Welf. & Inst. Code, § 396 · Article 13.5. Foster Care of Children
Welf. & Inst. Code, § 396
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
It is the policy of the Legislature that foster care should be a temporary method of care for the children of this state, that children have a right to a normal home life free from abuse, that reunification with the natural parent or parents or another alternate permanent living situation such as adoption or guardianship is more suitable to a child’s well-being than is foster care, that this state has a responsibility to attempt to ensure that children are given the chance to have happy and healthy lives, and that, to the extent possible, the current practice of moving children receiving foster care services from one foster home to another until they reach the age of majority should be discontinued.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 620, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2000.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=396.
- Text hash
- sha256 3eff9c50168284aa04576da993bc2880a9cfc21460e1b724f6c2c218962c1aa7
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Welf. & Inst. Code, § 396. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Welfare and Institutions Code
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