SB 590 Summary

• Creates a statewide family-finding program requiring the Department of Children and Families and community-based care lead agencies to identify and engage relatives and fictive kin for children in out-of-home care, contingent on legislative appropriation.

• Establishes kinship navigator programs in each community-based care lead agency to help relative and fictive kin caregivers access services, benefits, and legal assistance, subject to appropriation.

• Requires courts to document family-finding efforts and determine whether the department has reasonably engaged in family finding at shelter hearings, arraignment, adjudicatory, disposition, and judicial review hearings.

• Mandates children from birth to school entry in out-of-home care attend early education or child care programs 5 days per week unless the court grants an exception, and requires protocols to maintain educational stability during placement transitions.

• Expands adoption assistance payments to young adults up to age 21 and establishes a pilot Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program in two circuits providing $333 monthly payments to eligible guardians, both contingent on appropriation.