Assembly Standing Committee on Human Services

This hearing of the Assembly Committee on Human Services to order. Today, once we have established a quorum, we have four measures on the agenda, one of which is a consent. Please note that we limit testimony to two witnesses in support and two witnesses in opposition. Each witness has two minutes to testify.

All additional witnesses will be limited to stating their name, organization if they represent one, and their position on the bill. I also want to note that we are accepting written testimony through the position letter portal on the committee's website. Lastly, I would like to address disruptions during the hearing.

Conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of this hearing is prohibited. If disruptive behavior occurs today, you will be removed from the hearing room by the Assembly sergeants. Seeing as we do not yet have a forum, we will start as a Subcommittee and we will go in file item.

We will start with file item number one, AB 1574 by Assemblymember Chris Rogers. And you may approach the desk when he is ready. You may begin.

Thanks so much, Mr. Chair. We are here today to present AB 1574. This bill might sound relatively familiar to Members. This is a redo of a bill that we focused on last year that had universal bipartisan support in the Legislature.

The goal of the bill is to expand access to diversion services to keep our tribal youth out of the foster care system. As many of you know, there's a legacy of forced assimilation in California that has led to an overrepresentation of foster youth in the system. In fact, in Humboldt County, which I represent, foster

40% of all of the foster care system are youth that come from tribes. So this would expand the ability for additional tribes to participate and their role within that. And I'll let the California Family Tribal- Tribal Families Coalition take over here.

We have the vice chairperson from the Pechanga Tribe, Councilwoman Catalina Chacon, as well as the staff attorney, Senior Staff Attorney Denise Wright.

All right, go ahead, please.

Chair Lee, thank you. And Committee, thank you for hearing this today. I speak on behalf of the Pechangan Band and also a co sponsor of AB 1574, and I ask that you support this bill as well. My name is Catalina Chacon, and I'm a Member of the Pechanga Band of Indians and where I serve as a councilwoman.

I'm here today not only as a councilwoman, but also in my capacity as a vice chairwoman of the California Tribal Families Coalition, both co sponsors of this bill. As Assembly Rogers has said, the Indian Child Welfare act was passed over 45 years ago and it's the most important civil rights law of the 20th century for native people.

I've been involved with ICWA for over 12 years and I was a champion of the legislation and work done to codify ICWA into state law. ICWA is incredibly important to me as a Native woman. For generations, Native children were taken from their families and communities, which cause deep harm to our cultures and identities.

ICWA helps us make sure that our children stay connected to their families, tribes, traditions, and whenever possible. To me, it represents protection for our kids and respect for our sovereignty. And it helps ensure that future generations can grow up knowing who they are and where they come from. I see the negative impacts in my community every day.

Native children are still overly represented in the California child welfare system at a rate close to five times higher than that of white children. AB 1574 attempts to support that promise of ICWA, which is to prevent the breakup of tribal families by building on current law to prevent our children from entering foster care.

Tribes are best positioned to do this work directly with our own families because we know how to provide programs that our families need. Tribes are best positioned to efficient- efficiently deliver services that also support connections to our culture and our community.

California has developed its approach to provide these new early intervention and prevention programs, but tribes have largely- largely been left out. This is a serious mistake AB 1574 will fix.

Failing to provide funding to do this work for tribes and by only looking to community based organizations and counties, we again fail those children most disproportionately impacted and involved in the child welfare system.

Expanding the ability of tribes to provide behavioral health and parenting support services for those families at risk of entering the child welfare system will improve our outcomes for our families, reduce the number of children going into the foster care system, and reduce the pressure on already overburdened county systems.

This grant program created by this bill will ensure that that can happen. Please join me in supporting AB 1574. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much. Next witness please.

Thank you. Chairman Lee, Assembly Members. My name is Denise Winn Wright and I'm a senior staff attorney with the California Tribal Families Coalition. I also belong to the Medici and Ajumawi bands of the Pit River Tribe. My father was Ajumawi, my mother was Medesi. My mother was also a teenage runaway.

At the age of 13, she became pregnant and lost her first child two years afterwards. She ended up coping with this through the method of alcohol. She met my father at 16 and they married at 17 and 18 years old. My siblings and I were born and raised in our ancestral territory.

