SB 532

This bill changes the rights of a foster parent or other physical custodian in a

proceeding for a change of placement under the Children's Code and the Juvenile

Justice Code.

Under current law, a child who is subject to a dispositional order of the court

assigned to exercise jurisdiction under the Children's Code and the Juvenile Justice

Code (juvenile court), the child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian, or any agency

bound by the dispositional order may request a change in placement of the child.

Currently, if the agency requests the change in placement, the agency must provide

notice to the child, the child's parent, guardian, and legal custodian, and the child's

foster parent, treatment foster parent, or other physical custodian stating the

reasons for the change in placement, why the new placement is preferable to the

current placement, and how the new placement satisfies the objectives of the child's

treatment plan. A person who receives notice of such a change in placement may

obtain a hearing on the change in placement by filing an objection to the change in

placement.

Current law provides a slightly different procedure for when the child or the

child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian requests a change in placement. In that

case, the notice must state what new information affects the advisability of the

current placement and a hearing must be held unless all parties waive their

objections to the change in placement.

Finally, under current law, when an agency is appointed the guardian of a child

after parental rights are terminated and the district attorney or corporation counsel

requests a change in placement, the juvenile court may decide whether to hold a

hearing on the change in placement.

Under any of these three procedures, if a hearing is held and the change in

placement would remove the child from a foster home or from the home of another

physical custodian, the juvenile court must give the foster parent or other physical

custodian the right to be heard by permitting that person to make a written or oral

statement at the hearing or to submit a written statement prior to the hearing

relating to the child and to the change in placement. Current law specifies that a

foster parent is not a party to a proceeding solely on the basis of receiving notice of

the proceeding and the right to be heard.

This bill expands the rights of a foster parent or other physical custodian in

connection with a change-in-placement proceeding. Specifically, the bill provides

that, if a hearing is held and the change in placement would remove the child from

a foster home or from the home of another physical custodian in which the child has

been placed for six months or more, the foster parent or other physical custodian is

a party to the proceeding and, as a party, has the right to be represented by counsel,

to inspect and copy, through counsel, all records relating to the child, to request that

the child be examined or assessed by an expert of the foster parent's, treatment foster