BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1751
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          Date of Hearing:   May 2, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                  AB 1751 (Pan) - As Introduced:  February 17, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              JudiciaryVote:10 
          - 0
                        Human Services                          5 - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires that county child welfare departments and 
          county probation departments be given access to any public data 
          in the state that would allow the agencies to locate 
          noncustodial parents in the event their children are subject to 
          juvenile court proceedings. Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Authorizes the release of a parent's name, social security 
            number, most recent address, telephone number, place of 
            employment or other contact information to county child 
            welfare agencies and probation departments established or 
            maintained by any public entity pursuant to the administration 
            and implementation of the child and spousal support 
            enforcement program.

          2)Requires the disclosure by all state departments, boards, 
            agencies, bureaus, or other agencies of the state or local 
            government of a parent's name, social security number, most 
            recent address, telephone number, place of employment, or 
            other contact information to a county child welfare agency or 
            county probation department to identify, locate, and notify 
            parents of children who are the subject of juvenile court 
            proceedings, to establish parent and child relationships, and 
            to assess the appropriateness of placements of a child with a 
            noncustodial parent.

          3)Requires the state Department of Social Services (DSS), no 
            later than January 30, 2013, to amend the foster care state 
            plan required by federal law to implement access to 
            information provided to the California Parent Locator Service 








                                                                  AB 1751
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            by the federal Parent Locator Services (FPLS) to ensure 
            compliance with and facilitation of provisions related to the 
            location of parents of children who are the subject of 
            juvenile court proceedings.

          4)Requires DSS, on or before July 1, 2013, to issue an 
            all-county letter or similar instruction explaining the 
            entitlement of county child welfare and probation agencies to 
            specified information in child and spousal support records.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Costs associated with DSS updating the foster care state plan 
            and issuing an all-county letter should be minor and 
            absorbable within existing resources.  

          2)To the extent this allows county child welfare departments to 
            more easily locate noncustodial parents, it should provide 
            some administrative workload relief for the counties. 

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose  . The intent of this legislation is to increase access to 
          public data for child welfare workers who are trying to locate 
          the noncustodial parents whose children have ended up in the 
          probation system or child welfare system.  The author notes that 
          this bill would allow local child welfare agencies and probation 
          officers to access the child support information that already 
          exists in the state child support database and to obtain 
          critical contact information such as the parent's name, social 
          security number, most recent address, phone number, and place of 
          employment. This, in turn, will allow the case worker to contact 
          the parent to see if they want to and can provide a caring 
          alternative to foster care for the abused or neglected child.  

          In support of the bill, the County Welfare Directors Association 
          (CWDA) notes that federal authorization exists for county 
          welfare agencies to access and use child support information.  
          However, the authorization has never been operationalized in 
          California, leaving counties without access to the data that 
          could help them locate noncustodial parents. 

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081 









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