Child welfare: intensive family finding.

Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to allocate certain funds through contracts with community-based providers or entities or through local assistance allocations to counties or Indian tribes that support new or expanded programs, services, practices, and training that build system capacity and ensure the provision of a high-quality continuum of care that is designed to support foster children in the least restrictive setting that is consistent with a child's permanency plan. Existing law requires recipients of those funds to use the funds for specified purposes, one of which may be building system capacity for intensive, child-specific recruitment, family finding and engagement, and support programs for children with complex needs. This bill would require county placing agencies, to the extent that funding is available and provided, to implement model practices for intensive family finding and support for foster children, children detained but not adjudicated, and candidates for foster care. The bill would require a county, as a condition of receiving funds for this purpose, to submit a county plan to the department that describes, among other things, the population to be served and the expected outcomes and method for tracking outcomes. The bill would require the county plan to be automatically approved if it complies with those requirements and would require the department to notify a county within 14 business days of receiving the county plan of any required changes to, or additional information needed for, the county plan. The bill would require counties receiving funds pursuant to these provisions to track and report outcomes achieved through the use of the funds. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions through all-county letters or similar written instructions.