BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 419
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 419 (Mitchell) - As Amended: April 28, 2011
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill increases the frequency of inspections at facilities
licensed by the Department of Social Services (DSS), Community
Care Licensing Division (CCLD). Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires that every licensed community care facility shall be
inspected at least once per year.
2)Exempts family day care homes from the annual visit
requirement and instead requires that they be visited once
every two years.
3)Requires that inspections be conducted using inspection
protocols that are research based, field tested, reviewed by
stakeholders, and annual evaluated.
4)Requires that one zero tolerance violation shall trigger a
comprehensive inspection.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs in the range of tens of millions of dollars (GF) to
increase CCLD licensed facility inspections to once every year.
CCLD budget reductions over the years have caused the state to
adopt policies that reduce standard inspections to about once
every three to five years. The proposed budget for CCLD in
2011-12 is $97.7 million ($18.7 million GF).
COMMENTS
AB 419
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1)Purpose . The intent of this legislation is to significantly
increase the number of inspection visits to licensed
facilities such as child care centers, residential care
facilities for the elderly, family child care homes, and
foster family homes. In addition, this bill requires that CCLD
adopt new licensing and inspection protocols that are field
tested and research based, rather than the current system
which involves inspectors checking a long list of health and
safety items during each inspection. The author of this bill
notes that increasing the frequency of licensing visits
"demonstrates that in the State of California we value those
we care for and place their health and safety as a high
priority."
Though not stated in or required by this bill, the author
hopes that the Department of Social Services will adopt the
"key indicator" approach to licensing visits.
2)Background . Prior to 2003, the required frequency of CCLD
facility visits was annually for most facility types (and
tri-annually for family child care). Since then, in response
to the state's fiscal situation, it was deemed necessary to
find ways to reduce costs. As a result CCLD is now required
to do unannounced visits annually only in circumstances when
the facility has a history of compliance
problems-approximately 10% of facilities. For those
residential facilities not subject to annual inspections, CCLD
is currently required to conduct comprehensive compliance
inspections on a 30% random sample of facilities each year,
with no facility being visited less than once every five
years. There are additional inspection requirements for new
facilities or when changes occur to the license. These
pre-licensing inspection and post-licensing inspections help
to ensure that a new licensee starts off correctly.
3)Key Indicator Visits . A key indicator protocol uses citation
histories and program field experience to develop specific
targeted evaluation criteria for each type of licensed
facility. These targeted visits should create efficiencies
within CCLD which allow them to inspect facilities more often
without a significant increase in costs. Currently, CCLD is
in the process of developing a "Key Indicator Compliance
Inspection" protocol for prioritizing its inspection
activities. DSS intends to use the key indicator protocols
for licensing inspections to increase the frequency and
AB 419
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efficiency of licensing visits while maintaining the health &
safety oversight of all facilities.
4)Are Key Indicator Visits the goal? While the author may intend
for this bill to require DSS adopt a cost neutral or cost
savings approach that allows CCLD to conduct annual
inspections within their existing resources, there is nothing
in the language that requires them to use the Key Indicator
Visit approach. The language merely states that they must
adopt a research based protocol. In addition, DSS is currently
working on implementing Key Indicator Visits.
If it is the author's intent that this be the approach used,
there is no need for this legislation since those changes are
allowed under current law and underway within the department.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081