Continuum of Care Reform

Overview

Continuum of Care Reform

The Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) seeks to realize California’s longstanding goal of ensuring that all children live as members of committed, nurturing, and permanent families. Assembly Bill (AB) 403 (Chapter 773, Statutes of 2015) provides the statutory and policy framework to ensure services and supports provided to the child or youth and his or her family are tailored toward the ultimate goal of returning the child home whenever possible or to a permanent family through adoption or guardianship.

County child welfare agencies are diligently working to implement CCR, including recruiting caregivers, revising and improving approval processes and closely working with an array of partners to find nurturing homes and care for children and youth. 

Budget Priority

Family Stability Fund Budget Memo

On behalf of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, California Alliance of Caregivers, Children NOW, California State Association of Counties, County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA) and Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC), we respectfully urge the Human Services Budget Subcommittees to provide $43.2 million State General Fund (SGF) to maintain critical supports to resource family caregivers, and the children and youth in their care.

Budget Priority

Family Urgent Response System for Foster Youth and Caregivers Budget Memo

CWDA and a coalition of organizations request support of the Family Urgent Response System, a $15 million State General Fund (SGF) budget proposal in 2019-20 and $30 million SGF ongoing, to support foster youth and their caregivers and strengthen their relationships.

Post

Extended Foster Care Program Budget Memo

The Alliance for Children’s Rights, Children NOW, County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, respectfully request support for a $50 million General Fund (GF) investment to support transition-aged foster youth and young adults participating in the Extended Foster Care (EFC) Program.

Press release Amanda Kirchner Diana Boyer

Author and Cosponsors of Assembly Bill 2043 Respond to Governor Brown’s Veto

SACRAMENTO – Last week, to our disappointment, Governor Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 2043 (Arambula), cosponsored by CWDA, Children Now, and the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA), which would have created California’s first-ever Family Urgent Response System (FURS) for foster youth and families.

Article Sacramento Bee

Agencies must work together to place foster kids. This bill will help

By Assemblyman Ken Cooley

Children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect have experienced unimaginable trauma that will follow them throughout their lives. All these children need specialized care and services to help them heal.

But there is a small subset of California’s 60,000 foster children who require even greater attention and care, whose special needs and intense service requirements often don’t fit into an easy placement solution.

Budget Priority

Support Additional Funding for Continuum of Care Reform Effort

The California State Association of Counties (CSAC), County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California support the ASSEMBLY version of the Budget to provide $49.1 million General Fund in 2018-19 above the May Revise proposal to address unfunded new workload and ensure successful implementation of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) effort.

CCR Budget Memo – May 26, 2017

Budget Priority

Support Resource Family Funding at the Time of Foster Placement

The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) and County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA) appreciates the Administration’s and Legislature’s support for a long-term solution to ensure the relatives and non-related extended family members of foster children receive funding at the time of placement, prior to approval under the Resource Family Approval (RFA) process.

Article Chronicle of Social Change

California Considers a “Bat-Signal” for Foster Youth in Distress

By Susan Abram

The woman used a thick extension cord on her foster children.

Welts rose. Bruises formed. Fear became the norm inside the Watts neighborhood home in Los Angeles where LaToya Cooper and six other children were sent to live.

But no one believed the then-fifth grader. Not Cooper’s teachers. Not the police.

Featured Content

California Youth Connection Releases CCR Tool Kit

California Youth Connection’s Policy Team is excited to announce the release of their CCR Tool Kit that they are sharing with partners!

Featured Content

Step Up Coaliton Resource Family Approval Toolkit

The Alliance for Children’s Rights, the Step Up Coalition, and a wide range of state and local partners has released a Resource Family Approval Toolkit. The toolkit is designed to help walk caregivers through the newly implemented Resource Family Approval process.

Article

Moving Foster Care to a Child-Based and Family-Centered Focus
Op-ed by Elliott Smart, Plumas County Department of Social Services Director

For many years child welfare professionals have known the best place for children who are removed from homes because of abuse or neglect is a safe and stable home setting.  We’ve known that placing these children in settings that are the most family-centered is where they are most likely to experience successful outcomes.   

Featured Content

Foster Parent Recruitment, Retention, and Support (FPRRS) Funding Opportunity Menu Of Strategies

As a part of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) efforts, counties are working to strengthen foster parent, resource family and relative caregiver retention, recruitment, training requirements and strategies. This work comes not only out of efforts counties have already been doing but also from recommendations in a detailed CCR Legislative Report that was developed and provided to the California Legislature in January 2015. The following document is Foster Parent Recruitment, Retention, and Support (FPRRS) Funding Opportunity Menu of Strategies.

Featured Content

CCR Implementation: Roll Out for County Child Welfare Services

The elements defined in the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) are interdependent and require changes in existing regulations, policy and practice by the California Department of Social Services and the California Department of Health Care Services. This reform necessitates county welfare departments, county mental health plans, and service providers build the necessary infrastructure to reform existing policy, hire and train staff to implement new requirements and build the new program models. These providers include: Foster Family Agencies (FFAs), Group Homes, Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans (MCPs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Fee For Service (FFS) providers.

Online Resource

Resource Family Approval – QPI California Training Video

This webcast Resource Family Approval: Beyond 101 was recorded April 19, 2016 and includes information from several partner organizations.

Online Resource

The Road Map to Reform Tool Kit

CalSWEC with collaboration of many partners has released a “Road Map to Reform” Toolkit on Continuum of Care Reform. This toolkit contains the following:

Online Resource

Continuum of Care Reform

This webpage by the California Department of Social Services provides information and updates related to the California Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) work to reduce the use of congregate care and increase services and supports to foster children, youth and families through home-based settings.  Visit the CCR webpage.

Presentation

CWDA and CBHDA Leadership Convening Presentations

On July 13, 2016, members from CWDA, County Behavioral Health Directors Association (CBHDA) and probation leaders came together for a leadership convening to share information about the child welfare and behavioral health systems and to discuss strategies for strengthening implementation of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR).

Training

Webinar Series on Recruitment, Retention, and Support

A key facet of CCR is developing best practices for recruiting and supporting resource families. CWDA partnered with CalSWEC to host a webinar series providing tools to counties for Recruitment, Retention, and Support of resource families. The following is a link to the webinar series on the CalSWEC website.

Training

In-Home Behavioral Supports in Foster Care
Part of Webinar Series on Resource Family Recruitment/Retention/Support Series

CWDA, San Luis Obispo County Social Services Department, and the Family Care Network, Inc. hosted a webinar on January 28 to share information on increasing capacity and support to resource families in California and improve outcomes for children and youth in our child welfare system.

Video

Humboldt County Wants YOU to Foster Parent
Powerful New Video Shows Need for Loving Homes and Why Foster Parents Make Commitment to Children

The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services is looking for loving families looking to make a difference in the lives of children and has recently released a video showing the need for caring homes, as well as why many foster parents have made the commitment to welcome children into their lives.