I am the second attorney to ever come from the Pit River Tribe. I am the first attorney to ever come from our homelands.

So every day I represent Indian tribes in ICWA proceedings and as a tribal member, I see the impacts of child removals and separations as well as the lack of intensive services to reunite families once children have been removed. One of ICWA's promises is to prevent the removal of tribal children from their families.

But even with ICWA in place, tribal children are still entering foster care way more frequently than their non native counterparts. In some counties, Native children represent over a third of all foster kids of all kids in foster care.

As a state, California has been moving away from funding focused on caring for kids only once they are in the system. California has been focused on more resources to prevent kids from entering foster care. There is no question this is the correct policy shift.

In fact, the Department of Social Services has stated in its prevention plan that a primary purpose of the prevention focus is to reduce the continuing disparate entry of tribal children into foster care.

Yet while tribes and tribal organizations are often on the front line providing services and support for Native American children and families, they do not receive funding to do so through any existing funded programs run by the State of California.

Despite reducing county workload and costs, AB 1574 would open the door for this policy shift to include tribes to allow tribes to target in a culturally relevant and tribally efficient way early prevention services that are needed in that tribal community. Key here is that tribes are smaller, more efficient systems. They know what their citizens need.

They can efficiently and effectively deploy needed services to prevent families entering the system. And allowing tribes to do this themselves decreases the burden on county systems. And we anticipate with this type of support, tribes can have a tremendous impact on reducing the number of children entering foster care.

In just one example, we wish to highlight a tribal prevention program that received just a small amount of support from their local county was able to reduce the number of children entering foster care by 98%.

Not only will tribally based prevention programs preserve families and reduce the long term social costs and negative outcomes for Indian children, we estimate that it would also save the State of California over $40 million annually in foster care related costs.

With the important benefits for children, family and tribes this program could make, we ask you to support AB 1574. With AB 1574, children entering the foster care systems can not only raise lawyers, but they can also become them too. We ask for your support.

Thank you very much. Seeing as the quorum is now present. Madam Secretary, could you please call roll to establish quorum?

[quorum is established].

Now that we establish a quorum, we can move on with the bill soon. Are there any members of the public who testify in support of the bill? Please come up to the microphone. Name organization?

Apollo Treat on behalf of Pechanga, Tojon and the Calusa Tribes. Wholeheartedly supporting.

Thank you.

Ann Quirk, policy attorney with Children's Law Center of California in support.

Thank you.

Alex Salinese on behalf of the The Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake in support.

Good afternoon, Chair. Nick Broca on behalf of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. In support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Alexis Rodriguez with the County Welfare Directors Association in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Scott Govenar on behalf of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. In support.

Dawn Koepke on behalf of the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation as well as the Child Abuse Prevention Center and California Family Resource Association, all in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

How do you do? My name is Afred Borges on behalf of the Santa Rosa Rancheria of Tachi Yokut Indians. We're in support.

Thank you. Now, do we have any witnesses in opposition to the bill? Any members of the public who should testify in opposition to the bill, please come to the microphone. Seeing none, we'll bring back the Committee. Committee Members, any questions or comments or motions?

Second.

All right, I may. I will invite the author to close.

Yeah, absolutely. I just want to thank the councilwoman as well as everyone who's been a good partner in this effort. As you heard, there's a shameful legacy that we're trying to address in California, and you all were a part of it last year. The bill was vetoed.

We made some changes to conform to the veto message, and we're really optimistic that this could have a huge impact in many of our communities. With that, I respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Thank you so much, Assembly Rogers, for bringing this bill forward. I appreciate you trying again and making sure that all children in California have equal access to prevention funds, especially our youth from tribal backgrounds.

I would be happy to also be a co author on your bill with you, and this time, hopefully, we'll push it, pass the veto and get it done. All right. The bill was moved by Assemblymember Tangipa and seconded by Assemblymember Elhawary. Madam Secretary, please call the roll on this bill.

File item 1, AB 1574. The motion is to pass to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. [roll call].

Six to zero. That bill is out. Congratulations.

Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

All right. Assembly Member Rogers, I know you have one more bill for us. It is AB 1618. So whenever you're ready, you may begin on that.

