California Lawmakers Revive Bill Giving Nonfamily Members Access to Children

While lawmakers say the legislation would help families affected by deportations, parental rights groups say it would make it easier to kidnap children.

Children walk to school in Oakland, Calif., on Sept. 10, 2018. Mario Tama/Getty Images

California legislation that grants nonfamily members permission to pick up children from school and make decisions for them when parents are detained or deported is headed for a final vote this week.

Assembly Bill 495, the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, would allow access to a child not only by a relative but also by “non-relative extended family members” who have established familial or mentoring ties to the child, provided they fill out a “caregiver’s authorization affidavit.”

The bill also allows the caregivers to make medical decisions for the child without having to contact the parents.

Teachers, medical professionals, clergy, and family friends would all qualify to sign the necessary affidavit, which doesn’t require a parent’s signature or a court authorization. It also does not require notarization.

The nonfamily member can also check a box on the affidavit that declares that they were unable to contact the child’s parents, or other people who have legal custody of the minor, to notify them of their intent to pick up the child.

Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez, a Democrat from San Fernando, said her bill is about keeping families together, especially families affected by recent deportations of illegal immigrants.

“It strengthens the ability of parents to make decisions for their children, empowers them to prepare for the unthinkable, and ensures kids are cared for by people they know and love,” Rodriguez said in a statement Aug. 25.

The bill builds on an existing law that allows parents to temporarily designate a trusted caregiver. Rodriguez said AB 495 modernizes the law to include consideration for illegal immigrants.

The legislation passed the Assembly on June 3 but sparked strong opposition among the state’s parental-rights advocates, including thousands of protesters who demonstrated in Sacramento in August.

The bill was put on hold in the Senate’s appropriations committee on Aug. 18 but was reactivated on Aug. 29 after authors added some changes. Most notably, the author removed a requirement that would have mandated that caregivers get the affidavits notarized.

The committee passed the bill Aug. 29, and it now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

Displaced students from Marquez Elementary School, destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire, arrive at Nora Sterry Elementary School to resume class in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2025. Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

The Alliance for Children’s Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group that co-sponsored the legislation, said the bill would help eliminate barriers and provide free legal services to caregivers seeking legal guardianship. “AB495 advances the goal, and the necessity, of supporting children and families in their communities,” the group’s president, Jennifer Braun, said in a statement.

The bill provides help and support in times of crisis, according to Braun.

There are 133,000 children ages 3 to 17 who are enrolled in public schools in California who are illegal immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. An estimated 750,000 K–12 students in the state have an immigrant parent living in the United States illegally, reported The Education Trust–West.

Concerns Over Kidnapping

Critics of the bill, including parental rights advocates, say the legislation undermines parental rights and would make it easier to kidnap children.

Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican from Huntington Beach, is one of many in the state who have spoken out in opposition to the bill, which he said would create government overreach.

“AB 495 weakens parental rights by letting non-relatives make critical decisions for children, weakening the sacred bond between parents and their children,” Strickland told The Epoch Times in an email on Sept. 3. “Parents—not Sacramento politicians—should decide who cares for their kids.”

The California state Capitol in Sacramento on March 16, 2025. The Senate is expected to vote on a bill this week that critics say gives the state too much power over children. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, said the bill was a direct attack on parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and care of their children.

“Since July, moms and dads across the state have rallied, testified, and pleaded with legislators to amend this bill so that it would respect and protect parental authority,” Burt said in a statement. “Instead, the bill’s author ignored those pleas, and when AB 495 reached the Senate Appropriations Committee, she made the legislation even worse.”

The changes made to the bill ensure that parents are cut even further out of their children’s medical and educational decisions, according to Burt.

The Home School Legal Defense Association said legislators are ignoring concerns that have been raised.

It noted in a statement that the bill “leaves ‘unable to contact’ undefined, meaning that even brief delays could strip parents of decision-making authority when it comes to children’s education and medical care.” It also “requires no proof that the parent entrusted the child to the caregiver,” the group stated.