(1) Existing law, until January 1, 2023, suspends, by operation of law, a money judgment or order for support of a child for any period exceeding 90 consecutive days in which the person ordered to pay support is incarcerated or involuntarily institutionalized unless the person owing support has the means to pay while incarcerated or involuntarily institutionalized or the person was incarcerated or involuntarily institutionalized for domestic violence against the supported party or supported child. Under existing law, the obligation resumes on the first day of the first full month after the release of the person owing support.
This bill would make the suspension effective on the first day of the first full month of incarceration or involuntary institutionalization. The bill would include involuntary confinement in a federal prison in the definition of "incarceration or involuntarily institutionalized" for this purpose. The bill would eliminate the exemption from suspension for a person owing support who was incarcerated or involuntarily institutionalized for domestic violence, thereby allowing the suspension of a money judgment or order against that person. The bill would make these provisions applicable to any child support obligation that accrues regardless of when the child support order was established.
Existing law sets a statewide uniform guideline for determining child support and requires the Judicial Council to periodically review that guideline to recommend appropriate revisions, including economic data on the cost of raising children and an analysis of guidelines and studies from other states.
The bill would require the Judicial Council to include other data in its periodic review of the statewide uniform guideline for child support, including, among other things, labor market data, such as employment and unemployment rates.
Existing law establishes a formula for determining the annual gross income of each parent, including authorizing the court to consider the earning capacity of a parent in lieu of the parent's income, consistent with the best interests of the children and the time the parent spends with the children.
This bill would require the court, when determining earning capacity for this purpose, to consider the specific circumstances of the parent, including the parent's assets, educational attainment, health, and other factors. The bill would also prohibit the court from considering incarceration or involuntary institutionalization as voluntary unemployment in establishing and modifying support orders.
(2) Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. Under existing law, a recipient of CalWORKs aid is required to assign to the county any rights to support from any other person that the recipient may have, on their behalf, or on behalf of any other family member for whom the recipient is receiving aid, not exceeding the total amount of CalWORKs cash assistance provided to the family. Existing law requires a specified amount of child support collected in a month in payment of the required child support obligation for that month to be paid to a recipient of CalWORKs aid, and prohibits this amount from being considered income or resources of the recipient family or being deducted from the amount of aid to which the family would otherwise be eligible. Existing law requires a local child support agency that is collecting support payments on behalf of a child and who is unable to deliver the payments to the obligee to make reasonable efforts to locate the obligee for a period of 6 months and, after that period, return the undeliverable payments to the obligor, as specified.
This bill would require any amount of child support collected in a month in payment of an assigned support obligation to be passed through to a former recipient of CalWORKs aid except recipients of specified foster care payments. The bill would require the local child support agency in each county to ensure that payments are made to former recipients. The bill would require aid that cannot be delivered to a former recipient of aid for a period of 6 months to instead be sent to recoup aid paid on behalf of the recipient, as specified. The bill would make those provisions operative on July 1, 2023, or when the Department of Child Support Services provides the Legislature with a specified notification and another condition is met, whichever date is later. The bill would require the Department of Child Support Services to monitor the number of claims made after payments are sent for recoupment and to provide this information to specified committees of the Legislature no later than April 1, 2025, or 2 years and 3 months after the operative date of a provision of a statute, whichever date is later. The bill would require, no later than May 1, 2023, the Department of Social Services, in collaboration with the Department of Child Support Services, to submit a report to specified committees of each house of the Legislature providing an evaluation of the passthrough provision, as specified.
Existing law precludes a specified portion of an amount, as established by statute, of any amount of child support received each month from being considered income or resources and prohibits the specified portion of an established amount from being deducted from the amount of aid to which the assistance unit would be eligible if the income of the assistance unit, as specified, includes reasonably anticipated income derived from child support.
This bill, on January 1, 2024, or the date when the Department of Social Services has made a specified determination, whichever is later, would define the reasonably anticipated income as support, as defined, and include an amount passed through, as provided above, as an established amount, of any amount of support received from being deducted from the amount of aid to which an assistance unit would be eligible. The bill would also exempt any support payments, as defined, that does not require assignment or cooperation with a local child support agency from consideration as income and resources for purposes of determining initial and continued eligibility and grant amount for the CalWORKs program.
