How We Get Recovery Aid to Disaster-Impacted Foster Children and Youth

The January wildfires in Los Angeles were the latest in a string of devastating natural disasters that California has faced in recent years. With each new disaster, thousands of people are displaced, leaving many without homes to go back to and in need of ongoing resources and support to rebuild and recover after such tragic losses.

While everyone struggles in the face of these disasters, children and youth in foster care and their caregivers deal with a unique set of challenges. Children in the foster care system have a right to consistent and regular visitation with their family members to work towards reunification and/or maintain important relationships. They also have a right to attend their school of origin and often have required court hearings or therapy sessions. But when foster children and youth are evacuated or displaced, it becomes extremely challenging to enforce these rights aimed at creating stability and nurturing important relationships, and to minimize disruptions to important appointments and services. All of this can compound the trauma they experienced prior to the disaster and further impact their overall well-being.  

Natural disasters are especially hard on transition age youth as well. They rarely have savings to meet their immediate needs when evacuated or displaced. They may also feel alone in getting their lives back on track, as trusted adults and community partners are suddenly unavailable or difficult to connect with. 

As foster families and transition age youth in foster care face these challenges in the aftermath of a disaster, they often don’t receive the aid and resources to stabilize and rebuild. There is currently no dedicated financial assistance available to help them cover the extra, unexpected costs that arise. This is deeply troubling, as the State has a legal responsibility to meet the needs of children and youth in foster care. 

AB 689, authored by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio and co-sponsored by Children Now, would rectify this by creating a Child Welfare Disaster Response Fund that serves as a vital lifeline for foster children and youth when disaster strikes. The fund would provide immediate resources to disaster-impacted foster families and youth to help cover the cost of temporary housing, travel to and from their temporary housing to school and appointments, and replacing essential belongings.  

As wildfires grow more frequent and devastating across California, the urgency to protect our children and youth in foster care has never been greater. They must continue to have the stability and support they rely on in the aftermath of a disaster. Policymakers have an obligation to ensure the immediate availability of dedicated resources for disaster-impacted foster families and youth before the next wildfire strikes. The well-being of children and youth in foster care depends on it.