mark stone

With the deadline to sign legislation looming, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is considering a bill that would limit how long young people who are declared mentally unfit by a judge can be held in juvenile halls.

In 2015, California Assemblymember Mark Stone (D) introduced legislation that launched the state’s Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), an overhaul of the state’s foster care system. Under 2015’s Assembly Bill (AB) 403, Stone put into place the foundation of the reforms: dramatically scaling back a reliance on group homes as placements for children in the foster care system, and seeking to place more children in the homes of relatives and foster parents.

In the wake of a federal law giving child welfare agencies direct access to education records, legislation is moving in California to bolster its data sharing efforts. Assembly Bill 1878 creates a direct link between agencies and schools for the sharing of information when a child is in the foster care system.