BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 921
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 921 (Jones-Sawyer) - As Amended: May 2, 2013
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 5 - 2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill increases the misdemeanor punishment for simple
assault and simple battery against a county child welfare social
worker from up to six months in the county jail and/or a fine of
up 1,000 fine, to up to 12 months in the county jail and/or a
fine of up to $2,000 fine. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires counties, when conducting self-assessments and
improvement plans regarding child welfare, to consult with
stakeholders, including county child welfare agencies and
probation agency staff at all levels, current and former
foster children, children's attorneys, and foster care
providers.
2)Requires counties, when conducting self-assessments and
improvement plans regarding child welfare, to consult with at
least one county child welfare worker named by the bargaining
unit representing children's social workers.
3)Requires that each county's child welfare improvement plan,
approved by the county board of supervisors, include a
separately titled provision that lists and provides the
rationale for proposed operational improvements identified
during the stakeholder process that can be implemented at a
cost savings to the county or within existing county
resources.
4)Requires that by January 1, 2015, county boards of supervisors
shall adopt an ordinance that protects social workers from
retaliation.
AB 921
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Costs to include feedback from social workers in county Child
and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) should be minor and
absorbable within existing county resources.
2)Minor nonreimbursable local law enforcement costs, offset to a
degree by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author of this bill hopes to create a uniform
process in counties where the concerns of line social workers
can be amplified and ideas for systemic improvements can be
brought before the county Board of Supervisors of each county
at the time of each county's CFSR review and update. By
requiring operational reviews and recommendations in the CFSR
process, the author hopes to begin providing social workers in
the child welfare system with the basic tools they need to do
their jobs.
This bill will also ensure that social workers who speak out
against policies and practices that endanger children cannot
be retaliated against for doing so.
2)Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) . The CFSR was
established by AB 636 (Steinberg; Chapter 678, Statutes of
2001) and implemented in January of 2004. The CFSR marked a
shift from the previous oversight system, which focused
exclusively on regulatory compliance, to a system aligned with
the federal standards with a focus on measuring outcomes in
safety, permanence and child and family well-being. The CFSR
seeks to integrate continuous quality improvement, interagency
partnerships, community involvement and public reporting of
program outcomes into the oversight of child welfare programs.
This is done at the state-level through Quarterly Outcome and
Accountability Reports published by DSS and a program of State
Technical Assistance and Monitoring.
Counties are responsible for three areas of the CFSR: County
Self-Assessments, County Peer Quality Case Reviews (PQCR), and
County System Improvement Plans.
The County Self-Assessment process assesses current levels of
performance and identifies procedural, systemic, practice or
AB 921
Page 3
resource barriers to improved performance. Counties are
encouraged by the state to use existing planning processes and
community-based groups to facilitate public input into the
self-assessment process, and are required to provide a public
comment process. Counties are also required by the state to
work with a group of core representatives in the development
of self-assessments. These core representatives include, but
are not limited to, representatives of the California Youth
Connection, an organization representing current and former
foster youth, the county health and mental health departments,
child welfare services administrators, managers, social
workers, parents, local Tribes, the Local Education Agency,
probation, and adoptions. The same core representatives,
including child welfare services social workers, are involved
in creating the County System Improvement Plan.
3)Related Legislation . In 2011, AB 1015 (Calderon) contained
similar county self-assessment requirements to the ones that
are currently in AB 921. That bill was held on the Senate
Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081