Dependency: placement of child with relative

The law requires courts and county social workers to more fully consider relatives who seek placement, including relatives who come forward after the initial dispositional hearing. It also requires courts to explain why a considered relative placement was denied or delayed.

What the law does ​

• Requires courts to state on the record why placement with a considered relative was denied or delayed.
• Requires social workers to assess relatives who request placement after the dispositional hearing if they have not already been assessed or found unsuitable, with limited exceptions.
• Requires additional consideration of a child’s relationship and progress with the current caregiver, and the child’s age-appropriate placement preference, when reunification services have ended.
• Lets a court order an assessment of a relative when a social worker declines to conduct one and the court finds it is in the child’s best interest.
• Limits new local duties to the extent the state provides annual funding for increased costs.

Who it affects ​

• Dependent children removed from their parents’ physical custody.
• Relatives seeking to care for those children.
• County social workers and juvenile courts.
• Current caregivers of children whose relatives later request placement.