Update: Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law the legislation described in this story: Assembly Bill 2108, which will help find missing foster youth and Assembly Bill 81, an update to California’s version of the Indian Child Welfare Act and Assembly Bill 1863, which amends the statewide Feather Alert system.
Numerous bills on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk share the goal of better serving the state’s Indigenous children and families, an effort that includes long-sought legislation to tackle the problem of youth who go missing from foster care.
Assembly Bill 2108, also known as the Luke Madrigal Act, would apply to all children in foster care, but includes protections specific to Indigenous kids — namely a requirement that tribes and their representatives be contacted within the critical first 24 hours. The bill requires that probation officers and social workers move quickly once they learn of a child’s unexplained absence from a foster home, residential care facility or school. Under the legislation, notifications would go out to parents, legal guardians, siblings, juvenile court judges, attorneys and court-appointed special advocates.
The proposed legislation is part of a package of bills announced in February by Assemblymember James Ramos, a lifelong resident of the San Manuel Indian Reservation and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe.
This is his second attempt to pass the Luke Madrigal Act. Gov. Newson vetoed a previous version late last year, citing cost concerns as well as the need for local agencies to develop better protocols. Ramos, the first California Native American elected to the State Assembly, is a longtime proponent of improving efforts to find missing and murdered Indigenous people, and has authored several other bills to address the issue.
Supporters said they are grateful the legislation to better track missing foster youth has made it back to the governor’s desk.
“Though we don’t know if the governor will sign AB 2108, whatever the outcome of this legislative effort, we will continue to advocate for requirements on agencies who have the responsibility to protect children in foster care, especially to search for and stabilize children who go missing,” said Blair Kreuzer, co-executive director of the California Tribal Families Coalition. The coalition is one of the bill’s sponsors.
Three other bills authored by Ramos are also on Gov. Newsom’s desk:
- Assembly Bill 1863 amends a statewide Feather Alert for missing Indigenous peoples. That system, signed into law in 2022, is modeled after the Amber Alert, a nationwide emergency response that employs roadway signs, cell phones and radio and television broadcasts to notify the public about missing children. The amendment awaiting approval seeks to clarify when Feather Alerts can be activated, and requires the California Highway Patrol, local law enforcement agencies and tribes to collaborate over policies and procedures.
- Another bill, Assembly Bill 81, would update the state’s version of the Indian Child Welfare Act law, known as Cal-ICWA.
- Assembly Bill 2948, also authored by Ramos, was signed into law last month. It aims to ensure that tribal children are provided the same benefits through the state’s Adoption Assistance Program as non-tribal children, “making adoption more likely and allowing them to have an equal opportunity to [be] adopted.”
The Luke Madrigal Act — named after the late Cahuilla Band of Indians elder and child welfare advocate — passed the Legislature in late August after several amendments. It seeks to address a problem that is particularly devastating to tribal communities.
Indigenous youth are more likely to go missing from the child welfare system than their non-Native American counterparts, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Running away or going missing from foster care fuels the disparate rates of exploitation and violence in Indigenous communities, according to one of the bill’s legislative analyses.
The Yurok Tribe, the state’s largest sovereign nation, is among those supporting the bill. The tribe has spent years researching and reporting on the disappearance and murder of its women, girls and Two Spirit people, most recently, three Yurok teens who went missing from foster care, and suffered exploitation by sex traffickers. The Yurok Tribe refers to the disappeared as their “stolen relatives.”
In addition to the new notification requirements, Ramos’ bill seeks to address the confusion that sometimes occurs as state, federal and tribal agencies try to determine which agency has jurisdiction over a missing Indigenous person’s case.
The bill also assigns social workers and probation officers to new record-keeping tasks. They would have to note the factors that lead to the child’s absence. And once the child is located, they would have to update the records to include details about what happened, including whether sexual exploitation or other crimes occurred.
“I witnessed the demons and trauma that followed my peers — traffickers, gangs, and those who are exploiting them as well,’’ said Jevon Wilkes, executive director of the California Coalition for Youth, an advocacy group representing runaways and the homeless. Wilkes endured the foster care system and experienced homelessness in high school.
“Our foster care system is responsible for the children under its care, and it is also responsible for finding them when they are missing.”
In April there were more than 42,000 children and young adults through age 21 in California’s foster care system, according to state data.
According to a 2022 federal report, 10,893 California children disappeared from foster care between July 2018 and the end of 2020. The inspector general for the federal Department of Health and Human Services found that California’s children went missing for an average of 41 days.
By the end of 2020, 2,767 were still unaccounted for and 13 had reportedly died of unspecified causes. One was identified as a drug overdose.
Alejandra Gomez, who is First Nations Ojibwe-Cree and a former foster youth in California, said she’s glad the pending legislation will address this urgent issue.
“I’m hopeful that Governor Newsom will sign the bill,” she said. “But it’s heartbreaking to think how many youth could have been helped if this was prioritized earlier.”
Sept. 18 correction: This story has been corrected to note that James Ramos is the first California Native American elected to that state’s Assembly.
