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On October 7, 2005, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1633 (press release), authored by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) and sponsored by NCYL and the California Youth Connection. NCYL will be working closely with the state, counties, and other advocates over the coming year to ensure that AB 1633 is fully and thoroughly implemented.
AB 1633 focuses on youth who have the greatest challenge at emancipation - those working to complete their high school education and those suffering from severe disabilities. Specifically, AB 1633 allows foster youth to remain in their placements in order to finish their studies, and also assists foster youth in gaining access to important federal disability benefits.
California has the largest foster care population in the country. Nearly one-third are homeless within a year after leaving the foster care system. More than 50 percent are unemployed within two to four years of emancipation. More than 40 percent are on public assistance. One in five will be incarcerated. Many of these children who come into California's custody suffer not only from abuse and neglect, but also from serious physical or mental disabilities.
Many of these children qualify for federal social security benefits and/or the federal Supplemental Security Income program and the State Supplemental Payment (SSI/SSP). However, in 2002, only 3 percent of the nearly 85,000 children receiving SSI/SSP benefits in California were also receiving Child Welfare Services. Despite the high prevalence of disabilities among foster children, the vast majority of children receiving SSI benefits are not in foster care. Children in the state's care who likely qualify for social security benefits or SSI/SSP benefits often go without simply because no one is there to assist them in the arduous application process.
Social Security and SSI/SSP Provide Essential Safeguards
Social security and SSI/SSP benefits are an important source of funds that can be used to meet the child's individual needs while in the state's care, particularly in those counties that offer little or no specialized care payments for foster youth. For those children who return home, the SSI benefits follow them, providing an essential resource to the family and increasing the chances that their reunification will be successful. Further, the diagnostic evaluations done to assess children for potential eligibility improve the likelihood that the child will get timely and appropriate treatment, both while in the state's care and after they return home or find a permanent placement. SSI/SSP benefits also ensure eligibility for a federal adoption assistance subsidy if a child cannot be returned to biological parents.
Specific Requirements of AB 1633
AB 1633 will improve outcomes for disabled foster youth by (1) establishing a workgroup to consider the best way to ensure eligible children receive SSI benefits, (2) ensuring that counties comply with federal law in managing the SSI funds of the children for whom they serve as the representative payee, (3) developing guidelines to ensure that emancipating youth leave with up to $2,000 to help them make the transition to independent living, and (4) informing youth of their eligibility for benefits and how to establish and retain that eligibility after emancipation.
Through the workgroup, DSS will establish best practice guidelines to assist counties in developing disability screening to determine whether a foster child is likely eligible for social security or SSI/SSP benefits. DSS will also establish best practice guidelines to assist counties in developing a program to assist all children through the application and appeals process.
In addition, for those children receiving SSI benefits, AB 1633 clarifies how counties must manage a child's funds. While these requirements already exist in federal law, the Social Security Agency (SSA) does little oversight of state or county representative payees. Further, when the SSA conducts audits of the counties, it has discovered numerous problems in the management of children's benefits. Thus, making these requirements explicit in state law may help to ensure that children's funds are properly managed, and used for their individual needs.
The goal of AB 1633 is to begin to design a system that is concerned first and foremost with the special needs of disabled foster children. Through the workgroup, NCYL will work to create an individualized system, requiring counties to stop and think about the child at every stage of the process -- in choosing a payee, determining how to spend a child's money, and accounting for how the funds are spent. Further, AB 1633 provides advocates with an additional tool in arguing that the county failed to consider a child's best interests, particularly in cases where the funds are dispensed without any record that the county considered the child's individual needs and interests.
Greater Flexibility to Pursue a High School Education
In addition to increasing access to benefits, AB 1633 enables youth to remain in their foster care placement beyond age 18 if they are pursuing their high school equivalency certificate. Previously, only foster youth who were attending high school or equivalent vocational or technical training, and were expected to complete the program before their 19th birthday, could remain in care. However, many foster youth are not able to participate in a traditional high school or vocational programs because frequent moves to different schools and homes causes them to fall behind in their studies. AB 1633 provides greater flexibility and support to these youth while they complete their education.
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