Foster Care & Extended Foster Care

Action Alert on Congregate Care Bill

Tell Governor Brown Children in Foster Care Deserve Families, Not Institutions –Now is the time to urge Governor Jerry Brown to sign AB 403! Children have the right to grow up in a family — in fact, it is a basic developmental need. Every child needs a family who can provide hands-on parenting through love, commitment, support, and structure. However, one in 10 children in California foster care is forced to live in institutional congregate care. For teenagers in foster care, that number is even greater, one in three. These youth must navigate the difficult teenage years and transition to adulthood without the parenting and guidance desperately needed. AB 403 transforms California child welfare by ensuring that children are protected from unnecessary and harmful congregate care and creates a roadmap for receiving the supports necessary to live in families.

CALL GOVERNOR BROWN TODAY! (916) 445-2841

Tell him to sign A.B. 403

Nothing matters more to children in foster care than where they live. Research clearly demonstrates being cared for in a family is essential for children who have experienced abuse and neglect. Placement in institutional congregate care interferes with healthy child and adolescent development and exacerbates, rather than reduces, youths’ problem behavior. Youth in congregate care become vulnerable to overuse of psychotropic medications, sexual exploitation, exposure to the juvenile justice system, educational struggles, and challenges in adult life.

Children who deserve families need our help. A.B. 403 unanimously passed the California Assembly and the Senate and is now sitting on the Governor’s desk. More information about the bill can be found at: www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/entres/pdf/AB403_FactSheet.pdf

The Youth Law Center urges you to tell Governor Brown to sign A.B. 403 to reform congregate care to ensure children’s right to grow up in families, not institutions.

You can call the Governor’s office at (916) 445-2841 and you can also make a difference right from your computer by emailing the governor by going to: https://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php

See Youth Law Center’s letter to Governor Brown requesting Signature on AB 403