This bill would renumber another provision relating to the duties of local child support agencies. To the extent that this bill increases duties of a local child support agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(3) Existing law declares a commitment by the Legislature to provide a General Fund augmentation for the Department of Child Support Services to implement a full passthrough of child support payments collected to families currently receiving CalWORKs benefits.
This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the Department of Child Support Services, to convene a workgroup that consists of representatives from the Legislature, the Department of Child Support Services, and the County Welfare Directors Association of California, and advocates for low-income families with children and noncustodial parents. The bill would require the workgroup to meet at least twice to discuss unintended consequences of enacting a full passthrough of child support payments to custodial families currently receiving CalWORKs benefits. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to submit a report, on or before April 1, 2024, to specified committees of the Legislature that, among other things, summarizes the conversations with workgroup participants, and includes proposed mitigation strategies for preventing unintended consequences of a full passthrough of child support payments to families currently receiving CalWORKs benefits.
(4) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish the CalWORKs Outcomes and Accountability Review (Cal-OAR) to facilitate a local accountability system that fosters continuous quality improvement in county CalWORKs programs and in the collection and dissemination by the department of best practices in service delivery.
Existing law requires the department to report to the chairs of specified legislative committees if it finds that a county is experiencing significantly worsening outcomes in its social service programs.
This bill would require the department to consult with the Cal-OAR workgroup in the fall of 2022 to develop recommendations to address the existing emphasis on the federal work participation rate and penalty pass-on structure while optimizing the implementation of the first cycle of the Cal-OAR process. The bill would require the department to submit recommendations to the Legislature on or before April 15, 2023.
(5) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to work with representatives of county human services agencies and the County Welfare Directors Association of California to develop recommendations for revising the methodology used for development of the CalWORKs single allocation annual budget.
This bill would additionally require the department to reconsider the costs of county operations for county administrative costs in the CalWORKs single allocation for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and for every 3rd fiscal year thereafter. The bill would require the department to provide information to the legislative budget committees regarding this reconsideration, as specified.
Existing law requires the department to work with representatives of county human services agencies and the County Welfare Directors Association of California to update the budgeting methodology used to determine the annual funding for county administration of the CalFresh program, and, as part of that process, to examine ongoing workload and costs to counties of expanding the CalFresh program to recipients of Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment Program benefits. Existing law requires legislative staff, advocates, and organizations that represent county workers to be consulted for those purposes.
This bill would require the department to review these county administrative costs for the 2027–28 fiscal year and every 3rd fiscal year thereafter. The bill would additionally require representatives of county human services agencies and the County Welfare Directors Association of California to be consulted for the above-described purposes. The bill would require the department to provide information to the legislative budget committees regarding this review, as specified.
(6) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to implement the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) to administer and evaluate the state's child welfare services and foster care programs. Existing law also requires the department and the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) to seek resources to enable the necessary level of engagement by counties in the Child Welfare Services-New System (CWS-NS) , a successor information system, as specified. Existing law requires the department and OSI to convene a regularly scheduled quarterly forum to provide project updates to stakeholders and legislative staff on, among other things, the progress of CWS-NS development and implementation.
Existing law requires counties to fully utilize the functionality provided by the replacement statewide child welfare information system when it has been implemented statewide.
This bill would authorize the department to implement and administer some of the above-described provisions relating to CWS/CMS and the replacement system through all-county letters or similar instructions, until final regulations are adopted. The bill would require the department to include an update on the development of regulations in the above-described legislative updates, and, by October 1, 2024, to provide a formal update on the status of the development of regulations to the Legislature. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations no later than 24 months after the replacement system is implemented statewide.
The bill would appropriate $3,000,000 in federal funds to the department for the Tribally Approved Homes Compensation Program, as specified.
(7) Existing law requires a social worker, and a probation officer under certain conditions, to conduct an investigation to identify and locate adult relatives of a child who has been taken into temporary custody, as specified, and to provide them with a notification that the child has been removed from the custody of the child's parents, guardians, or Indian custodian, and an explanation of the various options to participate in the care and placement of the child.
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to allocate certain funds through contracts with community-based providers or entities or through local assistance allocations to counties or Indian tribes that support new or expanded programs, services, practices, and training that build system capacity and ensure the provision of a high-quality continuum of care that is designed to support foster children in the least restrictive setting that is consistent with a child's permanency plan. Existing law requires recipients to use the funds for specified purposes, including, among others, family finding and engagement.
