BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1911
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
1911 (Eggman)
As Amended August 15, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 12, 2016) |SENATE: |38-0 |(August 18, |
| | | | | |2016) |
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Original Committee Reference: JUD.
SUMMARY: Requires the development and implementation of
standardized definitions and defined goals for youth involved
with both the child welfare system and the juvenile justice
system. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Judicial Council to convene a committee of
stakeholders serving the needs of dependents and wards of the
juvenile court, including judges; social workers; probation
officers; education officials; youth, attorneys and advocates
involved with both the child welfare and juvenile justice; and
representatives from the Department of Social Services (DSS),
child welfare agencies and probation agencies. Requires the
committee, by January 1, 2018, to develop and report to the
Legislature recommendations to facilitate and enhance
comprehensive data and outcome tracking for youth involved in
both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Recommendations must include:
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a) Common identifiers and standard definitions for counties
to use across child welfare and juvenile justice systems;
b) Identified and defined outcomes for counties to track
youth involved in both systems, including, but not limited
to, outcomes related to recidivism, health, pregnancy,
homelessness, employment and education;
c) Established baselines for outcomes to be tracked;
d) An assessment of costs and benefits associated with
requiring counties to implement the committee's
recommendations; and
e) An assessment of whether a single technology system is
needed to track youth in the child welfare and juvenile
justice systems.
2)Requires DSS, by January 1, 2019, to implement a function
within the applicable case management system that will allow
county child welfare and juvenile justice departments to
identify youth involved in both systems and to issue
instructions to all counties on how to track completely and
consistently the involvement of these youth in both systems.
The Senate amendments require that the committee recommendations
include an assessment of whether a single technology system is
needed to track youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice
systems.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides that a juvenile court has jurisdiction over a child
who is subject to abuse or neglect. (Welfare and Institutions
Code (WIC) Section 300. Unless stated otherwise, all further
statutory references are to that code.)
2)Provides that a juvenile court has jurisdiction over a child
when that child has committed acts that trigger delinquency
jurisdiction rendering the child a ward. (WIC Sections 601
and 602.)
3)Requires that, if a child is both a dependent and a
delinquent, the probation department and child welfare
services agency must initially determine which status will
best serve the interests of the child and the protection of
society. Notwithstanding the above, authorizes the probation
department and the child welfare services agency in any
county, in consultation with the presiding juvenile court
judge, to create a dual status protocol which would permit a
minor who meets specified criteria to be designated
simultaneously as both a dependent child and a ward of the
juvenile court. (WIC Section 241.1.)
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations:
1)Judicial Council: Potential costs of about $100,000 (General
Fund*) to chair and direct the activities of the committee,
including the development of a legislative report including
recommendations.
2)DSS: Minor, absorbable costs (General Fund) to implement a
case management system function to identify dual status youth,
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as this functionality is currently being incorporated into the
Child Welfare Services-New System (CWS-NS), which is projected
for rollout within the timeframes specified in this measure.
However, should the report to the Legislature recommend an
alternate or new technology system to be used, costs to meet
the case management system functionality could be significant.
3)Report recommendations: Unknown, potential major future cost
pressure (General Fund) to facilitate and enhance
comprehensive data and outcome tracking by child welfare
services, probation departments, and potentially other
agencies, as recommended in the yet to be completed report.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
COMMENTS: There is general agreement that youth involved with
both the child welfare system and the juvenile justice system
have greater challenges to overcome to become responsible adults
than both youth involved with neither system and youth involved
with only one of those systems. Youth involved with both of
those systems have significantly poorer outcomes and require
greater support and services to address the underlying abuse or
neglect, reduce recidivism and foster rehabilitation. Over the
years, various legislation and pilot projects have attempted to
address the needs of these youth, but there has yet to be a
comprehensive statewide approach to meeting the needs of these
youth and helping them successfully transition to adulthood.
To help address how to better meet the needs of these youth, the
Joint Legislative Audit Committee, at the request of this bill's
author, asked the State Auditor to determine how well counties
are serving youth involved with both the child welfare and
juvenile welfare systems. Unfortunately, the Auditor was unable
to determine which counties had successful programs because the
Auditor found that counties were unable to accurately identify
and track these dually involved youth. As a result, the Auditor
recommended that the state child welfare automation system
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identify dually involved youth and that stakeholders, under the
leadership of the Judicial Council, develop common data to
collect, track and evaluate outcomes for these youth and report
those recommendations to the Legislature. This bill seeks to
implement those recommendations.
This bill seeks to implement the recommendations of the State
Auditor by doing two key things. First, this bill requires the
Judicial Council to convene a group of stakeholders serving the
needs of dependents and wards of the juvenile court. The
committee is required to develop recommendations to facilitate
and enhance comprehensive data and outcome tracking for youth
involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
The recommendations must be reported to the Legislature by
January 1, 2018. This will allow the Legislature, two years
from now, to review the recommendations and decide what is
appropriate to mandate, on a statewide-level in order to better
track, assist and serve these youth and help them transition to
adulthood more successfully. This bill should start the process
to provide the Legislature with the information it lacks today
to determine how best to help these youth.
The bill also requires DSS, by January 1, 2019, to implement a
function with the appropriate case management system that will
allow county child welfare and juvenile justice departments to
identify youth involved in both systems and then, hopefully,
provide better, targeted services to them. DSS is also required
to issue instructions to the counties to tell them how to track
completely and consistently the involvement of these youth in
both systems. This should help ensure that the counties
properly use the new function and then are able to identify and
provide appropriate services to these vulnerable youth. Again,
this new identification and tracking tool is only the means to
the end.
This bill is the first step for the state to design, implement
and perhaps mandate programs across the board to help this most
vulnerable group of youth. It will help create common terms and
outcomes to be tracked and will allow the Legislature to
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determine, two years from now, whether those terms and outcomes
should be used implement and studied statewide, so that
California can develop the best approaches to support these
youth and help them better transition to successful adulthood.
Analysis Prepared by:
Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN:
0004258