Assembly members and advocates back multi-agency foster-care office to improve coordination
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Summary
Advocates and Assembly members urged creation of a state-level foster care multi-agency office with authority to coordinate agencies — education, mental health, housing and others — to better serve foster youth and ensure laws are implemented consistently across California.
Advocates and legislators pressed for a new foster care multi-agency office to centralize coordination across systems that touch foster youth, arguing fragmentation leaves young people without consistent access to education, health care, and other supports.
Simone Turek Lee of John Burton Advocates for Youth told the subcommittee that state law sets expectations but implementation often fails at the county level where child welfare must rely on other systems. "We now have legal adults in foster care who are pursuing a postsecondary education, filing taxes, navigating the housing market," she said, arguing an elevated office could direct other public agencies to meet foster youths' needs.
Panelists gave examples where cross-agency authority is needed. Turek Lee cited the requirement that child-welfare workers verify comprehensive sexual-health education for foster youth under the California Foster Youth Health Education Act; in practice counties must rely on school districts to verify instruction and lack formal leverage to enforce compliance.
Jennifer Troia of the California Department of Social Services listed existing interagency structures including AB 2083’s interagency leadership teams, the Child Welfare Council and a complex-care steering committee, and the ombudsperson office housed at CDSS. Troia said the department is available to provide technical assistance and to build on those structures.
Supporters, including Assemblymember Camille Jackson and others, said the new office should be empowered with clear authority and funding. Advocates said the office should be elevated within the Health and Human Services Agency (Cal HHS) rather than housed in CDSS so it can direct other departments. The committee and witnesses agreed a successful office must come with clarity about authority, funding, reporting and performance milestones.
Chair Jackson asked staff to circulate bill language and for further stakeholder engagement on whether the proposed office has the necessary “teeth” to effect systemic change.