For Immediate Release: February 16, 2022

Media Contact: Michelle.Sherwood@sen.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) introduced her Family and Services Connection Support Bill Package. The Family and Services Connection Support Bill Package consists of three bills, which will help families trying to navigate California’s oftentimes complicated and uncoordinated services systems. 

“As Chair of the Human Services Committee, it’s come to my attention that our existing support, resources and connection systems are not working,” said Senator Hurtado. “There have been institutional barriers created that have increased time and made it harder for many in our vulnerable populations to access support and connective services.”

“By introducing the Family and Services Connection Support Bill Package, our youth in foster care will be receive adequate support to stay engaged with their relatives, and will not be cut off from vital services while transitioning through the system,” said Hurtado. “This package will also provide help to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families as they navigate the fair hearing process—making it easier for them to access services.”

Families navigating California’s existing support systems face multiple barriers when it comes to receiving care, in many cases having to navigate bias, complex systems that lack coordination with other agencies and organizations, and that do not receive consistent funding. These barriers prevent many families from accessing much needed services, and leaves gaps in support.

Senate Bill 1091—the Family Finding and Engagement Act seeks to streamline the efforts and funding streams to implement Family Finding and Engagements. There are approximately 60,000 children and youth in foster care on any given day in California. According to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), approximately 20% of the youth in foster care are 17 years of age or younger, who’ve been in foster care for 24 months or more. Youth in this program are not living with a relative, are not in the process of adoption with a family or guardianship and reunification is no longer their case plan. SB 1091 would require CDSS to fund contracts with community-based organizations or provide local assistance to support new or expanded family finding and engagement programs—encouraging children and youth to remain connected with their families and promoting long-term stability, emotional permanency, and better mental health and behavioral outcomes.

“Right now, there are thousands of children in foster care in California who do not have long term connections with caring adults,” said Chris Stoner-Mertz, CEO of the CA Alliance. “Family Finding and Engagement offers us an opportunity to help youth develop healing relationships with both relative and non-relative family and cultivate an environment that offers these children physical or emotional permanency, unconditional support, and guidance.”

The second bill of the Family and Services Connection Support Bill Package, SB 1092—the Equitable Access to Services Act, will help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families more easily navigate the fair hearing process. Individuals with developmental disabilities and their families have a right to receive the necessary supports and services required to live independently in the community under the Lanterman Act. Families navigating the existing California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) report having a lack of access to mediation and other informal dispute resolution processes, and SB 1092 will reform the existing system to address their concerns. SB 1092 will also move the fair hearing process for DDS consumers from the Office of Administrative Hearings to CDSS, which is seen as providing a more accessible and less formal process.

The last bill of the Family and Services Connection Support Bill Package is Senate Bill 1090—Family Urgent Response System. The Family Urgent Response System (FURS) provides current and former foster youth and their caregivers with immediate, trauma-informed support and other alternative solutions to promote healing, for both families and youth, and stability for current and former foster youth, including youth in extended foster care. SB 1090 expands the definition of who is a current or former foster youth, so those youth in a transitionary period remain eligible for FURS, ensuring youth remain connected to the services they desperately need.  

"The Family Urgent Response System has helped foster youth and their caregivers stay together, reducing disruptions in care, which in turn leads to better outcomes for kids and families," said Cathy Senderling-McDonald, Executive Director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California. "Expanding who is eligible to receive services through this successful program will help support children, youth and caregivers throughout California's foster care system."

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado represents a new generation of Latina leaders, as the youngest woman ever elected to the California State Senate and as a product of immigrant parents. Senator Hurtado represents the 14th Senate District and focuses on rural community issues that often go unheard — access to clean air and water, food insecurity and poverty, inequities in environmental policies, agriculture and access to health care. In July 2020, she was appointed to the national Biden Latino Leadership Committee alongside former Labor Secretary and current Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis – the only two California Latinas on the Committee.

For more information, visit Senator Hurtado’s Website here or find her on Twitter at @Senator_Hurtado

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