California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - September 24, 1996

This ACL addresses the effect of Senate Bill (SB) 321.

Currently, the approved home of a relative foster care provider is an eligible facility for AFDC-FC purposes. Such an eligible facility is not required to be licensed. However, after a TPR or relinquishment, a relative foster care provider is no longer considered a relative of the child for AFDC-FC purposes and must be licensed to continue receiving AFDC-FC.

SB 321 added Welfare and Institutions Code (W&IC) §11404.2 which provides that a child(ren), placed with a relative who has applied to adopt the related foster child(ren), continues to be eligible for AFDC-FC after a TPR or relinquishment occurs. Provided a child meets all other federal AFDC-FC requirements, the former relative’s home is an eligible facility without being licensed.

The CDSS has submitted proposed regulations which address the status of all former relative placements, not just those where the relative has applied to adopt the foster child. The proposed regulations define "former relatives" as "... a person related to the child by birth or adoption by being one of those persons listed in §45-101(ee)(1)(A), (B), or (C) when legal rights to the child are terminated by the filing of a relinquishment with the department or by court action."

Until the regulations become effective, counties are advised to limit continued federal eligibility after TPR or relinquishment to children placed with former relatives who have applied to adopt the child.

Once the proposed regulations become effective, all former relatives will be able to meet eligible facility requirements after a TPR or relinquishment.