BILL NUMBER: SCR 44CHAPTERED BILL TEXT RESOLUTION CHAPTER 43 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JUNE 30, 2011 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR JUNE 30, 2011 ADOPTED IN SENATE JUNE 27, 2011 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 15, 2011 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 9, 2011 INTRODUCED BY Senator Liu MAY 2, 2011 Relative to Foster Care Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SCR 44, Liu. Foster Care Month 2011. This measure would designate the month of May 2011 as Foster Care Month in California. WHEREAS, All children need and deserve to feel love, a sense of belonging, and the continuity of family and loved ones to support and guide them in their growth and development; and WHEREAS, This need is especially urgent for California's 60,000 children in foster care, who have experienced the trauma of neglect, abuse, and separation from family and loved ones; and WHEREAS, Thanks to the focus and commitment of Californians working in public and private organizations in child welfare, probation, mental health, public health, education, and the courts, and the extraordinary commitment of those who open their homes and work with jurisdictions to meet the needs of foster youth for safety, permanency, and well-being, more of California's youth are able to live and grow up with the support of permanent, caring families; and WHEREAS, In recent years, California has made great strides in attaining permanency for thousands of children and youth in foster care; and WHEREAS, Throughout the state, children and youth are benefiting from a focus by child welfare jurisdictions on creating permanent family connections from the moment a child enters child welfare supervised care; and WHEREAS, During 2009-2010, almost 60 percent, about 19,000, of the children leaving foster care were returned to their families; and WHEREAS, For those children and youth who could not safely return to their own families, we celebrate that nearly 6,500 were adopted during that period and almost 3,000 attained permanence through guardianship with relatives or other adults; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates the month of May 2011 as Foster Care Month in California; and be it further Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.