BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2015
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|Author: |McCarty |
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|Version: |March 18, 2016 |Hearing |June 28, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mareva Brown |
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Subject: Public social services: 2011 realignment report
SUMMARY
This bill adds requirements to the 2011 realignment report that
the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) must provide
annually to the Legislature. Additional requirements include
reported expenditures for counties that are participating and
making claims under a federal Title IV-E child welfare services
waiver, how those counties are maximizing the utilization of
funds, and how close counties are to funding optimum caseload
ratios.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1) Creates a system of child welfare to protect children
who have suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the
child will suffer, serious physical harm inflicted
non-accidentally upon the child by the child's parent or
guardian, as defined. (WIC 300, et seq.)
2) Requires that if the social worker determines that it is
appropriate to offer child welfare services to the family,
the social worker shall make a referral to these services,
as specified. (WIC 328)
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3) Realigns various state-funded and county-run programs to
the counties to provide local control and discretion over
funding programs such as child welfare, mental health and
criminal justice services. (GOV 30025)
4) Includes in realignment funding transferred from the
Health and Human Services Account, as defined, and requires
that the moneys in the Protective Services Subaccount and
the Protective Services Growth Special Account shall be
used exclusively to fund adult protective services, child
welfare and adoptive services, foster care grants and
services, and other specified realigned services. Within
the realigned programs is the Title IV-E Child Welfare
Waiver Demonstration Capped Allocation Project. (GOV 30025
(f)(16)(A))
5) States Legislative intent to ensure that the impacts of
the 2011 realignment of child welfare services, foster
care, adoptions, and adult protective services programs are
identified and evaluated initially and over time, and that
information is publicly available and accessible and can be
utilized to support the state's and counties' effectiveness
in delivering these critical services and supports. (WIC
10104)
6) Requires CDSS to report annually to the appropriate
fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, and to
publicly post on the department's Internet Web site, a
summary of outcome and expenditure data that allows for
monitoring of changes over time. (WIC 10104 (b))
7) Requires that, to the extent the information is readily
or publicly available, the report also contain the amount
of funds each county receives from the Protective Services
Growth Special Account, as defined, child welfare services
social worker caseloads per county, and the number of
authorized positions in the local child welfare services
agency. (WIC 10104 (c))
8) Requires CDSS to contract with an appropriate and
qualified entity to conduct an evaluation of the adequacy
of the current child welfare services budgeting methodology
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and make recommendations about appropriate caseload levels,
supportive services, and preventative services, in order to
accurately and adequately fund the system. Requires
consideration of a number of factors, including the impact
of the child welfare services case management system on the
workload of workers in the system. (WIC 10609.5)
This bill:
1) Deletes from WIC 10104 (c) the qualifier "to the extent
the information is readily or publicly available," thus
requiring the annual report to contain information about
the amount of funds each county receives from the
Protective Services Growth Special Account, social worker
caseloads per county and the number of authorized positions
in the local child welfare agency.
2) Requires the annual realignment report to include
reported expenditures for counties that are participating
and making claims under the federal Title IV-E waiver, how
those counties are maximizing the utilization of funds, and
how close counties are to funding the optimum caseload
ratios, as defined.
FISCAL IMPACT
An analysis by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations
identified unknown, but potentially significant costs (GF) for
counties to collect, update, compile, and present to CDSS, data
necessary for determining caseload ratios. CDSS is still
evaluating whether they already have access to some or all of
the necessary data. Thus, it is unclear to what extent counties
will need to be involved in providing data. The committee also
identified minor and absorbable costs to CDSS to incorporate the
additional items into the report.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, current law requires that CDSS annually
report to the Legislature a summary of outcomes and expenditure
data that allows for monitoring program and support service
delivery since realignment, however it is unclear whether the
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state is collecting the data necessary to support any recent
improvement, current deficiencies or emerging best practices
that exist within the new system. According to the author, the
required reporting in AB 2015 will give the state and
Legislature a clear picture of what protocols and practices are
successful and identify where counties can improve the delivery
of support services to children in the child welfare system.
