SECTIONS 18987.7-18987.72 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 18987.7-18987.72

18987.7. (a) The State Department of Social Services shall convene
a workgroup of public and private nonprofit stakeholders that shall
develop a plan for transforming the current system of group care for
foster children or youth, and for children with serious emotional
disorders (SED), into a system of residentially based services. The
stakeholders may include, but not be limited to, representatives of
the department and of the State Department of Mental Health, the
State Department of Education, the State Department of Alcohol and
Drug Programs, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation;
county child welfare, probation, mental health, and alcohol and drug
programs; local education authorities; current and former foster
youth, parents of foster children or youth, and children or youth
with SED; private nonprofit agencies operating group homes; children'
s advocates; and other interested parties.
(b) The plan developed pursuant to this chapter shall utilize the
reports delivered to the Legislature pursuant to Section 75 of
Chapter 311 of the Statutes of 1998 by the Steering Committee for the
Reexamination of the Role of Group Care in a Family-Based System of
Care in June 2001 and August 2002, and the "Framework for a New
System for Residentially-Based Services in California" published in
March 2006.
(c) In the development, implementation, and subsequent revisions
of the plan developed pursuant to subdivision (a), the knowledge and
experience gained by counties and private nonprofit agencies through
the operation of their residentially based services programs created
under voluntary agreements made pursuant to Section 18987.72,
including, but not limited to, the results of evaluations prepared
pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 18987.72
shall be utilized.
(d) By July 1, 2014, the department shall provide a copy of the
plan developed by the workgroup pursuant to subdivision (a) to the
Legislature. The plan shall include, in addition to other
requirements set forth in this chapter, any statutory revisions
necessary for its implementation.

18987.71. For purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall
have the following meanings:
(a) (1) "Residentially based services" means behavioral or
therapeutic interventions delivered in nondetention group care
settings in which multiple children or youth live in the same housing
unit and receive care and supervision from paid staff. Residentially
based services are most effectively used as intensive, short-term
interventions when children have unmet needs that create conditions
that render them or those around them unsafe, or that prevent the
effective delivery of needed services and supports provided in the
children's own homes or in other family settings, such as with a
relative, guardian, foster family, or adoptive family.
(2) "Residentially based services" shall include the following
interventions and services:
(A) Environmental interventions that establish a safe, stable, and
structured living situation in which children or youth can receive
the comfort, attention, structure, and guidance needed to help them
reduce the intensity of conditions that led to their placement in the
program, so that their caregivers can identify and address the
factors creating those conditions.
(B) Intensive treatment interventions that facilitate the rapid
movement of children or youth toward connection or reconnection with
appropriate and natural home, school, and community ecologies, by
helping them and their families find ways to mitigate the conditions
that led to their placement in the program with positive and
productive alternatives.
(C) Parallel, predischarge, community-based interventions that
help family members and other people in the social ecologies that
children and youth will be joining or rejoining, to prepare for
connection or reconnection. These preparations should be initiated
upon placement and proceed apace with the environmental interventions
being provided within the residential setting.
(D) Followup postdischarge support and services, consistent with
the child's case plan, provided as needed after children or youth
have exited the residential component and returned to their own
family or to another family living situation, in order to ensure the
stability and success of the connection or reconnection with home,
school, and community.
(b) "County" means a county that enters into a voluntary agreement
with a private nonprofit agency to test alternative program designs
and funding models pursuant to this chapter, and may include a
consortia or consortium of counties.

