Winner for “needs a new name”: the “Child Abuse Prevention, Intervention and Treatment, Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, and Promoting Safe and Stable Families Three-Year Plan will now be integrated into the California Children and Family Services Review. Phew. All in the name of administrative efficiencies. The Notice reviews what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. [Download]

Recently enacted federal and state law impacts the placement of dependent children and wards of the court across state lines. States must develop a process to ensure that foster care and adoptive home studies for children placed across state lines are completed within 60 calendar days; to establish a 14-day time frame for agencies to reject home studies done in another state for placing a California child across state lines; ensure caregivers access to court proceeding; require the court to consider both in-state and out-of-state options.

The effective date of the federal law was October 1, 2006, but California got an extension. The pertinent provisions of the state implementing legislation (SB 703) were effective January 1, 2008. This letter sets out the California provisions, including the exceptions for the 60 day time frame to do the home study (circumstances beyond agency’s control) and what must be in the home study to be complete, incentive payments for “on time” studies, and data reporting requirements. [Download]

Ok, Regs@ missed this one, but in honor of the the ACIN’s year anniversary….  What’s a county to do when a child gets CalWORKs by living with a relative, who then dies? If the child is now living with a non-legal guardian non-relative, the county is required to tell the non-relative caretaker that 1) the child may be eligible for Foster Care benefits and 2) the local legal aid office or county bar association may be able to provide additional information and assistance in pursuing such benefits.  If interested, the county is then to refer the household to apply for Foster Care benefits.

Out with the old and in with the new: throw out I-69-00, and effective immediately, use this letter for certifying out-of-state group homes… (All such homes must either be certified, or have the state waive certification.) [Download]

Proving change can be slow: this letter contains regulations promulgated in response to a 2002 Child and Family Services Review, which resulted in an HHS-required Program Improvement Plan (PIP) effective July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2005. The PIP addressed findings that California did not have sufficient statewide requirements for the initial and ongoing training of new child welfare workers and supervisors, and the lack of necessary child welfare requirements for probation officers and supervisors who are working with Title IV-E placement wards. The new regs go into effect July 1, 2008, and list what training topics must be completed by which staff and at what frequency. [Download]

All this ACIN does is transmit a new form, but oh what a form it is! Goes over the right to not become a guardian, and the impact of becoming a relative guardian on the foster care case and benefits. Also informs about Kin-GAP. [Download ACIN; Download Form]