For purposes of this part, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) “Adoption promotion and support services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means services and activities designed to encourage more adoptions out of the foster care system, when adoptions promote the best interests of children, including activities such as preadoptive and postadoptive services and activities designed to expedite the adoption process and support adoptive families.
(b) “Family preservative services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means services for children and families designed to help families, including adoptive and extended families, at risk or in crisis, including all of the following:
(1) Services programs designed to help children return to families from which they have been removed, where safe and appropriate, or be placed for adoption or with a legal guardian, or, if adoption or legal guardianship is determined not to be safe and appropriate for the child, in some other planned, permanent living arrangement.
(2) Preplacement preventive services programs, including, but not limited to, intensive family preservation programs designed to help children at risk of foster care placement remain safely with their families.
(3) Service programs designed to provide followup care to families to whom a child has been returned after a foster care placement.
(4) Respite care of children to provide temporary relief for parents and other caregivers, including, but not limited to, foster parents.
(5) Services designed to improve parenting skills by reinforcing parents’ confidence in their strengths and helping them to identify where improvement is needed and to obtain assistance in improving those skills with respect to matters such as child development, family budgeting, coping with stress, health, and nutrition.
(6) Infant safe haven programs that provide a way for a parent to safely relinquish a newborn infant at a safe haven designated pursuant to state law.
(c) “Family support services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means community-based services, including mentoring, to promote the safety and well-being of children and families. This includes services designed to increase the strength and stability of families, including adoptive, foster, and extended families, to support and retain foster families so they can provide quality family-based settings for children in foster care, to increase parents’ confidence and competence in their parenting abilities, to afford children a safe, stable, and supportive family environment, to strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriages, and otherwise to enhance child development.
(d) “Family reunification services,” as defined by Section 431 of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 629a), means the services and activities described in Section 629a(a)(7)(B) of Title 42 of the United States Code that are provided to a child that is removed from the child’s home and placed in a foster family home or a child care institution or a child who has been returned home and to the parents or primary caregiver of the child, in order to facilitate the reunification of the child safely and appropriately within a timely fashion, and to ensure the strength and stability of the reunification. This includes peer-to-peer mentoring and support groups for parents and primary caregivers, as well as services and activities to facilitate access to and visitation of children with parents and siblings. In the case of a child who has been returned home, the services and activities shall only be provided during the 15-month period that begins on the date that the child returns home.
(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 910, Sec. 50. (AB 1930) Effective January 1, 2019.)