California law provides comprehensive guidelines for both foster care placement and assisted reproduction arrangements. These legal standards help ensure that vulnerable children receive proper care and protection, whether placed in a foster home or born through surrogacy and donor-assisted reproduction.
7950–7952: Foster Care Placement Considerations
When a child is being placed in foster care, the law prioritizes several key considerations to support the child’s welfare and reunification with their family.
Relative Placement First
Whenever possible, children must be placed with relatives. Agencies are required to make diligent efforts to locate suitable family members. These efforts include evaluating every relative whose name is submitted as a potential placement resource. Courts must review these efforts during permanency or post-permanency hearings, particularly when reunification services are being terminated or adoption isn’t an option.
Proximity to Parents
Placement should consider the geographic closeness of the foster home to the child’s natural parents. This proximity helps preserve parent-child bonds through regular visitation and increases the chances of successful family reunification.
Protection from Discrimination
Agencies involved in foster placements and receiving state assistance are prohibited from:
- Denying someone the chance to become a foster parent based on race, color, or national origin.
- Delaying or denying a child’s placement for the same reasons.
These safeguards are in line with federal anti-discrimination laws and ensure that children are not subject to biased placement decisions.
Exceptions and Minor’s Input
This part of the code doesn’t apply to short-term placements of 30 days or less. For longer placements, minors aged 10 or older have the legal right to make a statement to the court about their placement preferences. Though the court is not required to follow the child’s wishes, the child’s voice must be heard, not just at the initial placement but during any future proceedings involving continued placement or reunification.
7960–7962: Surrogacy, Donor Facilitators, and Assisted Reproduction Agreements
California also regulates the growing field of surrogacy and assisted reproduction, providing a legal framework to protect all parties involved, especially children born through these methods.
Key Definitions and Roles
The law clearly defines terms like:
- Intended parent – someone who intends to be legally recognized as a child’s parent, regardless of marital status.
- Surrogate – a woman who carries a child for someone else under a written agreement, either as a traditional surrogate (using her own egg) or as a gestational carrier (no genetic link).
- Donor – a woman providing eggs for use in assisted reproduction.
- Surrogacy/donor facilitator – any non-attorney individual or organization that charges a fee to coordinate surrogacy or oocyte donation arrangements.
Financial Safeguards
To protect all parties, especially intended parents, any non-attorney facilitator must direct client funds to either:
- A bonded escrow account run by a licensed independent company, or
- A trust account managed by an attorney.
Facilitators and their employees cannot hold a financial interest in the escrow company handling the funds. Funds can only be disbursed as specified in the assisted reproduction agreement and any related fund management agreement.
Assisted Reproduction Agreements for Gestational Carriers
These agreements must be in writing and include:
- The execution date
- Identification of gamete sources (egg, sperm, or embryo), and whether donor materials are used
- Identity of the intended parent(s)
- A clear statement on how medical costs for the surrogate and the baby will be covered, including any insurance issues or potential liabilities
Before medical procedures begin (such as injectable fertility drugs or embryo transfer) the agreement must be fully executed, signed by all parties, and notarized or witnessed appropriately. Both the surrogate and intended parents must have independent legal representation.
Court Proceedings and Legal Parentage
A parent-child relationship may be established before or after birth by filing in any of several counties relevant to the parties or the medical procedure. The agreement must be lodged with the court, along with signed declarations attesting to compliance. If all requirements are met, the court must issue a judgment establishing that the intended parents are the legal parents and that the surrogate has no parental rights.
In most cases, this process does not require a hearing unless someone raises a good faith concern about the validity of the agreement. Failure to meet statutory requirements can rebut the presumption of legal parentage but does not eliminate the possibility that a court may still establish parental rights based on other evidence.
Privacy Protections
All documents in these proceedings are confidential. Only the parties, their attorneys, or the California Department of Social Services may access them unless a judge authorizes inspection in exceptional circumstances. Courts may also redact any information that could identify the surrogate.
Presumption of Validity
Properly executed gestational carrier agreements are presumptively valid and cannot be revoked without a court order. If an agreement fails to meet the statutory requirements, its legal enforceability may be challenged—but not automatically voided.
Conclusion
California’s laws on foster care and assisted reproduction reflect the state’s deep commitment to child welfare, family stability, and personal rights. In foster placements, the law emphasizes family connection, anti-discrimination, and a child’s voice in their own care. In reproductive arrangements, the law demands transparency, fairness, and legal safeguards to ensure that every party, especially the child, is protected from uncertainty or exploitation.
These statutes create a legal infrastructure that balances compassion with clarity, ensuring that the best interests of the child remain the top priority whether they’re being placed into foster care or born through a surrogacy agreement.