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<ns0:Id>20250AB__031998AMD</ns0:Id>
<ns0:VersionNum>98</ns0:VersionNum>
<ns0:History>
<ns0:Action>
<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2025-01-24</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:Action>
<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2025-03-19</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:MeasureNum>319</ns0:MeasureNum>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Jackson</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Jackson</ns0:Name>
</ns0:Legislator>
</ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Title> An act to amend Section 16521.6 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to foster youth.</ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>foster youth</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>Foster youth: trauma-informed services.</ns0:Subject>
</ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:DigestText>
<html:p>Existing law requires each county to develop and implement a memorandum of understanding (MOU) setting forth the roles and responsibilities of agencies and other entities that serve children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma. Existing law requires that the MOU include provisions addressing, among other things, the establishment and operation of an interagency leadership team.</html:p>
<html:p>Existing law requires the Secretary of California Health and
Human Services and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a joint interagency resolution team consisting of representatives from specified state departments to support implementation of those MOUs, among other functions.</html:p>
<html:p>Existing law requires the resolution team to develop and submit certain recommendations to the Legislature on various items, including a statewide plan for any additional development needed for a trauma-informed, therapeutic continuum of care to support youth in-state in the least restrictive setting. Existing law requires the team to track and report deidentified information of children and nonminor dependents in foster care who have been assisted to preserve, or secure new, intensive therapeutic options.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would require a
county, in collaboration with the leadership team, inclusive of tribes, to submit plans to the resolution team describing how the county intends to ensure that coordinated, timely, and trauma-informed services are provided to children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma. The bill would require the county to submit the first plan by January 1, 2027, and to submit updated plans every 2 years thereafter.</html:p>
<html:p>The bill would require the county to take into consideration certain information regarding the placement and service options available to county child welfare agencies and county probation departments for children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma, as specified.</html:p>
<html:p>By creating new duties for counties relating to those plans, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.</html:p>
<html:p>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.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.</html:p>
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<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
<ns0:BillSection id="id_455722A2-12A5-4E1E-AC36-1A5934B0119C">
<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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Section 16521.6 of the
<ns0:DocName>Welfare and Institutions Code</ns0:DocName>
is amended to read:
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<ns0:Num>16521.6.</ns0:Num>
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<ns0:Content>
<html:p>To ensure that coordinated, timely, and trauma-informed services are provided to children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma, all of the following shall occur:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Each county shall develop and implement a memorandum of understanding setting forth the roles and responsibilities of agencies and other entities that serve children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma. Participants in the development and implementation of the memorandum of understanding shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The county child welfare agency.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The county probation department.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(C)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The county behavioral health departments.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(D)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The county office of education.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(E)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The regional center or centers that serve children and youth with developmental disabilities in the county.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(F)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Foster care or other child welfare advocacy groups, as deemed appropriate by the organizations that will be parties to the memorandum, serving in an advisory capacity.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The memorandum of understanding shall include, at a minimum, provisions addressing all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Establishment and operation of an interagency leadership team.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Establishment and operation of an interagency placement committee, as defined in Section 4096.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(C)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Commitment to implementation of an integrated core practice model.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(D)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Processes for screening, assessment, and entry to care.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(E)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Processes for child and family teaming and universal service planning.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(F)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Alignment and coordination of transportation and other foster youth services.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(G)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Recruitment and management of resource families and delivery of
therapeutic foster care services.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(H)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Information and data sharing agreements.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(I)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Staff recruitment, training, and coaching.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(J)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Financial resource management and cost sharing.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(K)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Dispute resolution.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(L)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Processes, as developed through tribal consultation with the federally recognized tribes within each county, for engaging and coordinating with these tribes in the ongoing implementation of the memorandums of understanding described in this section.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
No later than October 1, 2021, members of the interagency
leadership team, or its designees, shall establish a process to provide, arrange for, or ensure the provision of, at least six months of family-based aftercare service to children and youth, as described in Section 4096.6, and acknowledgment that federal financial participation under the Medi-Cal program is only available if all state and federal requirements are met and the service is medically necessary.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Members of the interagency leadership team described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2), or its designees, may, to the extent permitted by federal law, and subject to the limitations described in subparagraph (C), disclose to, and exchange with, one another information or a writing that may be designated as confidential under state law if the member of the team having that information or writing reasonably believes it is generally
relevant to the identification, reduction, or elimination of barriers to services for, or to placement of, children and youth in foster care or to improve provision of those services or those placements.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(C)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Members of the interagency leadership team, or its designees, who receive disclosed or exchanged information or a writing pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall destroy or return that
