Child welfare.

Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Social Services of community care facilities, as defined. Violation of the provisions relating to community care facilities is a misdemeanor. The act exempts from its provisions a public recreation program operated as prescribed for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that operates less than 16 hours per week and for a total of 12 weeks or less during a 12-month period. Existing law, effective January 1, 2013, expands that exemption to include such a program that operates less than 20 hours per week and for a total of 14 weeks or less during a 12-month period. Existing law includes foster family agencies that certify foster family homes and licensed foster family homes within the provisions regulating a community care facility, and requires the department, in establishing these regulations, to consider these homes as private residences, and to establish regulations for these foster family homes and certified family homes of foster family agencies as a separate regulation package from regulations for all other community care facilities. Under existing law, certified family homes are not subject to civil penalties under the act, and licensed foster family homes are only subject to specified civil penalties. This bill would provide instead that licensed foster family homes, as well as certified family homes of foster family agencies, are not subject to civil penalties under the California Community Care Facilities Act, except that the certified family homes and foster family homes both would be subject to certain penalties relating to fingerprinting requirements and operating without a valid license. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, defines and regulates crisis nurseries and requires the State Department of Social Services to authorize the use of volunteers as caregivers in a crisis nursery, under certain circumstances. This bill would delete the repeal of these provisions thereby making them operate indefinitely. Because this bill would extend the application of a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Child Day Care Facilities Act provides for the licensing and regulation of child day care facilities, as defined. The act does not apply to specified entities, and, until January 1, 2014, includes crisis nurseries among the specified entities. This bill would delete the repeal of these provisions, thereby making that exemption operate indefinitely. Existing law provides for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. Under existing law, foster care providers licensed as group homes have rates established by classifying each group home program and applying a standardized schedule of rates. Existing law requires the department to determine the rate classification level (RCL) for new and existing providers and for those programs requesting an RCL increase, which is based, in part, on a program audit of documentation and other information. Existing law also requires the department to perform group home program and fiscal audits as needed. This bill would provide that for audit purposes, if a group home program serves a mixture of AFDC-FC eligible and ineligible children, the weighted hours for services provided and the capacity of the home shall be adjusted by the ratio of AFDC-FC eligible children to all children in the placement. Existing law requires the State Department of Mental Health to establish, by regulation, specified program standards for any facility licensed as a community treatment facility and authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to adopt or amend regulations pertaining to these program standards. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2014, certain standards with respect to the required nursing staff at a community treatment facility that admits children who have been assessed not to require medical services that require 24-hour nursing coverage. This bill would delete the expiration date of the provisions applicable to the nursing staff requirements described above, thereby making those staffing requirements operative indefinitely. Under existing law, each county may enter into performance agreements with nonprofit agencies to encourage innovation in the delivery of children's services, to develop services not available in the community, and to promote change in the child welfare services system. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Social Services to waive otherwise applicable regulations relating to foster care payments and the operation of group homes for a period of up to 3 years, in order to facilitate these performance agreements. Existing law authorizes the department to extend the regulation waivers for up to 3 additional years, based on a review and analysis of specified information. This bill would revise the waiver extension provisions to instead authorize the department to extend the waiver in increments of 3 years, based on a review and analysis of the information specified in existing law. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.