Existing law generally provides for the placement of foster youth in various placement settings and governs the provision of child welfare services, which is defined to mean public social services that are directed toward the accomplishment of specified purposes, including protecting and promoting the welfare of all children, preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their families, and restoring to their families children who have been removed. Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state that all minors and nonminors in foster care have specified rights, including, among others, the right to receive medical, dental, vision, and mental health services, the right to receive grooming and hygiene products that respect the child’s culture, ethnicity, and gender identity and expression, the right to be informed of these rights in an age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate manner, and the right to receive a copy of these rights, at specified intervals.

This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to provide to foster parents and others as appropriate educational resources related to grooming and hygiene products appropriate for the child’s culture and ethnicity.