* implementing existing state law to reduce caseloads for social workers;
* increasing state dollars for transitional housing programs for foster youth aging out of care;\
* expanding existing hiring preference programs to provide tax incentive to employers who hire foster youth;
* using technology to help reunite older foster youth with extended family members;
* creating a registry to help siblings find one another after being separated by foster care or adoption;
* allowing former foster youth to continue participating in independent living programs and other transitional services through age 24.
Hancock's bill, AB2161, creates a five-county pilot project to combine foster home licensing, relative caregiver approval and adoptive home studies into a one-time process.
"Right now we have thousands of children in foster care eligible for adoption," she said. "But they stay in foster care because we have overlapping, cumbersome, confusing, duplicative processes."
The bill was inspired, she said, by one of her former interns, who was forced to move from the home of a family friend to a stranger's home, far from her school, because of a licensing technicality.
Sponsors have not yet offered an estimate of the cumulative cost of the reform bills.
But in a year of record investment in state infrastructure, a modest amount of increased spending should be possible to improve the lives of neglected and abused youth,
"We're paying for bad outcomes now," he said. "When foster youth leave the system incarcerated or welfare-dependent, we pay. When they go to group homes instead of family care, we pay. When kids languish in the system as opposed to getting adopted, we pay."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not yet taken a position on the reform package, said spokesman Darrel Ng, but foster care remains a priority for him.
"Last year he signed bills that enhanced the quality of life for foster children and their families," Ng said. "The governor will continue to work within the constraints of the state's continuing budget deficit to improve foster care."
With counties now held accountable for the outcomes of their child-welfare systems, the public has become more interested in the well-being of foster youth, said Danna Fabella, director of Children and Family Services for
"We're more visible as agencies," she said. "Anybody can go to the Web site and look at our data."
Still, she said, the system has no money to pay for services they know that children and families need.
"You can't hold a system totally accountable," Fabella said, "when many of the supports haven't been there."
Fabella said she's enthusiastic about several of the reform proposals, including plans to increase services and funds available to relatives who care for children who would otherwise be in foster homes and the proposal to finally reduce the caseloads of social workers.
In Contra Costa, Fabella said, the average social worker oversees 29 to 35 children at any given time.
"If you have caseloads that are high, you're not going to be able to get to everything," she said. "Your workers can only do so much."
Sara Steffens covers poverty and social services. Reach her at 925-943-8048 or ssteffens@cctimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2006 Contra Costa Times.