Realignment
As part of the 2011-12 budget, the Governor and Legislature
realigned various major social services and public safety
programs from the state to local governments. The realignment
moved $6.3 billion and program responsibility to the local
governments - primarily to the state's 58 counties - which
provide and directly oversee services. The legislation
eliminated some state oversight functions and increased
flexibility. Subsequent legislation established a permanent fund
structure for 2011 realignment, limited the amount of funding
that could be transferred between accounts, and made other
changes.
Annual report
SB 1013 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 35,
Statutes of 2012) required CDSS to report annually to the
appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, and
publicly post on the CDSS internet website, a summary of outcome
and expenditure data that allows for monitoring of changes over
time that may have occurred as a result of the 2011 Realignment
of the child welfare services and adult protective services
systems.
In 2016, CDSS published the fourth annual realignment report,
which concluded there did not appear to be any negative
consequences of having transferred fiscal responsibility for the
child welfare system to the county level. Overall rates of
referral have remained relatively constant, with a slight uptick
in 2014; entry rates have remained nearly unchanged and the rate
of cases found to be substantiated after investigation decreased
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slightly, according to the report.<1>
IV-E waiver demonstration project
In 1994 Congress passed Public Law 103-432,<2> which gave the
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services the
authority to approve State demonstration projects which waive
certain provisions of the Social Security Act relating to child
welfare services funding. There were six early implementing
states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
and Oregon, which continue to use waiver agreements in 2013.
Meanwhile, nine additional states received approval to implement
new waiver demonstrations in Federal Fiscal Year 2012.
The original six states received waivers to implement
demonstration projects using flexible funding, which varied in
scope, services and structure. In California, the waiver was
initially granted to just two counties in 2007 - Los Angeles and
Alameda. It allocated fixed amounts of title IV-E dollars to
local public and private child welfare agencies in an effort to
provide new or expanded prevention services rather than
providing services only in an out-of-home setting once a child
is removed from home.
The waiver counties assumed that the cost of prevention and
early intervention services would be offset by subsequent
savings in foster care expenditures. According to a 2013 US
Health and Human Services report, "a number of States and
counties (e.g., Florida and Alameda and Los Angeles Counties in
California) documented large declines in their foster care
populations, although the extent to which these decreases are
attributable to their flexible funding demonstrations or to
broader changes in child welfare policy and practice is
unclear." Since that time, Butte, Sacramento, San Diego, Sonoma,
Santa Clara and Lake Counties have applied for and been granted
IV-E waivers.
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<1> Child Welfare Services & Adult Protective Services
Realignment Report: Outcome & Expenditure Data Summary, April
2016
<2>
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/waiver_summary_fina
l_april2013.pdf
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SB 2030 Study
Amid concerns about social worker caseloads nearly two decades
ago, the Legislature passed SB 2030 (Costa, Chapter 785,
Statutes of 1998) which required that CDSS undertake an
evaluation of workload and budgeting methodologies and set forth
certain requirements for such a study. The evaluation was
conducted from June 15, 1999, through December 15, 1999 in all
58 counties and the subsequent report provided a foundation for
conversations about appropriate caseloads for social workers
doing various tasks within the child welfare system.
Related legislation:
SB 855 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter
29, Statutes of 2014) added to the 2011 realignment report the
requirement that the report also contain the amount of funds
each county receives from the Protective Services Growth Special
Account, as specified, child welfare services social worker
caseloads per county, and the number of authorized positions in
the local child welfare services agency, if the information is
readily available.
SB 1013 (Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 35, Statutes of 2012)
established the requirement for CDSS to annually report summary
and outcome information to the Legislature about the child
welfare system.
AB 118 (Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 40, Statutes of 2011)
and ABX1 16 (Blumenfield, Chapter 13, Statutes of 2011)
realigned CDSS funding for Adoption Services, Foster Care, Child
Welfare Services, and Adult Protective Services, and programs
from the state to local governments and redirected specified tax
revenues to fund the effort
SB 2030 (Costa, Chapter 785, Statutes of 1998) required CDSS to
contract with an appropriate and qualified entity to conduct an
evaluation of the adequacy of current child welfare services
budgeting methodology, and would require the department to
report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature by
January 30, 2000.
PRIOR VOTES
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|Assembly Floor: |80 - |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |20 - |
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|Assembly Human Services Committee: |7 - |
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POSITIONS
Support:
None.
Oppose:
None.
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