California Department of Social Services - State Hearings
Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - February 29, 2000
| Item 00-02-03H CDSS ACL 99-104 -- December 13, 1999 (Synopsis): Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) and Assembly Bill 1225 |
Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) and Assembly Bill 1225
Assembly Bill 1225, Chapter 905, Statutes of 1999 became effective on October 10, 1999. It amends Welfare and Institutions Code (W&IC)§ 16119(a) to require agencies to provide prospective adoptive parents additional information, in writing, about the availability of AAP benefits. This written information must be provided not only at the time an application for a child who is potentially eligible for AAP benefits is made, but also before the finalization of the adoption decree.
AB 1225 also added subsection (b) to W&IC§ 16119. That subsection requires agencies to encourage families who do not elect to sign an AAP agreement on behalf of a child who may be eligible for AAP, to sign a deferred AAP agreement. If the family signs a deferred agreement, it may later receive AAP benefits even if it chooses not to receive such benefits initially.