information or writing once the purposes for which it was disclosed or exchanged are satisfied. The information or writing shall be used only for the purposes described in subparagraph (B). Any information or writing disclosed or exchanged pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection, unless the information or writing is aggregated and deidentified in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual who is a subject of that information or writing. Any discussion concerning the disclosed or exchanged information or writing during a team meeting shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(D)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Members of an interagency placement committee, as defined in Section 4096, child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined in Section 18961.7, or
child and family team, as defined in paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 16501, that is convened for the purpose of implementing the provisions of the memorandum of understanding developed pursuant to this subdivision shall comply with applicable statutory confidentiality provisions for that committee or team. Members of teams convened for purposes of implementing the memorandum of understanding shall comply with applicable records retention policies for their respective agencies or programs.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
To the extent possible, the implementation of the memorandum of understanding shall utilize existing processes and structures within and across the respective organizations that are parties to it.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
No later than June 1,
2019, the Secretary of California Health and Human Services and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall establish a joint interagency resolution team consisting of representatives from the State Department of Social Services, the State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of Developmental Services, and the State Department of Education.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(i)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The primary roles of the joint interagency resolution team shall be to develop guidance to counties, county offices of education, and regional centers with regard to developing the memoranda of understanding required by this section, to support the implementation of those memoranda of understanding, and to provide technical assistance to counties to identify and secure the appropriate level of services to meet the needs of children and youth in
foster care who have experienced severe trauma.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(ii)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The agencies shall ensure that a process is developed for counties and partner agencies that are parties to the memorandum of understanding to request interdepartmental technical assistance from the joint interagency resolution team.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
No later than January 1, 2020, the joint interagency resolution team, in consultation with county agencies, service providers, and advocates for children and resource families, shall review the placement and service options available to county child welfare agencies and county probation departments for children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma and shall develop and submit recommendations to the Legislature addressing any identified gaps in placement
types or availability, needed services to resource families, or other identified issues. The joint interagency resolution team shall update its review and provide recommendations to the Legislature no later than December 31, 2022, that take into account the specific needs and characteristics of youth with unplanned discharges from short-term residential therapeutic programs and youth for whom counties were unable to, or have difficulty with, securing placements and providing trauma-informed services, which may include, but is not limited to, as applicable, youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation, youth with acute behavioral needs, and youth with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The recommendations shall also articulate a statewide plan for any additional development needed for a trauma-informed, therapeutic continuum of care to support youth in-state in the least restrictive
setting.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A report submitted to the Legislature pursuant to this paragraph shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
No later than June 1, 2020, the joint interagency resolution team, in consultation with county agencies, service providers, behavioral health professionals, schools of social work, and advocates for children and resource families, shall develop a multiyear plan for increasing the capacity and delivery of trauma-informed care to children and youth in foster care served by short-term residential therapeutic programs and other foster care and behavioral health providers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Members of the joint interagency resolution team described in this
subdivision may, to the extent permitted by federal law, and subject to the limitations described in subparagraph (B), disclose to, and exchange with, one another information or a writing that may be designated as confidential under state law if the member of the team or committee having that information or writing reasonably believes it is generally relevant to the identification, reduction, or elimination of barriers to services for, or to placement of, children and youth in foster care or to improve provision of those services or those placements.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Members of the joint interagency resolution team who receive disclosed or exchanged information, or a writing, pursuant to subparagraph (A), shall destroy or return that information or writing once the purposes for which it was disclosed or exchanged are satisfied. The information or writing
shall be used only for the purposes described in subparagraph (A). Any information or writing disclosed or exchanged pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection, unless the information or writing is aggregated and deidentified in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual who is a subject of that information or writing. Any discussion concerning the disclosed or exchanged information or writing during a team meeting shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The joint interagency resolution team shall track and report deidentified information of children and nonminor dependents in
foster care who have been assisted to preserve, or secure new, intensive therapeutic options. This information shall be posted on the internet website of the California Health and Human Services Agency beginning July 1, 2022, shall be updated annually, and shall include the number of children and nonminor dependents served through its technical assistance process, characteristics of individuals served, and, as applicable, local and statewide systemic issues identified by the team.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A county, in collaboration with the interagency leadership team, inclusive of tribes, shall submit plans to the joint interagency resolution team describing how the county intends to ensure that coordinated, timely, and trauma-informed services are provided to children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The county shall submit the first plan described in paragraph (1) by January 1, 2027, and shall submit updated plans every two years thereafter.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
In developing the plans described in this subdivision, the county shall take into consideration the information described in
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) regarding the placement and service options available to county child welfare agencies and county probation departments for children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma, including, but not limited to, the recommendations of the joint interagency resolution team on the statewide plan for any additional development needed for a trauma-informed, therapeutic continuum of care, and local and statewide systemic issues identified by the joint interagency resolution team, as described in paragraph (5) of subdivision (b). The county shall describe in its plans how that statewide plan would apply to the local circumstances
of that county.
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<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
To the extent that this act has an overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for programs or levels of service mandated by the 2011 Realignment Legislation within the meaning of Section 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, it shall apply to local agencies only to the extent that the state provides annual funding for the cost increase. Any new program or higher level of service provided by a local agency pursuant to this act above the level for which funding has been provided shall not require a subvention of funds by the state or otherwise be subject to Section 6 of Article XIII
<html:span class="ThinSpace"/>
B of the California Constitution.
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