A motion was unanimously approved Tuesday, co-authored by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, to direct the Departments of Children and Family Services and Probation, in collaboration with the Office of Child Protection and the Courts, to develop a plan to increase relative placements and the overall role of relatives and non-related extended family members in the lives of children in foster care.

The motion, which must be carried out within 120 days, also moves to establish a robust upfront family finding program to identify family members as soon as possible after a child is removed from an abusive or neglectful situation. The motion also calls for a countywide protocol to coordinate the new program with existing related County programs.

LA County has been successful in placing many children who have been removed from their homes with relatives and non-related extended family members, but with Assembly Bill 403 (Stone), also known as California’s Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), slated to go into effect in January of 2017, we must do better, Kuehl said in a news release.

CCR requires that we move our children away from long-term group homes and, instead, emphasize placements in family settings, Kuehl added.

As a result, in order for CCR to succeed, the County must not only continue to recruit foster families, we must also increase our ability to find relative and non-related extended family placements, Kuehl added.

“LA County has already proven that we know how to increase relative placements,” said Kuehl. “With the Continuum of Care Reform on the horizon and research indicating that children placed with relatives have better educational, health and behavioral outcomes, it’s a no-brainer to build on our success and establish and increase ways to reach more potential relative caregivers, more quickly.”

Currently, more than half (53 percent) of the approximately 18,000 children in out-of-home care in LA County are placed in the homes of relatives compared to 29 percent nationally and 40 percent statewide.

“While Los Angeles County exceeds the national rate for placing foster youth with relatives, there is always more work to be done to increase and support relative placements. This motion provides a pathway to reduce delays in placing children with their relatives and to increase placement options, leading to better educational and health outcomes,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis.

This is the latest of several motions co-authored by Kuehl designed to support relative and extended family caregivers.