All right, thank you so much. Our second bill is AB 1618. As many of you know, the United States Department of Agriculture has annually conducted a hunger survey. That survey has helped us to better understand what is happening in our local communities, as well as to be able to inform the use of resources that are scarce. That survey has been discontinued from the federal government as of last September.

So this bill proposes to pick up that slack and to make sure that we don't pretend that hunger is no longer happening because we stopped measuring it. This bill would have the California Department of Social Services maintain that survey going forward in years when the federal government does not do so so that we can still better inform our local communities and talk about poverty the way that we should.

With me to present on the bill is Yesenia Robancho, who's the Associate Director of Policy and Strategy for End Child Poverty, as well as Brian Leahy, who is the former director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulations, and he is here with AARP.

Great. Two minutes each witness, please, and just to clarify, Assembly Member, you are taking the committee amendments?

Yes. Correct.

Great. Thank you.

And I want to thank the committee for working with us on those.

Absolutely. Thank you. All right, two minutes each, please.

Hello, Chair and members. Again, my name is Yesenia Robancho, Associate Director of Policy and Strategy at End Child Poverty California. As mentioned, in September of last year, the USDA announced it would terminate future data collection for its annual household food security report.

This announcement followed President Trump's signing of HR 1, which makes the largest cuts in the history of the CalFresh program and is estimated to put nearly 1 million Californian households at risk of losing food benefits. For decades, the U.S. has relied on consistent data to understand hunger in this country.

In the 1980s, the Food Research and Action Center convened academics, advocates, and researchers to create the first comprehensive study of childhood hunger. At that time, it was called the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project.

That work inspired a campaign to establish a national measure of food insufficiency, and in 1995, USDA and the Census Bureau began to include food security questions in their national surveys. In October, the latest report showed 47.4 million people, including 13.8 million children, faced food insecurity in 2023 in this country. In California, 22% of all households and 27% of households with children experience food insecurity.

This means that more than one in five Californians, about 8.8 million, are hungry. Meanwhile, Black and Latina households are disproportionately experiencing food insecurity rates. Discontinuing longstanding survey data invisibilizes hunger in America, but let's be clear. Hiding data does not solve hunger.

What it does is remove transparency and accountability at a time when policies are pushing more families toward hunger and poverty. AB 1618 is a step in the right direction to ensure families experiencing hunger are not made invisible. At a time when access to public data is under attack, California must stand with communities and ensure their experiences are seen and counted. And for these reasons, we urge your aye vote. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Next witness, please.

Good afternoon.

Use the microphone.

Okay.

We want to make sure they can hear what you say.

Okay. Yes, that's nice. Good afternoon, Chair and members. My name is Brian Leahy, and I'm a volunteer member of AARP's Capital Response Team, speaking on behalf of AARP's 3.2 million members in California. As a former farmer and legal service attorney, food and food insecurity are issues that I care about deeply.

They are also a national priority for AARP and the AARP Foundation, which is why AARP is proud to co-sponsor AB 1618. The need to collect reliable data on food insecurity in California has never been more urgent. Food insecurity among older Californians is on the rise.

AARP reported that 1.4 million Californians over 50 qualified as food insecure, even before the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill last year. In 2025, AARP estimated that further federal policy changes will lead to millions of Californians losing their CalFresh benefits, including nearly one and a half million Californians over the age of 50.

Now that the United States Department of Agriculture has terminated its food insecurity survey, it is imperative that California acts swiftly to implement its own food insecurity survey.

The survey will provide crucial data to the State of California, California's counties and cities, food banks, and community-based organizations serving low-income Californians so that-- provided targeted services and support for food insecurity Californians. It's well-established that you can't manage what you don't measure. Reliable data is the foundation of effective policy and the ability to monitor policy results, so we urge your support for AB 1618, and thank you very much.

Thank you. Now do we have any members of the public who wish to sway in support of the bill? Please come to the microphone. Name and organization, please. One second, one second. Let's turn on the mic.

Hi. Good afternoon. Nick Lapis with Californians Against Waste, and I've also been asked to express the support of the California Food Recovery Coalition. Thank you.

Josh Wright, on behalf of the California Association of Food Banks and Western Center on Law and Poverty, in support.

Alexis Rodriguez with the County Welfare Directors Association, in support.

