california department of health care services

California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation on Monday that aims to resolve issues preventing kids placed in out-of-county foster homes from getting needed mental health treatment. About one in five foster youth in California — or about 13,000 youth — are considered out of county, meaning they have been placed in a county other than the one where they first entered the state’s child welfare system.

As California prepares to implement massive changes in how it provides care for foster children, many of the local agencies that will determine the failure or success of the effort — the county behavioral health departments — are completely unprepared to deliver on the promise of improved care.

California has compensated several counties retroactively for expenditures on Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), and is assuring counties that obligations under the federally mandated program have not been dropped in their laps.