(a) The federal government has provided the state with the option of including in its state plan children placed in a private facility operated on a for-profit basis.
(b) For children for whom the county placing agency has exhausted all other placement options, notwithstanding subdivision (h) of Section 11400 and subject to Section 15200.5, a child who is otherwise eligible for federal financial participation in the AFDC-FC payment shall be eligible for aid under this chapter when the child is placed in a for-profit child care institution and meets all of the following criteria, which shall be clearly documented in the county welfare department case file:
(1) The child has extraordinary and unusual special behavioral or medical needs that make the child difficult to place, including, but not limited to, being medically fragile, brittle diabetic, having severe head injuries, a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse or a dual diagnosis of developmental delay and mental illness.
(2) No other comparable private nonprofit facility or public licensed residential care home exists in the state that is willing to accept placement and is capable of meeting the child’s extraordinary special needs.
(3) The county placing agency has demonstrated that no other alternate placement option exists for the child.
(4) The child has a developmental disability and is eligible for both federal AFDC-FC payments and for regional center services.
(c) Federal financial participation shall be provided pursuant to Section 11402 for children described in subdivision (a) subject to all of the following conditions, which shall be clearly documented in the county welfare department case file.
(1) The county placing agency enters into a performance-based placement agreement with the for-profit facility to ensure the facility is providing services to improve the safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes of the placed children pursuant to Section 10601.2.
(2) The county placing agency will require the facility to ensure placement in the child’s community to the degree possible to enhance ongoing connections with the child’s family and to promote the establishment of lifelong connections with committed adults.
(3) The county placing agency monitors and reviews the facility’s outcome performance indicators every six months.
(4) In no event shall federal financial participation in this placement exceed a 12-month period.
(5) Payments made under this section shall not be made on behalf of any more than five children in a county at any one time.
(6) Payments made under this section shall be made pursuant to Sections 4684 and 11464, and only to a group home that is an approved vendor of a regional center.
(d) This section shall be implemented only during a federal fiscal year in which the department determines that no restriction on federal matching AFDC-FC payment exists.
(e) As used in this section, “child care institution” means a nondetention facility that has been licensed in accordance with the California Community Care Facilities Act (Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 1500) of Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code), and that has a licensed capacity not exceeding 25 children.
(f) The county placing agency shall review and report to the juvenile court at every six-month case plan update if this placement remains appropriate and necessary and what the plan is for discharge to a less restrictive placement.
(g) Notwithstanding subdivision (d) or any other provision of law, this section shall not be implemented before July 1, 2010.
(h) Beginning in the 2011–12 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, funding and expenditures for programs and activities under this section shall be in accordance with the requirements provided in Sections 30025 and 30026.5 of the Government Code.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 35, Sec. 82. (SB 1013) Effective June 27, 2012.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018