Bill
AB 319
AB 319 requires counties to plan and report on expanding trauma‑informed, in‑state, least‑restrictive foster care through enhanced multiagency collaboration and more short‑term res
Status and procedural history
- Introduced: January 24, 2025.
- Current status: In committee — Held under submission (May 23, 2025).
- Key recent actions: Read and amended (March 19, 2025); re-referred to Assembly Appropriations (March 20, 2025); referred to Assembly Human Services (Feb 10, 2025).
- Code amended: Welfare and Institutions Code, section 16521.6.
Purpose
- Require counties to plan and report on development needed to create a trauma‑informed, therapeutic continuum of care that supports children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma — with an emphasis on keeping youth in‑state and served in the least restrictive appropriate settings.
Background (existing law)
- Current law requires counties to adopt memoranda of understanding (MOUs) among child welfare, probation, behavioral health, education, regional centers and other partners to coordinate services for foster youth who have experienced severe trauma.
- State-level interagency resolution team (California Health & Human Services Secretary and Superintendent of Public Instruction, plus other departments) develops recommendations and a statewide plan and tracks deidentified information about youth assisted to secure intensive therapeutic options.
Key provisions of AB 319
- County planning requirement: Each county, collaborating with its interagency leadership team (including tribal consultation), must develop and submit to the State Department of Social Services (and to the resolution team) a plan describing the development needed to establish a trauma‑informed, therapeutic continuum of care to support in‑state placements in the least restrictive setting.
- Plan content requirements: Counties must describe how they will ensure coordinated, timely, trauma‑informed services for foster youth who have experienced severe trauma; outline placement and service options available to child welfare and probation; and specify how they will work to increase the number of available slots in short‑term residential therapeutic programs within the county.
- Timing: First county plans due January 1, 2027; counties must submit updated plans every two years thereafter.
- Alignment: Counties must take into consideration recommendations from the joint interagency resolution team and the statewide plan.
Who is affected
- Counties (child welfare agencies, probation departments, county behavioral health, county offices of education, regional centers) — new planning and reporting duties.
- Foster children and nonminor dependents who have experienced severe trauma — intended beneficiaries through improved in‑county, trauma‑informed services and placement options.
- Federally recognized tribes in counties — engagement/consultation required in plan development.
Fiscal and legal notes
- The bill creates new duties for counties, constituting a state‑mandated local program. The text states that no state reimbursement is required for the mandate for a specified reason (per the bill’s fiscal/legal digest).
Impact summary
- AB 319 formalizes and centralizes county-level planning to expand trauma‑informed therapeutic services and placement capacity, with a multiagency and tribal collaboration requirement and a recurring reporting cadence beginning in 2027. The bill seeks to move more foster youth into timely, less restrictive in‑state care, while imposing additional planning obligations on counties.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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