On March 23, 2010, the National Center for Youth Law, the Alliance for Children's Rights, and private counsel filed this state court lawsuit representing children who receive benefits through California's Kin-GAP program, which provides cash assistance and Medi-Cal to foster children living with relatives as their legal guardians. The program was created in 1999 by the California Legislature to encourage family members to care for youth who had been removed from their parents by the dependency courts. The suit challenged the state's interpretation of the Kin-GAP statute in denying benefits to these children.

The plaintiff, EB, is now a teenager, but was placed with his grandmother when he was in foster care as a young boy. Eventually, his foster care case was dismissed and his grandmother became his legal guardian. After he was arrested, the state terminated his Kin-GAP benefits when they learned he was in juvenile hall, and refused to reinstate them even when he returned home to his grandmother on probation. They required that the delinquency court's "wardship" be dismissed before reinstatement of Kin-GAP benefits. Because EB was on probation, he still had an open wardship.

The suit alleged that the California Department of Social Services misinterpreted the Kin-GAP statute and had unlawfully terminated Kin-GAP for foster youth who later became involved with the delinquency system, often for minor offenses, and then returned home on probation to their guardian.

On November 22, 2010, California Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled for the plaintiffs. Once children who have been arrested are returned home on probation, relative caregivers are entitled to cash assistance.

Soojin Cha - 06/05/2016


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