of Social Services’ website at http://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/Foster-Care/Interstate- Compact-on-the-Placement-of-Children-ICPC/faqs). A surrogate parent shall be appointed not more than 30 days after the LEA determines that a student needs a surrogate parent ( California Government Code Section 7579.5[a] ). The timely appointment of a surrogate parent, when necessary, will facilitate timely IEP review, establish consent for special education assessment, or both. If a surrogate parent is appointed for a child who is a ward or dependent of the court, the LEA must notify the court within five court days of the appointment. If the child has been referred by a placing agency, it is helpful for the LEA to inform the placing agency of the appointment.
Step 2: Selecting a Surrogate Parent
When appointing a surrogate parent, the LEA shall give first preference to a relative caregiver, foster parent, or court-appointed special advocate. However, if none of those individuals are willing or able to act as a surrogate parent, the LEA must be prepared to appoint another qualified responsible adult to act in that capacity ( California Government Code Section 7579.5[b] ). The local surrogate parent appointment program is more likely to be successful if an ongoing process of recruitment, screening, and training is used to develop and maintain a pool of potential surrogate parents.
Finding Volunteers
Individuals who may serve as surrogate parents include, but are not limited to, foster care providers, retired teachers, social workers, and probation officers ( California Government Code Section 7579.5 [j] ). Appropriate community groups may be contacted for purposes of recruiting surrogate parents. It is recommended that such groups be given a clear explanation of the roles and responsibilities of surrogate parents as well as an overview of the time commitments involved in representing a student receiving special education and related services. Volunteers should be informed that they will be representing children who have special and sometimes unique needs. Volunteers must be willing to be trained to act as educational representatives for students requiring a surrogate parent. Other resources to consider are local school – parent organizations, volunteer offices of LEAs, community advisory committees, retired teachers associations, service clubs (e.g., Rotary, Lions, Soroptimists, and Kiwanis), and the California Court Appointed Special Advocates Association. Some volunteer organizations have established screening processes for recruiting persons to work with children (e.g., Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Foster Grandparents, and so forth). Recruitment is more likely to be successful when LEAs bring the needs of their surrogate parent program to the attention of their local interagency network groups. The combination of local resource and referral networks — which include public and nonpublic schools, other public non- educational agencies, private agencies, private practitioners, and other local community volunteer agencies — may assist LEAs in locating potential surrogate parents. Reasonable efforts should be made to ensure that persons representing all sections of the community and all racial, ethnic, linguistic, and economic subgroups within the community are recruited and made available for appointment as surrogate parents to ensure that surrogate parents
Chapter 4 – Procedural Safeguards, Charter SELPA
Page 60
As of 11/18/2016
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