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 requires the State Department of Social Services to ensure that, among other things, emergency response services are coordinated with the implementation of specified program models. Existing law also requires each county to provide the department with a disaster response plan describing how county programs that receive federal assistance for child and family services would respond to a disaster. Existing law also requires the department to review its disaster plan, revise the plan to clarify the role and responsibilities of the state in the event of a disaster, and consult with counties to identify opportunities for collaboration in the event of a disaster.

This bill would establish the Child Welfare Disaster Response Program, to be administered by the department. The bill would establish the Child Welfare Disaster Response Account to fund the program. The bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the Child Welfare Disaster Response Account to be used for purposes of the program and to support the needs of foster children and youth, as defined, and their caregivers during a disaster. The bill would require the department to determine eligibility criteria for applicants and would authorize county child welfare agencies, county probation departments, or Indian tribes, as specified, to apply for funds. The bill would require funds awarded pursuant those provisions to be available to meet the housing, clothing, transportation, and other tangible needs of foster children and youth and their caregivers that occur within 180 days of a local emergency proclamation by a local government or a state of emergency proclamation by the Governor. The bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions by means of all-county letters or similar written instructions.