Group homes: immigrant children.

Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, including group homes, by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law subjects every licensed community care facility, except as specified, to unannounced inspections by the department, and authorizes the department to inspect these facilities as often as necessary to ensure the quality of care provided. A violation of this act is a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, subject to the availability of funding, to contract with qualified nonprofit legal services organizations to provide legal services to unaccompanied undocumented minors, as defined, who are transferred to the care and custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and who are present in this state. This bill would require a group home with children who are under the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, to, among other things, report the number of children under the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement who are placed in the group home and their length of stay and arrange a meeting for those children to meet with a qualified organization that has received a certain grant to provide legal services to unaccompanied undocumented minors if the child is an unaccompanied undocumented minor, as defined. The bill would require a county child welfare department to meet with each child under the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement who is placed in a group home to assess the well-being of the child and to offer mental health services to the child, and would require the department to inspect group homes with those children at least once each quarter to ensure compliance with the act and the quality of care provided. Because the failure of a group home to comply with these provisions would be a misdemeanor, and the bill would impose new requirements on county officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.