BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1978| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1978 Author: Jones-Sawyer (D) Amended: 8/19/14 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 3-1, 6/10/14 AYES: Beall, DeSaulnier, Liu NOES: Wyland NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 6/24/14 AYES: Jackson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning NOES: Anderson, Vidak SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14 AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 64-9, 5/23/14 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Child welfare services SOURCE : Childrens Advocacy Institute SEIU California DIGEST : This bill prohibits a county child welfare agency (CWA) from retaliating against a social worker if the social worker discloses that they believe a policy, procedure, or practice endangers the health or well-being of a child or children, as specified. This bill requires counties, in CONTINUED AB 1978 Page 2 developing self-assessments and improvement plans of their child welfare services, to consult with stakeholders, as specified, and to consult with at least one county child welfare worker named by the bargaining unit representing children's social workers. This bill makes other related changes. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1.Requires the state, through the Department of Social Services (DSS) and CWAs, to establish and support a public system of child welfare services to protect and promote the welfare of children. 2.Establishes the California Child and Family Service Review (C-CFSR) System to maximize compliance with federal Social Security Act (SSA) Title IV-E Regulations and to improve child welfare outcomes for children and their families in the areas of child protection, foster care, adoption, family connections and independent living services. 3.Under federal law, establishes the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act which provides fully federal grant funding to applicant states to improve child protective service systems and for child abuse prevention activities. Requires the submission of a state plan, as specified, and requires services to be coordinated with Title IV-B services. Additionally requires states to report specified information regarding child fatalities. 4.Establishes the California State Child Death Review Council to oversee the statewide coordination and integration of state and local efforts to address fatal child abuse or neglect and to create a body of information to prevent child deaths. 5.Provides for the establishment of county Child Death Review Teams to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious child deaths and facilitating communication among persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and agencies involved in child abuse or neglect cases. 6.Requires each child death review team to make findings, conclusions, recommendations and specified data available to CONTINUED AB 1978 Page 3 the public no less than once each year. 7.Provides that all applications and records maintained or kept regarding to the administration or provision of social services, as specified, to be confidential and not be made open other than for the purposes of the administration or provision of the social service programs, unless otherwise specified. 8.Requires specified information from a child welfare case related to the suspected death of a child caused by abuse or neglect to be released within five days, and permits DSS and the CWA to comment on the case within the scope of the release, as specified. This bill: 1.Makes legislative findings regarding the role that the delivery of child welfare service by state and local government plays in meeting the needs of vulnerable children. 2.Requires counties, in developing self-assessments and improvement plans of their child welfare services, 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. 3.Requires counties, when doing self-assessments and improvement plans in child welfare, to consult with at least one county child welfare worker named by the bargaining unit representing children's social workers. 4.Requires that county child welfare improvement plans 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. 5.Provides that if a county social worker who is engaged in providing child welfare services has reasonable cause to believe that a policy, procedure, or practice related to the provision of child welfare services constitutes improper CONTINUED AB 1978 Page 4 governmental activity and the social worker discloses this information to a government or law enforcement agency, an appointed or elected official, or the public, an employee of a county child welfare agency shall not directly or indirectly use or attempt to use his or her official authority or influence to engage in specified purposes, including intimidation or coercion against that county social worker. 6.Provides that nothing in this bill authorizes a social worker within a county CWA to disclose the identity of a child or any portion of a case file. 7.Authorizes CWA social workers to comment on a child welfare case, within the scope of the information released, once documents have been released by the custodian of records, as specified. Background California has a complex child welfare system incorporating federal, state and local funds expended for the broad purpose of child welfare, including child abuse prevention and response. The federal Administration of Children and Families (ACF) administers numerous federal grants intended to assist states with child abuse prevention and response and to support the foster care system which provides board and care payments for eligible dependent children. Within the statutorily established parameters for each grant, states have substantial flexibility in how to apportion funds but are accountable to significant federal oversight of program administration. DSS supervises the 58 county-administered Child Welfare Services system which investigates approximately 32,000 reports of severe injury, death and life threatening neglect of children annually. According to DSS, as of January 2014, there were nearly 61,000 children currently in foster care placement, with nearly one in three residing in Los Angeles County. Prior Legislation AB 921 (Jones-Sawyer, 2013) which was vetoed. The Governor's veto message for AB 921 stated: Among its provisions, the bill would allow any social worker CONTINUED AB 1978 Page 5 to comment on any child welfare services policy, procedure and practice, or any publicly released child fatality case, with impunity. While this bill has the best of intentions, it overreaches. The judgment of social workers should be valued, but we don't need a law to protect their opinions, and theirs alone. Social workers, like other public or private employees, already have "whistleblower" protections for illegal acts they report. Specific county policies and practices that are legal but problematic should be resolved at the county level, or through legislation as a last resort, when counties cannot do it on their own. Social workers, the state and counties all have a duty to protect children who are abused and neglected. We should all work together in good faith to that end. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, potential state costs in excess of $50,000 to $100,000 (General Fund*) for mandated activities on local agencies associated with the current and future development of county self-assessments and county improvement plans. *Pursuant to Proposition 30 (November 2012) any legislation enacted after September 30, 2012, that has an overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for programs or levels of service mandated by realignment (including child welfare services) only apply to local agencies to the extent that the state provides annual funding for the cost increase. SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/14) Children's Advocacy Institute (co-source) SEIU California (co-source) ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the sponsor of the bill, SEIU, this bill is a response to a series of tragic child deaths as a result of abuse and neglect that occurred in two of California's largest counties; Los Angeles and Sacramento. SEIU CONTINUED AB 1978 Page 6 writes: Over the years, SEIU members who are social workers have shared numerous stories of their attempts to make changes in the child protective services systems they work in to benefit children and families?but workers' recommendations often fall on deaf ears, and in some cases, suggestions and concerns have even been met with responses ranging from indifference to hostility. AB 1978 seeks to provide protections to workers who have firsthand experience and knowledge on how policies and procedures affect child safety. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 64-9, 5/23/14 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins NOES: Allen, Conway, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Grove, Jones, Logue, Mansoor, Wagner NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Donnelly, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Nestande, V. Manuel Pérez, Vacancy JL:nl:k 8/19/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED