§ 16004.5

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that there is an urgent need to develop placement resources to permit minor parents and their children to remain together in out-of-home care when the minor parent is removed from the custody of his or her parents due to abuse or neglect.

(b) To the greatest extent possible, child welfare agencies, in conjunction with providers and the state, and in conjunction with ongoing development of placements and the allocation of existing placement resources, shall identify and utilize whole family placements and other placement models that provide supportive family focused care for dependent teens and their children. In identifying these placements, child welfare agencies shall work with providers and stakeholders to identify and develop programs and program models designed to meet these goals.

(c) In order to effectively plan, identify, and develop needed resources, and effectively address the needs of this population, the department and local child welfare agencies are encouraged to collect data on the number of minors in foster care who give birth and the number of minor parents who remain in placement with their minor children. The department shall aggregate the data annually.

(d) In order to recruit, train, and retain qualified and supportive foster care providers for this population, the department and local child welfare agencies, in consultation with other interested stakeholders, are encouraged to collect information to be used to develop a more cost-effective infant supplemental payment rate structure that more adequately reimburses caregivers for the costs of infant care and teen parent mentoring.

(Added by Stats. 2004, Ch. 841, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 2005.)