This page will be used to provide foster parents and relative caretakers with updated information concerning the legal and agency-related issues surrounding foster care, including recent developments & changes that affect foster care resource families.

New Law as of January 1, 2006

Senate Bill 218

Senate Bill 218 allows foster parents of a child who want to adopt their foster child to ask the juvenile court to designate them as “prospective adoptive parents” once the legal rights of the child’s biological parents have been terminated.  If a foster parent has already been designated by the court or is eligible to be designated, the child welfare agency cannot move the child without giving the foster parent the opportunity to ask the juvenile court judge to review the decision to move the child. The filing of a petition objecting to the proposed removal by the "prospective adoptive parents" will result in a hearing/trial to determine if removal from the foster parent home is in the "best interest"of the minor. The new law means that the Department of Social Services is required to notify both the foster parent and court of a proposed change of placement. This is a major change in the law and long overdue. We would be happy to discuss this change in the law and what it means to every foster parent.[See Welfare & Institutions Code Section 366.26(n)(1)]

**IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT**

Trial courts in both Los Angeles and San Diego Counties have recently ruled that foster parents must have de facto parent status prior to the requested removal under 366.26(n)(1) in order to participate as a party at the hearing/trial to determine if removal from the foster parent home is in the "best interest"of the minor. More than ever foster parents need to file for de facto parent status to protect their interests in their foster children. We will be happy to provide the necessary forms required to file for de facto parent status to any interested caregiver.

Senate Bill 358

Under Senate Bill 358 foster parents can use their own “prudent parent” judgment to decide who can baby-sit their foster children for periods of less than 24 hours.  There are no longer any requirements that sitters have health screenings, take CPR and first aid and have criminal background checks.  The new law affects both county-licensed and private foster family agency (FFA) foster parents in California.

Recent Developments

On March 23, 2006, the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care met for the first time in San Francisco. California’s top judge, Chief Justice Ronald M. George, created a forty member Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care to examine California’s foster care program. Formation of the Commission is the latest example in a growing movement among court officials, legislators, and child advocates to assess the state’s sprawling foster care system. The total number of children in foster care in California is 86,000. Los Angeles County has the states highest number of children in foster care followed by San Diego County. San Diego County has 6,302 children in foster care placements. The state Judicial Council, the court system’s policymaking arm, has determined that a child waits an average of three years to receive a final placement.