BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2015|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2015
Author: McCarty (D)
Amended: 3/18/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/28/16
AYES: McGuire, Berryhill, Hancock, Liu, Nguyen
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Public social services: 2011 realignment report
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: 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.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Creates a system of child welfare to protect children who have
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Page 2
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)
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
CDSS's Internet Web site, a summary of outcome and expenditure
data that allows for monitoring of changes over time. (WIC
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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 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.
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Background
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 Web site, 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
slightly, according to the report.
IV-E waiver demonstration project. In 1994 Congress passed
Public Law 103-432, 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.
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There were six early implementing states, including California,
Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Oregon, which continue to
use waiver agreements in 2013. 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.
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.
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Related/Prior 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/2/16)
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None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/2/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: 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 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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
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Prepared by:Mareva Brown / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524
8/3/16 18:21:31
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