Code Section Group

Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC

DIVISION 9. PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES [10000 - 18999.98]

  ( Division 9 added by Stats. 1965, Ch. 1784. )

PART 4.4. FAMILY PRESERVATION SERVICES [16600 - 16605]
  ( Part 4.4 added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 961, Sec. 6. )

16600.
  

(a) The department shall administer the federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds.

(b) Notwithstanding Section 10103, the department may retain and not pass on to the counties up to 10 percent of federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds for the purposes of state administrative costs incurred on or after October 1, 2007, including planning, monitoring, evaluation, training and technical assistance, or related projects of statewide significance.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 459, Sec. 45. (AB 212) Effective October 4, 2011.)

16601.
  

For purposes of this part, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) “Adoption promotion and support services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means services and activities designed to encourage more adoptions out of the foster care system, when adoptions promote the best interests of children, including activities such as preadoptive and postadoptive services and activities designed to expedite the adoption process and support adoptive families.

(b) “Family preservative services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means services for children and families designed to help families, including adoptive and extended families, at risk or in crisis, including all of the following:

(1) Services programs designed to help children return to families from which they have been removed, where safe and appropriate, or be placed for adoption or with a legal guardian, or, if adoption or legal guardianship is determined not to be safe and appropriate for the child, in some other planned, permanent living arrangement.

(2) Preplacement preventive services programs, including, but not limited to, intensive family preservation programs designed to help children at risk of foster care placement remain safely with their families.

(3) Service programs designed to provide followup care to families to whom a child has been returned after a foster care placement.

(4) Respite care of children to provide temporary relief for parents and other caregivers, including, but not limited to, foster parents.

(5) Services designed to improve parenting skills by reinforcing parents’ confidence in their strengths and helping them to identify where improvement is needed and to obtain assistance in improving those skills with respect to matters such as child development, family budgeting, coping with stress, health, and nutrition.

(6) Infant safe haven programs that provide a way for a parent to safely relinquish a newborn infant at a safe haven designated pursuant to state law.

(c) “Family support services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means community-based services, including mentoring, to promote the safety and well-being of children and families. This includes services designed to increase the strength and stability of families, including adoptive, foster, and extended families, to support and retain foster families so they can provide quality family-based settings for children in foster care, to increase parents’ confidence and competence in their parenting abilities, to afford children a safe, stable, and supportive family environment, to strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriages, and otherwise to enhance child development.

(d) “Family reunification services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means the services and activities described in Section 629a(a)(7)(B) of Title 42 of the United States Code that are provided to a child that is removed from the child’s home and placed in a foster family home or a child care institution or a child who has been returned home and to the parents or primary caregiver of the child, in order to facilitate the reunification of the child safely and appropriately within a timely fashion, and to ensure the strength and stability of the reunification. This includes peer-to-peer mentoring and support groups for parents and primary caregivers, as well as services and activities to facilitate access to and visitation of children with parents and siblings. In the case of a child who has been returned home, the services and activities shall only be provided during the 15-month period that begins on the date that the child returns home.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 910, Sec. 50. (AB 1930) Effective January 1, 2019.)

16602.
  

(a) Notwithstanding Section 16500, each county that chooses to utilize federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds shall establish a local planning body and develop county plans as required by the department. The board of supervisors shall oversee the local planning process and approve each county plan before it is transmitted to the department for approval.

(b) Notwithstanding Section 16500, the county welfare department shall act as the county lead administrative agency to carry out the day-to-day planning activities. The county welfare department shall distribute and account for the program funds allocated to the county.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 459, Sec. 48. (AB 212) Effective October 4, 2011.)

16604.
  

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), counties shall spend a minimum of 20 percent of its allocated funds in each of the following categories, for a total of 80 percent:

(1) Family support services.

(2) Family preservation services.

(3) Family reunification services.

(4) Adoption promotion and support services.

(b) A county may be authorized to spend less than 20 percent of funds in one or more of the categories identified in subdivision (a) for a limited time period, provided that the department determines in writing that good cause exists for the county’s expenditures and determines the date by which the county shall fully comply with subdivision (a). The department may disallow a county’s claims for costs under this section if the county’s expenditure of funds, as specified in subdivision (a), does not conform to its approved county plan.

(c) Counties may expend the remaining 20 percent of funds not expended pursuant to subdivision (a) and any funds identified in subdivision (b), for any of the categories identified in subdivision (a).

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 910, Sec. 51. (AB 1930) Effective January 1, 2019.)

16604.5.
  

When preparing their needs assessments and plans to implement the federal Family Preservation and Support Act (Sections 430 to 435, inclusive, of the Social Security Act (Subpart 2 (commencing with Section 629) of Part B of Subchapter 4 of Chapter 7 of Title 42 of the United States Code), as contained in the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-66)), counties shall consider providing an in-home assessment of substance-exposed infants after release from a hospital, as part of the protocols of Section 123605 of the Health and Safety Code. These assessments may be funded using federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families funding, to the extent they are identified in a county’s needs assessment and are part of a county’s program plan, and federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds are available for this purpose.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 459, Sec. 51. (AB 212) Effective October 4, 2011.)

16605.
  

(a)  The Kinship Support Services Program provides community-based family support services to relative caregivers and the children placed in their homes by the juvenile court or who are at risk of dependency or delinquency. Relatives with children in voluntary placements may access services, at the discretion of the county.

(b) The counties that elect to participate in the Kinship Support Services Program shall meet the following conditions and requirements:

(1) Have a demonstrated capacity for collaboration and interagency coordination.

(2) Have a viable plan for ongoing financial support of the local kinship support services program.

(3) Utilize relative caregivers as employees of the program.

(4) Have strong and viable public or private agencies to operate the program.

(5) Describe how the county will develop and maintain the necessary community supports.

(c) The Kinship Support Services Program shall demonstrate the use of supportive services provided to relative caregivers and children placed in their homes using a community-based kinship support services model. This model shall provide services to relative caregivers that are aimed at helping to ensure permanent family kinship placements for children who have been placed with them by the juvenile court, and to provide family support services that will eliminate the need for juvenile court jurisdiction and the provision of services by the county welfare department.

(d) The program shall provide family support services appropriate for the target populations. These services may include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Assessment and case management.

(2) Social services referral and intervention aimed at maintaining the kinship family unit, for example, housing, homemaker services, respite care, legal services, and day care.

(3) Transportation for medical care and educational and recreational activities.

(4) Information and referral services.

(5) Individual and group counseling in the area of parent-child relationships and group conflict.

(6) Counseling and referral services aimed at promoting permanency, including kinship adoption and guardianship.

(7) Tutoring and mentoring.

(e) The Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco or any other appropriate agency or individual approved by the department in consultation with participating counties shall provide technical assistance to the Kinship Support Services Program and shall facilitate the sharing of information and resources among the programs.

(f) Beginning in the 2011–12 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, funding and expenditures for programs and activities under this section shall be in accordance with the requirements provided in Sections 30025 and 30026.5 of the Government Code.

(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 35, Sec. 143. (SB 1013) Effective June 27, 2012.)

WICWelfare and Institutions Code - WIC