Josh Gauger with the Urban Counties of California and the Rural County Representatives of California, in support.

Mr. Chair and members, Adam Keigwin, on behalf of No Kid Hungry, in support.

Great, thank you. Now, do we have any witnesses in opposition to the bill? Any members of the public who wish to testify in opposition to the bill, please come to the microphone. Seeing none, we'll come back to the dais to the members. Assembly Member Tangipa and then Assembly Member Jackson.

Just wanted to be brief and just say, you know, I thank the author for bringing this bill. I think it's a good local control. We should be measuring what-- especially people in California. I've received benefits, gone to the food banks myself, grew up in that community, and for us to make sure that we're solving properly, we need the proper measurements. So thank you. And I move the bill.

All right. Thank you. Assembly Member Jackson.

Assembly Member Rogers, I want to congratulate you on yet another fantastic bill. As you know, as we're trying to make sure that our social safety net is even more resilient from the federal government or any other entity, that it's important that we start building the internal infrastructure to be able to make sure that our work continues. And so, thank you for this bill, and look forward to continuing to support it.

Thank you. Any other members? Seeing none, I'll invite the author to close.

Yeah, I just-- I want to thank everybody for the support. You know, I've been really thinking about the legislation we work on this year in two buckets. One is obviously a response to what's happening at the federal level, but more importantly, is addressing issues that California had before, and the amount of people that we have living in poverty in the most prosperous state, the most prosperous nation in the history of the world is shameful and it's something that we should have been taking more time in California to address.

We've got a push from the federal government to do it here and to build some resources around it, and I'm just grateful for all of you for your support to be able to continue those efforts moving forward.

Thank you, Assembly Member Rogers. I couldn't put it better than you just did. It's really a shame that we have to expend our own resources, whereas the federal government has let us access data beforehand so that we could actually work on food insecurity, but it is true you can't manage something you don't measure.

So I am recommending an aye with amendments on this. The bill was moved by Assembly Member Tangipa and it is seconded by Assembly Member Jackson. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

File Item Three, AB 1618: the motion is do pass as amended to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. [Roll call].

Thank you, everybody.

Five to zero. That bill's out. Thank you. Now, Assembly Member Carrillo, I know you've been waiting patiently for File Item Number Four: 1688, so you may come up to the desk with your witnesses when you are ready. You may begin whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members. Thank you for allowing me to present Assembly Bill 1688. First, I would like to thank the committee for their work on this bill, and I will be accepting the committee's amendments.

AB 1688 is a measure that will provide a greater degree of transparency, accountability for attorneys and guardians of dependents in the California foster care system. Currently, in cases of suspicion of abuse or neglect, only the attorneys of children suspected of being abused directly are the only parties alerted of these allegations.

This creates a gap in reporting, allowing other youth in the same foster placement to potentially be subject to the same abuse or neglect. For context, Children's Bureau reports that some 68,000 children move in and out of the California foster care system annually, with more than half of the foster youth being housed in Southern California.

Within Los Angeles County, general neglect made up to 39.2% of referrals to foster home, with 19.4% being at risk due to their sibling being abused and 15.6% being physically abused. In a 2022 study, it was found that 169 children in California were victims of abuse or maltreatment by their foster parents.

Nationally, six children passed away due to abuse or maltreatment from their foster parents. As it stands, there is no legal requirement to provide notice to the parents or attorneys of other children in the same placement that their client or child is being housed in a foster location where abuse has occurred.

And due to this, too many children are falling through the cracks of our state's foster system because of this oversight and the child welfare reporting process. That is why I'm here today to introduce AB 1688 to protect our most vulnerable populations of children that must traverse and navigate the complexities of foster care system and aid their guardians that depend on them for support.

In order to continue protecting foster youth throughout California, we must ensure that there are effective interventions to close the holes in our state safety net in reporting allegations of child abuse or neglect in foster homes.

This piece of legislation will be a critical step forward to ensure that those that will come after us are cared for in a safe and secure environment. Joining me to testify in support and answer technical questions is Ann Quirk with the Children's Law Center.

Great. Thank you. Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Chair Lee and members of the committee. I am Ann Quirk, policy attorney with Children's Law Center of California. We're the dependency attorneys for children in the dependency system in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Placer Counties. As the attorney of the child in California, we hold a special position.

We are both the lawyer and the CAPTA GAL, or in simple terms, our job is to make sure everyone knows what our client wants and to advocate for their safety and protection. For this reason, we are proud to co-sponsor AB 1688, which addresses a critical gap in child safety within the child welfare system.

As mentioned, under current law, if there's a reasonable suspicion of abuse or neglect within foster care, the attorney for the child is notified. AB 1688 adds two additional important safeguards. Notice is also given to the attorney for the parents so we can all work together and quickly get that child what they need.

And because most placements have more than one child in them and those children will have different social workers, different attorneys, may even be from different counties, notice is given to the attorneys for the other children in the placement as well.

The child's privacy is protected so no details are shared, but it alerts those attorneys to go check in with their client and ensure they are safe. Foster care should provide safety, not cause more harm. AB 1688 helps ensure that attorneys have the info they need, information they need to act swiftly and protect vulnerable children. We thank Assembly Member Carrillo for authoring this important bill and we respectfully request your aye vote.

Thank you very much. Now, do we have members of the public who wish to testify in support of the bill? Please come to the microphone now. Are there any witnesses in opposition to the bill? Please come up. Any members of the public wish to sway in opposition to the bill? Also seeing none, I'll bring it back to the committee for any comments, questions, motions. Vice Chair Castillo, you want to make a comment, you said? Okay.

I am a therapist, I'm sure you know, a dual-licensed therapist. I used to work for the county with severe persistent. I worked with a lot of kids who were in foster care. I happened to work with little kids as well, and as a mandated reporter, there were plenty of times where I had to make a new report because of the home, because of a child in that home that now abused these new children in the home, and I can tell you how many times nothing was done regarding that.

And I'm like, why am I a mandated reporter if nothing gets done? And I just feel like there does need to be more eyes on that. You know, there does need to be a change for that because it's not okay for kids to be placed in placement and then be abused worse than what they were in in their home, you know. Or they didn't come from abuse; maybe the parent was on, you know, substances and, you know, what happened.

Then they go and get sexually abused in a new home. So I strongly support this, I thank you for this bill, and if you don't mind, I would like to actually sign onto it with you.

I want to thank you for sharing your experience. It's obviously very valuable what your experience brings to this issue. We will make sure that office gets with your office and then we can communicate with the committee to make sure that happens. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Assembly Member Jackson, make a comment as well?

I want to echo the Assembly Member's sentiments. You know, through college, back when-- in the old group home system, I worked at a Level 12 group home, and for those in the helping professions, we commonly say, hurt people hurt people, and that is true for our young people as well.

And as a matter of fact, there's a common occurrence. There's a lot of alpha dog mentality in these facilities and force is often used on their peers. And so you're right, we should make sure that we figure out and continuing to find ways to ensure that as many people are notified when a child has become abused, even if it's from one of their peers in the same facility. So well done. Looking forward to supporting the bill.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Any other members? Questions? Comment? All right. I think Vice Chair Castillo beat you to it. All right. I'll invite the author to close.

I want to thank you, Mr. Chair, and the rest of the committee for their support. This bill will strengthen protections for foster children by creating more transparency in notifying relevant parties of substantial allegations of abuse or neglect, ensuring that children are protected. I respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. This bill's been properly moved and seconded by Assembly Member Tangipa and Assembly Member Castillo. I appreciate you bringing this bill forward and working on this bill with us and my committee staff. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

File Item 4: AB 1688: the motion is do pass as amended to the Assembly Public Safety Committee. [Roll call].

Six/zero. That bill is out.

Thank you.

All right, members. We only have the Consent Calendar to move, so if I could get a motion on the Consent Calendar? Moved by Assembly Member Elhawary; seconded by Assembly Member Calderon. For the Consent Calendar, Madam Secretary, please read the bills on the Consent Calendar.

[Roll Call]

All right. Madam Secretary, please call the roll for the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Madam Secretary. Yes. And then, Madam Secretary, you may call the roll for absent Members to add on. But that is all the business for today.

[Roll Call]

All right, thank you, Members. Business before the Assembly. Human Services Committee is now complete. The hearing is now adjourned.