BILL NUMBER: AB 665	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 23, 2009
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 16, 2009
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 13, 2009
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 31, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Torrico

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2009

   An act to amend Section 16131.5 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to children.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 665, as amended, Torrico. State adoption services: investment.
   Existing law provides for child welfare services, which are public
social services directed toward, among other purposes, protecting
and promoting the welfare of all children, including those in foster
care placement.
   Under existing law, the State Department of Social Services may
provide state adoption services in a county that has not established
a county adoption agency. Existing law requires the state to reinvest
incentive payments, received through the implementation of specified
provisions of federal law, into the child welfare system, in order
to provide adoption services for older children.
   This bill would, instead, require the state to reinvest these
adoption incentive payments into the child welfare system, in order
to provide legal permanency outcomes for older children, as
specified.
   This bill would require the adoption incentive payments, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to counties, and
the department for a county in which the department serves as an
adoption agency, based on documented legal permanency outcomes for
older children achieved by each county for the purpose of improving
legal permanency outcomes for older children, as specified.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 16131.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   16131.5.  (a) The state shall reinvest adoption incentive payments
received through the implementation of the federal Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Public
Law 110-351) into the child welfare system, in order to provide legal
permanency outcomes for older children, including, but not limited
to, adoption, guardianship, and reunification of children whose
reunification services were previously terminated.
   (b) The incentive payments received pursuant to subdivision (a),
upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or
another statute, shall be allocated by the State Department of Social
Services to the counties, and the department for a county in which
the department serves as an adoption agency, based on documented
increases in legal permanency outcomes for older children achieved by
each county, as determined by the department, in consultation with
counties, for the purposes specified in this section.
    (c) A county, or the department when it acts as the adoption
agency for a county, shall use adoption incentive payment funds to
improve or sustain legal permanency outcomes for older 
children. A county shall reinvest savings that result from successful
legal permanency outcome efforts for older children into activities
that improve legal permanency outcomes for older children. 
 children. 
    (d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to supplant funds
currently being spent on programs to provide legal permanency
outcomes.