BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | ACR 103| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: ACR 103 Author: McCarty (D), et al. Amended: 9/8/15 in Assembly Vote: 21 ASSEMBLY FLOOR: Read and adopted, 9/8/15 SUBJECT: Court Adoption and Permanency Month SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This resolution designates November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and encourages the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children. ANALYSIS: This resolution makes the following legislative findings: 1)Consistent with its commitment to support practices and procedures that promote access to justice and improved case outcomes for California's children and families, the Judicial Council has recognized November as Court Adoption and Permanency Month every year since 1999. 2)Each year in California nearly half a million incidents of child abuse and neglect are reported and about 23,400 children enter child welfare-supervised foster care for the first time each year; and nearly 62,000 California children live apart from their families in child welfare-supervised out-of-home care. 3)Thirty-eight percent of the children in foster care in ACR 103 Page 2 California have lived apart from their families for two or more years. Twenty-four percent of the youth in care are transitional-age youth between 16 and 20 years of age. 4)Of the more than 26,000 California children who left foster care in 2014, approximately 57% were reunited with their families, 22% were adopted, and 6% exited foster care without reunifying or obtaining a permanent home by the time they reached the age of majority. 5)Programs promoting permanency have been created by local courts and communities in California that have resulted in a reduction in the number of children waiting to live in safe, stable, and permanent homes. 6)The Judicial Council remains committed to working with the Governor, the Legislature, and local courts and communities to ensure that every abused or neglected child finds a safe, stable, and permanent home with a loving family as quickly as possible. This resolution designates November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and encourages the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:NoLocal: No SUPPORT: (Verified9/9/15) None received OPPOSITION: (Verified9/9/15) None received ACR 103 Page 3 Prepared by: Jonas Austin / SFA / (916) 651-1520 9/9/15 19:22:15 **** END ****