Groundbreaking data just recently passed on October 6th, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown approved AB 260 legislative bill for protecting foster youth in the court system that have been subject to abuse or drug dependency. This protection helps mend the link between the past and the future for many young mothers and fathers out in the world with foster care as a hiccup of the past. AB 260 now declares that everyone involved within the juvenile court system adhere to the law and must maintain proper regulation to ensure the life of the newborn child in care be fed, clothed, and safe while being a dependent of the court. This makes complete and total sense, but in reality, this has never been implemented and many of the former foster youth that are now aged out have had to overcome many barriers concerning their past, moving forward throughout adulthood.
Section 825.5. of the law reads, “The clerk of the superior court shall maintain court files and records concerning a minor dependent parent or a non-minor dependent parent of a child who is the subject of a dependency petition separate from court files and records concerning the child”.
Revolutionary forces have come together to make up for lost time and lost lives in the process of forming this bill not just over the past three years in pushing this bill through the chain of legislation, but to push forth an idea that these children and their children’s children matter has been a political tribulation that has finally seen the light.
information from Odessey Online