827.11. (Added by Stats. 2015, Ch. 773, Sec. 52.)

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure quality care for children and youth who are placed in the continuum of foster care settings.

(2) Attracting and retaining quality caregivers is critical to achieving positive outcomes for children, youth, and families, and to ensuring the success of child welfare improvement efforts.

(3) Quality caregivers strengthen foster care by ensuring that a foster or relative family caring for a child provides the loving, committed, and skilled care that the child needs, while working effectively with the child welfare system to reach the child’s goals.

(4) Caregivers who are informed of the child’s educational, medical, dental, and mental health history and current needs are better able to meet those needs and address the effects of trauma, increasing placement stability and improving permanency outcomes.

(5) Sharing necessary information with the caregiver is a critical component of effective service delivery for children and youth in foster care.

(b) Therefore, consistent with state and federal law, information shall be provided to a caregiver regarding the child’s or youth’s educational, medical, dental, and mental health history and current needs.