18987.72. (a) In order to obtain knowledge and experience with
which to inform the process of developing and implementing the plan
for residentially based services, required by Section 18987.7, the
department shall encourage counties and private nonprofit agencies to
develop voluntary agreements to test alternative program design and
funding models for transforming existing group home programs into
residentially based services programs in order to meet the diverse
needs of children or youth and families in the child welfare,
juvenile justice, and mental health systems.
(b) (1) With the approval of the department, any counties
participating in the federal Title IV-E waiver capped allocation
demonstration project pursuant to Section 18260, at their option, and
two other counties may enter into and implement voluntary agreements
with private nonprofit agencies to transform all or part of an
existing group home program into a residentially based services
program.
(2) If one or more counties participating in the federal Title
IV-E waiver capped allocation demonstration project opts not to enter
into a voluntary agreement pursuant to this chapter, the department
may select one or more nonwaiver counties. The department may approve
up to four counties to participate in the voluntary agreements
pursuant to this section.
(3) The department shall select participating counties, based on
letters of interest submitted to the department from counties, in
consultation with the California Alliance of Child and Family
Services and the County Welfare Directors Association.
(c) Voluntary agreements by counties and nonprofit agencies shall
satisfy all of the following requirements:
(1) Incorporate and address all of the components and elements for
residentially based services described in the "Framework for a New
System for Residentially-Based Services in California."
(2) Reflect active collaboration among the private nonprofit
agency that will operate the residentially based services program and
county departments of social services, mental health, or juvenile
justice, alcohol and drug programs, county offices of education, or
other public entities, as appropriate, to ensure that children,
youth, and families receive the services and support necessary to
meet their needs.
(3) Provide for an annual evaluation report, to be prepared
jointly by the county and the private nonprofit agency. The
evaluation report shall include analyses of the outcomes for children
and youth, including achievement of permanency, average lengths of
stay, and rates of entry and reentry into group care. The evaluation
report shall also include analyses of the involvement of children or
youth and their families, client satisfaction, the use of the program
by the county, the operation of the program by the private nonprofit
agency, payments made to the private nonprofit agency by the county,
actual costs incurred by the nonprofit agency for the operation of
the program, and the impact of the program on state and county
AFDC-FC program costs. The county shall send a copy of each annual
evaluation report to the director, and the director shall make these
reports available to the Legislature upon request.
(4) Permit amendments, modifications, and extensions of the
agreement to be made, with the mutual consent of both parties and
with approval of the department, based on the evaluations described
in paragraph (3), and on the experience and information acquired from
the implementation and the ongoing operation of the program.
(5) Be consistent with the county's system improvement plan
developed pursuant to the California Child Welfare Outcomes and
Accountability System.
(d) (1) Upon a county's request, the director may waive child
welfare regulations regarding the role of counties in conjunction
with private nonprofit agencies operating residentially based
services programs to enhance the development and implementation of
case plans and the delivery of services in order to enable a county
and a private nonprofit agency to implement an agreement described in
subdivision (b). Nothing in this section shall be construed to
supersede the requirements set forth in subdivision (c) of Section
16501.
(2) Notwithstanding Sections 11460 and 11462, or any other law or
regulation governing payments under the AFDC-FC program, upon the
request of one or more counties, and in accordance with the voluntary
agreements as described in subdivision (b), the director may also
approve the use of up to a total of five alternative funding models
for determining the method and level of payments that will be made
under the AFDC-FC program to private nonprofit agencies operating
residentially based services programs in lieu of using the rate
classification levels and schedule of standard rates provided for in
Section 11462. These alternative funding models may include, but
shall not be limited to, the use of cost reimbursement, case rates,
per diem or monthly rates, or a combination thereof. An alternative
funding model shall do all of the following:
(A) Support the values and goals for residentially based services,
including active child and family involvement, permanence,
collaborative decisionmaking, and outcome measurement.
(B) Ensure that quality care and effective services are delivered
to appropriate children or youth at a reasonable cost to the public.
(C) Ensure that payment levels are sufficient to permit the
private nonprofit agencies operating residentially based services
programs to provide care and supervision, social work activities,
parallel predischarge community-based interventions for families, and
followup postdischarge support and services for children and their
families, including the cost of hiring and retaining qualified staff.
(D) Facilitate compliance with state requirements and the
attainment of federal and state performance objectives.
(E) Control overall program costs by providing incentives for the
private nonprofit agencies to use the most cost-effective approaches
for achieving positive outcomes for the children or youth and their
families.
(F) Facilitate the ability of the private nonprofit agencies to
access other available public sources of funding and services to meet
the needs of the children or youth placed in their residentially
based services programs, and the needs of their families.
(G) Enable the combination of various funding streams necessary to
meet the full range of services needed by foster children or youth
in residentially based services programs, with particular reference
to funding for mental health treatment services through the Medi-Cal
Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment program.
(H) Maximize federal financial participation, and mitigate the
loss of federal funds, while ensuring the effective delivery of
services to children or youth and families, and the achievement of
positive outcomes.
(I) Provide for effective administrative oversight and enforcement
mechanisms in order to ensure programmatic and fiscal
accountability.
(3) A waiver granted by the director pursuant to paragraph (1), or
an approval of an alternative funding model pursuant to paragraph
(2), shall be applicable only to the development, implementation, and
ongoing operation of a residentially based services program and
related county activities provided under the terms of the agreement
and for the duration of the agreement, and shall be granted only when
all of the following apply:
(A) The agreement promises to offer a worthwhile test related to
the development, implementation, and ongoing operation of a
residentially based services program as described in this chapter.
(B) Existing regulatory provisions or the existing AFDC-FC payment
requirements, or both, impose barriers for the effective, efficient,
and timely implementation of the agreement.
(C) The requesting county proposes to monitor the agreement for
compliance with the terms of the waiver or the alternative funding
model, or both.
(D) Notwithstanding any change to payments made to group homes
under Section 11462, the department may pay higher AFDC-FC payments
for children and youth who are enrolled in a residentially based
services program, to be offset by cost efficiencies achieved through
shorter lengths of stay in foster care, or a reduction of reentries
into foster care, as a result of providing predischarge support and
postdischarge services to the children or youth and their families.
Any upfront costs for this project shall be offset by other program
savings identified by the department, to ensure that there are no net
General Fund costs in each fiscal year.
(e) The department shall conduct a review of the county
residentially based services program, no sooner than 18 months after
the first child is enrolled in the program, to determine whether
children are moving from residentially based services group
residential care facilities into lower levels of care or exiting from
foster care to permanent families in a timely manner, as described
in the county's approved residentially based services plan. With 60
days advance notice to the county, the department may terminate the
county's participation in the residentially based services reform
project if it determines, based on its review, that the county is not
achieving timely movement from residentially based services group
residential care facilities into lower levels of care or exits from
foster care to permanent families with associated savings.
(f) In addition to the requirements set forth in subdivision (c),
the voluntary agreements shall do all of the following:
(1) Provide that, to the extent that some of the care, services,
and other activities associated with a residentially based services
program operated under an agreement described in subdivision (b) are
not eligible for federal financial participation as foster care
maintenance payments under Part E (commencing with Section 470) of
Title IV of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 670 et
seq.), but may be eligible for federal financial participation as
administration or training, or may be eligible for federal financial
participation under other programs, including, but not limited to,
Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1396 et
seq.), the appropriate state departments shall take measures to
obtain that federal funding.
(2) Provide that, prior to approving any waiver or alternative
funding model pursuant to subdivision (d), the director shall make a
determination that the design of the residentially based services
program to be operated under the agreement described in subdivision
(b) would ensure the health and safety of children or youth to be
served.
(g) Agreements entered into pursuant to this section shall
terminate on or before January 1, 2015, unless a later enacted
statute extends or removes this limitation.
(h) The department shall report during the legislative budget
hearings on the status of any county agreements entered into pursuant
to subdivision (b), and on the development of statewide
residentially based services programs.