CAI’s Amy Harfeld, National Policy Advocate, Quoted on Governor Signing Bill Protecting Federal Benefits for Foster Youth

SAN DIEGO (October 1, 2024) – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute’s (CAI) Amy Harfeld, National Policy Advocate and Senior Staff Attorney, was quoted in several articles reporting on Governor Newsom signing CAI-sponsored AB 2906 (Bryan), a bill to help protect foster youth federal death benefits within the state.

"For some of California's foster children, having access to these previously pilfered assets may be the difference between aging out of care into homelessness or with a roof over their heads," Amy Harfeld, national policy director at the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law (CAI), said in a statement. "We are grateful for Governor Newsom placing California among the growing number of states that are acting to end this shameful practice while helping address California's homeless challenge to boot."

According to the articles, this is a big win for the campaign to protect the benefits foster youth, but more work still needs to be done.  According to Harfeld, Newsom is falling in line with roughly 30 states in the country that have worked to reform this issue. But it could have happened sooner. Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2512 last year. It was similar to the recently approved AB 2906 but leaves out protection for one particular group.

"It still leaves disabled kids who are in foster care out in the cold and leaves them vulnerable to having their disability benefits continue to be taken by the state and used for their care," Harfeld says. "So it's mysterious and troubling that the county is now going to be obligated under California law to pay for the foster care of all the children in their custody, except the disabled kids."

"It's important we stand up for those youth, both because it's ethical and moral, but also because it's the law," she said. "We know these outcomes for these youths are really abysmal when they leave foster care. It's pennywise and pound foolish for us to be pilfering their benefits to line city budgets instead of really thinking about what's best for the child and what would be the best way to help make sure they have a successful future."

CAI, with support from funders, has been leading a multidimensional campaign to eradicate this practice nationwide. A well-established leader on this issue, CAI is leading reform efforts at the federal, state, and local levels to protect the rights and preserve the benefits of foster youth. CAI issued a 50 state report card entitled, “Foster Care or Foster Con? Preserving the Federal Benefits of America’s Most Vulnerable Children.”  

To read the articles, click below:

Newsweek (9/27/24)

CBS News 8 (9/28/24)

Bay Area Reporter (9/29/24)

Lagrada (10/1/24)

San Diego Union Tribune (10/2/2024)

To learn more about CAI’s campaign to stop this practice, please visit our Preserving Federal Benefits of Foster Youth website.

About the Children’s Advocacy Institute

The Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI), founded at the nonprofit University of San Diego School of Law in 1989, is one of the nation's premiere academic, research, and advocacy organizations working to improve the lives of children and youth, with special emphasis on improving the child protection and foster care systems and enhancing resources that are available to youth aging out of foster care.

In its academic component, CAI trains law students and attorneys to be effective child advocates throughout their legal careers. Its Child Advocacy Clinic gives USD Law students three distinct clinical opportunities to advocate on behalf of children and youth, and its Dependency Counsel Training Program provides comprehensive training to licensed attorneys engaged in or contemplating Dependency Court practice.

CAI's research and advocacy component, conducted through its offices in San Diego, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., seeks to leverage change for children and youth through impact litigation, regulatory and legislative advocacy, and public education. Active primarily at the federal and state levels, CAI's efforts are multi-faceted—comprehensively and successfully embracing all tools of public interest advocacy to improve the lives of children and youth. To support CAI’s work, please visit law.sandiego.edu/caigift.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 88 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 34th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 37th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.