This bill would establish, subject to an appropriation, the Excellence in Family Finding, Engagement, and Support Program, to be administered by the department. The bill would require the department to develop an allocation methodology for counties that elect to receive funds under the program and would require the department to make funds available to participating counties according to the allocation methodology on or before March 1, 2023. The bill would require a county that elects to participate in the program to provide a match of local funds, as specified, equal to 12 of all state funds provided to the county under the program.
This bill would also require the department to consult with Indian tribes to develop an allocation methodology and procedures for program participation for Indian tribes, consortia of tribes, or tribal organizations.
Under this bill, allocated funds and the local match provided by counties would be used for specialized permanency work, with a focus on establishing and maintaining permanent connections for foster children, including specified activities. The bill would require a county to provide information to the department on which of the activities the participating county has performed. The bill would authorize a participating county to elect to contract with a nonprofit community-based organization to provide services pursuant to the program. The bill would require funds allocated under the program to be used to supplement, but not supplant, funds for existing family finding and engagement programs, and would require counties to maintain records demonstrating that program funds have not supplanted funding for existing programs.
This bill would require the department to establish procedures for program data collection and reporting by counties and participating tribal entities, and would require the department to establish procedures for tracking and reporting program outcomes measures, as specified.
This bill would require the department, subject to an appropriation, to establish, or contract for the establishment of, the Center for Excellence in Family Finding, Engagement, and Support. The bill would require the center to provide, or contract for the provision of, multitiered, culturally appropriate training and technical assistance to county child welfare and probation departments, participating tribes, and foster care providers, as specified. The bill would require the center to train family finding and engagement program staff to ensure model fidelity and best practices.
This bill would exempt contracts entered into or amended for purposes of the program from specified public contracting requirements and would authorize the department to implement the program through all-county letters or similar written instructions, without taking any further regulatory action.
(8) Existing federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) , governs the proceedings for determining the placement of an Indian child when that child is removed from the custody of the child's parent or guardian. Existing law specifies that the state is committed to protecting the essential tribal relations and best interest of an Indian child by promoting practices in accordance with ICWA. Existing law authorizes a federally recognized tribe to approve a home for the purpose of foster or adoptive placement of an Indian child pursuant to ICWA, and authorizes a tribe to designate a tribal organization to do the same.
This bill would establish the Tribally Approved Homes Compensation Program to provide funding to federally recognized Indian tribes to assist in funding the costs associated with recruiting and approving homes for the purpose of foster or adoptive placement of an Indian child pursuant to ICWA, as described above. The bill, subject to an appropriation for this purpose in the annual Budget Act, would require the State Department of Social Services to provide an annual allocation of $75,000 to those eligible tribes, except that if the annual Budget Act provides for an allocation of more than $75,000 per eligible tribe, then each eligible tribe would receive an adjusted allocation, as specified. The bill would require an Indian tribe, in order to be eligible for the funding allocation, to enter into an agreement, as specified, with the department on or before May 1 prior to the fiscal year for which funding is requested, and would require an Indian tribe that receives funding to submit a progress report describing how the tribe administered the funds to the department on or before September 1 following the close of the fiscal year in which the tribe received a funding allocation. The bill would require the department to annually provide to the budget committees of the Legislature a report summarizing the information and data provided by the Indian tribes in their progress reports.
This bill would also establish the Tribal Dependency Representation Program to provide funding to assist any federally recognized Indian tribe located in California, or with lands that extend into California, in funding legal counsel to represent the Indian tribe in a California Indian child custody proceeding that is initiated or ongoing in the juvenile court. The bill would require an Indian tribe that seeks funding for this purpose to submit an annual letter of interest to the department. The bill would require the department, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for this purpose, to provide each Indian tribe that enters into a specified agreement and submits a letter of interest an annual base allocation of $15,000 for legal counsel, except that if the annual Budget Act provides for an allocation of funds of more than $15,000 per eligible tribe, then each eligible tribe would receive an adjusted allocation, as specified. The bill would require an Indian tribe that receives funds to submit a progress report regarding the number of Indian child custody proceeding hearings to the department on or before September 30 following the close of the fiscal year in which funding was received.
This bill would authorize the department to issue written guidance to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions without taking any regulatory action.
(9) Existing law creates the Office of Youth and