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AB 12 Question of the Week
Q: If a youth is exits foster care to kinship guardianship (Kin-GAP) and the court ordered the dependency case closed, is the youth still eligible to claim independent student status on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)? For the answer, follow this LINK.
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New Report Highlights Challenges Faced by California’s “Crossover Youth"
The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership’s Winter edition of Insights, “Crossover Youth: A Shared Responsibility” offers an overview of the data, studies, policy and reform efforts currently in action to respond to the needs of the growing number of “crossover” youth in California. The term crossover youth is intended to refer to youth who have been involved with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
The report found that negative outcomes, such as extreme poverty and incarceration, for crossover youth were twice as likely then for youth who have been in just one child welfare agency. The report also found that while African-American children make up just 5.6% of the population in California, they make up 21% of the state’s child welfare population. Youth of color are significantly more likely to be incarcerated; with African-Americans being 4.6 times as likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system than white youth. The report also found that while LQBTQ youth represent between five to seven percent of the nation’s youth population, it makes up 13 to 15 percent of crossover youth currently in the juvenile justice system, with 60% of those LGBTQ youth being either African-American or Latino.
While the report chronicles several factors needed to increase the amount of data for this growing subset of youth, it also highlights the growing proactive responses from counties, current state policy responses and policies and programs such as the Title IV-E Waiver Child Welfare Demonstration Project, the Continuing of Care Reform (CCR), the California Judicial Council’s Task Force for Criminal Justice Collaboration on Mental Health Issues, and the California Chief Justice’s Keeping Kids in School and Out-of-Court Initiative.
The report concludes with suggestions to effectively address the needs of crossover youth such as establishing a common language, provide additional training to judges and counsel, and integrating cultural and gender specific trauma informed practices. To read the report please click HERE.
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Federal Report Finds Increased Rates of Child Maltreatment and Fatality
The Child Maltreatment Report was released by Children’s Bureau on January 25th , providing national and state data about rates of child abuse and neglect in federal fiscal year 2014 (FFY 2014.) Nationally, the report estimates that child protective services agencies received a total of 3.6 million reports of suspected child abuse, up slightly from 3.5 million in FFY 2013. After screening these reports, and completing further investigation, approximately 702,000— or 9.4 children out of every 1,000 in the US— were victims of maltreatment in FFY 2014, also up slightly from FFY 2013.
On average, the younger the child, the more prone they were to maltreatment, with the rate of maltreatment for children under age more than double the rate of any other age. According to the report, this age group has experienced the largest increase in maltreatment, from a rate of 21.7 per 1,000 in 2010 to 24.4 per 1,000 in 2014. The report also found that the victimization rate for young boys is consistently higher than for young girls and that the victimization rate for older girls is higher than for older boys.
According to the report, there has been an increase in both the number and rate of child fatalities due to maltreatment, with 1,580 child fatalities in FFY 2015. Seventy-one (70.7%) of all child fatalities were younger than 3 years. The child fatality rate for children less than one year was over three times that of the rate for children over age one, at 17.96 per 100,000 children as compared to 6.51 per 100,000 children. Overall, the report of a comprehensive and sobering look at maltreatment across the United States.
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New County Fiscal Letter Gives Instructions for $200 Payment for Parenting Dependents
The California Department of Social Services has issued instructions to counties about how to claim the extra $200 available to parenting dependents placed in Supervised Independent Living Placement who complete a Parenting Support Plan. This policy change was included in Assembly Bill 2668 (Quirk-Silva) and went into effect on July 1, 2015.
According to the letter, the $200 increase should be paid with the SILP payment that the NMD parent receives. For federally eligible NMDs, the additional funding is paid with Title IV-E funds. For non-federally eligible NMDs, it is paid by the General Fund.
For more information about the $200 supplemental payment for parenting dependents living in SILP and who complete a Parenting Support Plan, read the previously issued All County Letter. You can also listen to an October web seminar on the topic conducted by the Children’s Law Center of California and the John Burton Foundation, and read an accompanying Q&A.
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What is the Future of the Chafee ETV in California?
Please join the John Burton Foundation, the National Center for Youth Law and the Children’s Advocacy Institute for an informational web seminar on Wednesday, March 2 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. about a proposal to expand and improve the Chafee Education and Training Voucher.
Created in 2002, the Chafee ETV is the only form of financial aid specifically for foster youth. Recent data shows that foster youth who receive Chafee outperform those who don’t on several academic measures. With more foster youth attending college than ever, now is a good time to examine this program and re-think how it can promote college attainment.
This web seminar will include an overview of the program and an explanation of the provisions of the proposal being proposed to expand and improve Chafee in California. To register, follow this LINK.
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DSS Identifies National Accreditation Agencies for New Continuum of Care Reform Standards
Under AB 403 (2015, Stone), Foster Family Agencies (FFAs) and Short Term Residential Treatment Centers (STRTCs) must obtain national accreditation by January 1, 2017. All County Letter 16-05 (ACL 16-05) identifies the three agencies that the Department of Social Services will accept. They are the Council of Accreditation, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, and The Joint Commission (TJC).
If FFAs and STRTCs have not gained national accreditation by January 1, 2017, the Department of Social Services has the option of granting provisional licenses for up to two years. Furthermore, the cost of this national accreditation has been factored into the funding structure that FFAs and STRTCs will receive under AB 403, and each of the national accrediting agencies can provide specialized technical assistance trainings to both small and large providers.
The recommendation for FFAs and STRTCs to be certified by nationally accredited standards is one of the suggestions brought forth by California’s Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) efforts. Others suggestions include increasing family-like placement settings for youth, and providing increased opportunity for youth and families to partake in their case planning.
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