BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



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                                    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  
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          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  

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            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  

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            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  

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            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  

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          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

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