AB 2043: Foster children and youth: family urgent response system.

Existing law, commonly known as Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), states the intent of the Legislature in adopting CCR to improve Californias child welfare system and its outcomes by using comprehensive initial child assessments, increasing the use of home-based family care and the provision of services and supports to home-based family care, reducing the use of congregate care placement settings, and creating faster paths to permanency resulting in shorter durations of involvement in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Existing law, as part of the CCR, requires the State Department of Social Services to implement a resource family approval process, which replaces the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, certifying foster homes by foster family agencies, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving guardians and adoptive families.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations, stating the intent of the Legislature in adopting this bill to build upon the current CCR implementation effort. The bill would require the department to establish a statewide hotline, operational no later than January 1, 2020, as the entry point for a Family Urgent Response System, as defined, to respond to calls from caregivers or current or former foster children or youth when a crisis arises, as specified. The bill would require the hotline to include, among other things, referrals to the county, as specified, for further support and in-person response. The bill would require the department to ensure that deidentified, aggregated data are collected regarding individuals served through the hotline and to publish a report on the departments Internet Web site by January 1, 2021, and annually by January 1 thereafter, including specified information.

This bill would require, no later than January 1, 2020, county child welfare, probation, and behavioral health agencies, in each county or region of counties, as specified, to establish a joint county-based Family Urgent Response System that includes a mobile response and stabilization team to provide stabilization services for caregivers and current or former foster children or youth who are experiencing a crisis. The bill would require those agencies to submit a single, coordinated plan to the department, no later than November 1, 2019, describing how the system would meet specified requirements. The bill would authorize those agencies to implement these provisions on a per-county basis or by collaborating with other counties to establish regional, cross-county Family Urgent Response Systems, as specified. By creating new duties for county officials relating to foster care services, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Health Care Services, no later than March 1, 2019, to issue all necessary guidance for county-based Family Urgent Response Systems established pursuant to these provisions.

This bill would make the implementation of this act contingent upon the appropriation of funds for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or another statute.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.