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AB 298 (2007) c. 565

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AB 298, c. 565: Relative caregivers.
(1) establishes that a juvenile court can approve a proposed plan of legal guardianship with a relative without requiring proof of a compelling reason not to terminate parental rights, (2) revises the existing statutory order of preference governing permanent planning hearings so that adoption by a current caregiver remains first (as in current law), legal guardianship by a relative caregiver is moved to second, and adoption by an as-yet-unidentified family is third, (3) specifies that a relative caregiver's preference for legal guardianship over adoption, so long as it does not indicate an unwillingness to accept full responsibility for the child, may not alone be the sole basis to remove the child from the relative  caregiver's home, and (4) requires a court, prior to termination of a legal guardianship, to order the county child welfare agency to evaluate whether the child could safely remain in or be returned to the guardian's home if services were provided to the child or guardian and, if appropriate, to identify recommended family maintenance or reunification services to maintain the legal guardianship.