Fact Sheet: Overview of SB 187: Updates to Foster Youth Rights Regarding Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

The Foster Care Social Security and Supplemental Security Income Assistance Program (created by AB 1633 (2005) and AB 1331 (2007)), and codified at Welf. & Inst. Code Section 13750, et seq., represents the California Legislature’s attempts to maximize utilization of Social Security Administration benefits among foster youth, including probation-supervised foster youth, as they approach adulthood. […]

Template Letters for SSI/OASDI Advocacy for California Foster Youth

This resource contains template letters to request information and actions related to foster youth clients, including probation-supervised foster youth, who may be receiving Social Security Administration benefits or for whom you want an eligibility screening and/or benefits application to be made. These templates are for use by attorneys in California, including dependency counsel, juvenile defenders, and […]

SUPPORT Act Implementation Resource

This resource alert provides an update related to older foster youth access to Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act provided Medicaid eligibility for former foster youth until age 26 if they were in foster care at age 18 or older and were enrolled in Medicaid at that time. When it was enacted, the law did not […]

FYI/FUP Template Letters

Assisting young adults in securing affordable housing continues to be a challenging task. The tools included with this packet can be used as one strategy among many to help your clients access affordable housing. Please note that these strategies aim to increase your county’s use of FUP and FYI vouchers and likely will not result […]

Resource, Foster and Kinship Families & the Child Tax Credit (CTC)

Many resource, foster and kinship families are either unaware of, or given incorrect information about, their ability to access the new federal child tax credit as a result of caring for children in their homes. This resource provides basic information about the CTC which we hope will assist both families and their advocates to receive […]

AB 1849 – Request for Signature

Letter to Governor Brown requesting signature on AB 1849, a bill intended to reduce barriers to foster youth receiving uninterrupted Medi-Cal services as they exit care. YLC co-sponsored this bill.

SB 1466 Sponsor letter

YLC Letter to Senator Mitchell sponsoring SB 1466, a bill to ensure that trauma screening is incorporated into EPSDT services provided to at-risk youth receiving Medi-Cal benefits.

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Article in Chronicle of Social Change about SB 1466, a bill to ensure that trauma screening is part of EPSDT benefit for children under 21 enrolled in Medi-Cal.

Foster Care SSI Support Letter

Letter of support to SSA regarding extension of window for foster youth to apply for SSI benefits when transitioning out of foster care

Legal Rights of Teens in Out of Home Care (2014)

This booklet, based on California law, covers some of the concerns of a youth in out-of-home care, including types of placements, guardianship, independent living, role of the courts, visitation, confidentiality, pregnancy, money, religion, driving, emancipation and rights and responsibilities of youth in out-of-home care, group or foster homes

SSI Restoration Act (H.R. 1601) Summary

This is a summary of the SSI Restoration Act, H.R. 1601, introduced by Representative Raúl M. Grijalva (Arizona). The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program funds foster care for children with disabilities and is an important source of support for children with disabilities in low income families. The Act would modernize and streamline eligibility rules that […]

Letter to HHS re Extension of Medicaid to Former Foster Youth

YLC submitted comments on proposed rules to implement the extension of Medicaid to former foster youth up to the age of 26 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA.) The ACA provides Medicaid to former foster youth who are in foster care when they emancipate from foster care (at age 18 or older at state option) […]

Letter to CDMH and MHSOAC re MHSA

Letter requesting that the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission broaden the recommended language with respect to juvenile justice youth in the forthcoming Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) guidelines by removing the language limiting juvenile justice youth to those who are “at first point of contact” with the justice system.

Letter to CDMH re Comments on Proposed PEI Draft Guidelines

These comments are directed at one small, but important area – the language with respect to children at risk of or in juvenile justice. There are several places in the proposed guidelines where a few words would vastly improve the guidance and clarify the intentions of the Mental Health Services Act.

Youth of Color and MHSA Prevention and Early Intervention

Article about why it is critical that the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Guidelines be written flexibly enough to permit the use of funds for youth who may be past the front door of juvenile justice. Youth of color are particularly at risk of entering juvenile justice for mental health related behavior that is not […]

Children with Disabilities Aren’t Cheaters

Op ed piece about the Supplemental Security Income Legislation introduced by Republicans that would change the current system to one where vouchers would be used to only pay medical care.

Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Amendment re TFC

The Youth Law Center joined with over 35 national child welfare and mental organizations to thank Senator Debbie Stabenow for introducing an amendment to ensure that Medicaid coverage includes Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC.) TFC provides medically necessary, cost effective services to at least 50,000 children with severe mental and behavioral health needs in a community-based […]

Thank You Letter to Senator Debbie Stabenow Re Medicaid Coverage Amendment

The Youth Law Center joined with over 35 national child welfare and mental organizations to thank Senator Debbie Stabenow for introducing an amendment to ensure that Medicaid coverage includes Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC.) TFC provides medically necessary, cost effective services to at least 50,000 children with severe mental and behavioral health needs in a community-based […]

Adoption Assistance: An Introduction – Clearinghouse Review Article

“Adoption Assistance: An Introduction” by Alice Bussiere has been published in the July-August, 2011 issue of Clearinghouse Review. Bussiere writes that adoption assistance programs provide crucial support for families adopting children with special needs. However, such federal and state programs can be difficult for both parents and their advocates to navigate. Adoption advocates need to […]

Mark A. v. Wilson Stipulated Judgment

Mark A. v. Wilson was filed in January 1998 alleging that the State’s administration of the Adoption Assistance Program, a federally funded program that provides families with financial support when they adopt hard to place foster children, requires parents to provide extensive financial data before they can be considered for the program and discourages families […]

Mark A. v. Wilson First Amended Complaint

Mark A. v. Wilson was filed in January 1998 alleging that the State’s administration of the Adoption Assistance Program, a federally funded program that provides families with financial support when they adopt hard to place foster children, requires parents to provide extensive financial data before they can be considered for the program and discourages families […]

A.S.W. v. Mink Ninth Circuit Opinion

A.S.W. v. Mink, a class action lawsuit, challenged the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) actions to unilaterally reduce and, in some cases, end Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) payments for children with special needs and deny families the right to an administrative fair hearing to contest DHS’s actions. Oregon implemented a unilateral across the board […]

A.S.W. v. Mink Complaint

A.S.W. v. Mink, a class action lawsuit, challenged the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) actions to unilaterally reduce and, in some cases, end Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) payments for children with special needs and deny families the right to an administrative fair hearing to contest DHS’s actions. Oregon implemented a unilateral across the board […]

Recommendations on Children in Foster Care – California Working Families Policy Summit

The Youth Law Center was co-sponsor of the 2009 California Working Families Policy Summit, held January 13 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Organized by The California Center for Research on Women and Families, the Summit brought together over 700 policymakers and advocates to address high priority policy issues for California families. This year’s Summit Workshops […]

SB 1147 – Suspension Rather than Termination of Medi-Cal

Youth Law Center sponsored this bill, which was enacted by the California Legislature in 2008. It provides for the suspension rather than termination of Medi-Cal for children who were Medi-Cal when they went into secure confinement (when became inmates of a public institution for purposes of Medi-Cal). This legislation represented an important step in assuring […]

Overpayments – YLC Fact Sheet

This fact sheet describes what overpayments are and what the rules are if the overpayments occur in the following programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC-FC) (Foster Care), Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payments (Kin-GAP) and Adoption Assistance Program (AAP).

AB 47 Fact Sheet

Assembly Bill 47 will adjust a tax credit that is currently available to offset the cost of adoption of older foster youth or youth who were in a group home.

AB 154 Fact Sheet

AB 154 would increase the incentives of to promote the adoption of children in foster care, particularly those with special needs and older youth.

Update: “Fostering Connections to Success: Extending a Social Safety Net for Youths Facing Homelessness and Poverty”

The Clearinghouse Review has published an update on The Fostering Connections Act written by YLC staff attorneys Jennifer Rodriguez and Alice Bussiere with Jennifer Pokempner, a supervising attorney at the Juvenile Law Center. The News and Notes item, available at 44 Clearinghouse Review 582-584 (March-April 2011), discusses policy guidance on the extension of foster care […]

January 12, 2010, Letter to Nancy Pelosi Re: Suspending Rather than Terminating Medicaid

YLC has signed on with other state and national organizations to urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to include in final health care legislation a provision in the House-passed bill (H.R. 3962, §1729) requiring states to suspend—rather than terminate—Medicaid benefits for youth in juvenile facilities. This issue arises out of YLC work on Improving Access to […]