BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1751 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1751 (Pan) As Introduced February 17, 2012 Majority vote HUMAN SERVICES 5-0 JUDICIARY 10-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Beall, Jones, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Feuer, Wagner, Atkins, | | |Wagner, Portantino | |Dickinson, Gorell, Huber, | | | | |Jones, Monning, | | | | |Wieckowski, Alejo | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- APPROPRIATIONS 17-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, | | | | |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, | | | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, | | | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, | | | | |Solorio, Wagner | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Requires that county child welfare agencies and county probation departments be given access to specified child support information related to the noncustodial parents of children who are subject to juvenile court proceedings. Specifically, this bill : 1)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. AB 1751 Page 2 2)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. 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 and Central Registry (CPLS) 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. 5)Authorizes DSS to adopt emergency regulations, and to develop an interagency agreement with the Department of Child Support Services, to implement the provisions of this bill. EXISTING LAW : 1)Provides that when a child is removed from the physical custody of his or her parents, preferential consideration shall be given whenever possible to the placement of the child with a relative. (Welfare & Institutions (W&I) Code Section 16000) 2)Requires, with specified exceptions, the confidentiality of all information and records established or maintained by any public entity pursuant to the administration and implementation of the child and spousal support enforcement program established pursuant to federal law. (Family Code Section 17212) 3)Establishes within the California Department of Child Support Services the CPLS, which collects and disseminates specified AB 1751 Page 3 information about parents, putative parents, spouses, or former spouses. (Family Code Section 17506) 4)Requires the assignment to the county of any rights to support by any applicant for or recipient of aid under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Act, subject to confidentiality requirements pertaining to implementation of the child and spousal support enforcement program. (W&I Code Sections 11477, 11478.1) 5)Under the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89), establishes the FPLS, enabling authorized state agencies to access information on, or to facilitate the discovery and location of any individual who is under an obligation to pay child support, against whom an obligation is sought, or to whom an obligation is owed, including the person's Social Security Number, address, employer's name and address, and employment wages, benefits and other income. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 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 : The author points out that, in recognition of the importance of family preservation and in alignment with federal law, following a child's removal from their home a social worker must, within 30 days, conduct an investigation to "identify and locate all grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult relatives of the child" in an attempt to find a suitable relative for placement, consistent with the child's best interests (W&I Code Sections 361.3, 309(e)). "Unfortunately," the author says, "current law does not explicitly allow county child welfare agencies and probation officers to utilize an important resource within the child welfare system-the child support information database-and as a result, social workers do not routinely access this source of information about alternatives to foster care." AB 1751 Page 4 This bill would enable county officials responsible for locating the relatives of an abused or neglected child to use the state's child support database to access the basic contact information of the child's noncustodial parent. The author notes that the measure would decrease the amount of time currently spent by county officials in unnecessarily difficult attempts to locate the parents of abused children pursuant to state and federal mandates. In addressing the need for this bill, the author says: With approximately 60,000 children currently in the state's foster-care system and an ongoing state budget shortfall, county welfare agencies have fewer resources than ever to do their jobs. This common-sense 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. This measure provides county child welfare agencies, social workers, and probation officers with the information they need to make timely, appropriate decisions regarding the placement of abused and neglected children who have been removed from their homes. The author notes that placing children with relatives decreases both the number of children in the foster care system and the costs associated with prolonged stays in foster care: According to the Public Policy Institute of California (Foster Care in California: Achievements and Challenges, 2010), the number of children in California's foster care system has declined by 10 percent or more between 2000 and 2009. The report notes an increased number of placements with relatives among the reasons for this decline and credits, in part, the creation of the AB 1751 Page 5 Kinship Guardian Assistance Program Payment (Kin-GAP) Program in 2000. This program incentivizes kinship care - a form of foster placement that is significantly less costly to the state than some other options such a group home placement. DSS has had the ability to access data available to the CPLS through the FPLS since 1997 but has apparently not taken the prerequisite steps to amend the state foster care plan. This bill requires DSS, by January 30, 2013, to amend the foster care state plan required by federal law to implement access to information provided to the CPLS by the FPLS. Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN: 0003482