BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 174
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Wolk |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|----------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------------|
|Version: |February 5, 2015 |Hearing |March 24, 2015 |
| | |Date: | |
|----------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------------|
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant|Sara Rogers |
|: | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Crisis nurseries: study
DIGEST
This bill establishes a two-year pilot project in Sacramento and
Yolo counties for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of
crisis nurseries, as specified. This bill also requires the
California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to conduct a
study of the relationship between crisis respite care and
incidents of child abuse. Additionally, this bill states
Legislative intent to provide state funding for crisis
nurseries.
Existing law:
1)Enacts the Community Care Facilities Act, which provides for
the licensure and oversight of out-of-home placements of
abused and neglected children by CDSS. The Act defines "crisis
nursery" to mean a facility licensed by CDSS to operate a
program to provide short-term care and supervision for
children under six years of age who are voluntarily placed for
temporary care by a parent or legal guardian due to a family
crisis or stressful situation. (HSC 1502 (a) (17))
2)Requires a crisis nursery to be licensed by the department to
operate a crisis residential overnight program for no more
than 30 days. Provides that the maximum licensed capacity for
a crisis residential overnight program shall be 14 children.
SB 174 (Wolk) PageB
of?
(HSC 1516 (a), (h)(2) and (f)(2))
3)Permits crisis nurseries to offer crisis day services for
children under the age of six, as specified, for no more than
14 hours in a day and for no more than 30 days. Exempts crisis
nurseries from licensure as a child day care facility under
the California Child Care and Development Services Act (HSC
1516 and 1596.792)
This bill:
1)Requires CDSS to implement a two-year pilot project in
Sacramento and Yolo counties for the purpose of evaluating the
effectiveness of crisis nurseries in lowering the incidence of
child abuse in those counties.
2)Conditions implementation of the pilot on the voluntary
participation of all of the crisis nurseries in those counties
and on those counties providing private funding for one-half
of the cost of the project.
3)Requires that the pilot project shall consist of both of the
following:
A CDSS-conducted study of the relationship between
crisis respite care and incidents of reported child abuse
in pilot project counties,
A CDSS report of the results of the study to the
Legislature on or before December 31, 2016, as specified.
1)States Legislative intent to provide state funding for crisis
nurseries in the Budget Act of 2015 in order to enable crisis
nurseries to continue to provide services to the community and
to participate in the pilot project established by this
section.
2)Enacts a sunset on the above provisions on January 1, 2018.
SB 174 (Wolk) PageC
of?
FISCAL IMPACT
Last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee, in its
evaluation of AB 578 (Dickenson) which was substantially similar
to this bill, estimated significant costs in the range of $2.7
million (General Fund) over two years to implement the pilot
project for the three crisis nurseries in the counties of
Sacramento and Yolo. Additionally, the analysis estimated
one-time costs to CDSS of about $150,000 (General Fund) to
prepare and submit the mandated study.
BACKGROUND
The author cites a two-year study<1> published in 2006 examining
the relationships between crisis respite care and incidents of
reported child abuse. According to the author, the study
provided evidence that Child Protective Services (CPS) reports
on families that accessed crisis respite were significantly less
likely to be substantiated than CPS reports on comparison
families without crisis respite available. It found that
families receiving respite or crisis resolution services were
half as likely to have a CPS investigation substantiated than
were those who utilized crisis respite with previous CPS
involvement. Further, when parents were asked what alternative
choices they would have pursued had a crisis nursery not been
available, 26 percent said they would have either requested
foster care placement or been unable to provide for their
children.
Additionally, the author states that adverse childhood
experiences such as child abuse and neglect result in lifelong
negative impacts. These include lower family income levels,
higher rates of physical and mental health needs, and issues
with addiction/substance abuse. The estimated national average
lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is
$210,012 in 2010 dollars.
---------------------------
<1> ARCH (Access to Respite Care and Help) National Respite
Network and Resource Center (NRNRC)
SB 174 (Wolk) PageD
of?
Crisis Nursery Model
Crisis nurseries first were developed as a grassroots movement
in the 1960's as a temporary or emergency care model for
children at risk of abuse or neglect, and were initially funded
through private donations.<2> In 1986, Congress passed the
Temporary Child Care for Children with Disabilities and Crisis
Nurseries Act, which established federal funding to create
temporary child care demonstration projects including crisis
nursery services. Beginning in 1988, competitive federal grants
were awarded to private and public agencies across the United
States to assist them in developing crisis nursery services,
funding that has subsequently been eliminated.
Crisis nurseries were created as a separate licensing category
under the Community Care Facilities Act under SB 855 (Machado,
Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004), to provide a temporary and
emergency housing and shelter facility option for parents. The
intent of the care model is to provide a voluntary 24-hour
placement option for young children when their families are
facing difficult or extreme financial, health, or other
challenges to prevent the engagement of child welfare services.
Under the statute, the crisis nurseries were limited to
specified counties and were intended to serve children under the
age of six who were voluntarily placed by a parent or guardian
or, under limited circumstances, were temporarily placed by a
county child welfare service agency.
Prior to the passage of SB 855, crisis nurseries were licensed
as group homes under the Community Care Facility Act, although
critics argued that those regulations were excessive and
inappropriate for crisis nurseries due to differences between
the care needs of very young children who were voluntarily
placed by a parent and the needs of children that were removed
from parental custody by county child protective services
workers due to abuse or neglect. The bill at that time included
---------------------------
<2> Cole, Susan. Crisis nurseries: Important services in a
system of care for families and children. University of Illinois
School of Social Work. September 2004.
SB 174 (Wolk) PageE
of?
a sunset of January 1, 2008, which was subsequently extended to
January 1, 2014. Due to concerns that crisis nurseries were
serving as temporary placements for children removed from their
homes by county social workers, SB 1214 (Wolk, Chapter 519,
Statutes of 2010) eliminated crisis nurseries as an allowable
child welfare placement, effective January 1, 2012. Following
this agreement, the state eliminated the sunset, allowing crisis
nurseries to exist permanently under SB 1319 (Liu, Chapter 663,
Statutes of 2012).
Last year, AB 2228 (Cooley, Chapter 735, Statutes of 2014)
revised the regulatory structure of crisis nurseries, permitting
facilities operating an overnight and day program to be licensed
under a single license. Although crisis day services had
previously been exempted from licensure as a day care facility,
children in day programs counted against the overnight capacity
limit of 14 children. As a result, many facilities sought
secondary licensure as a child day care program. AB 2228 permits
crisis nurseries to operate day programs that meet specified
regulatory requirements without affecting the overnight capacity
limit.
Currently, there are five crisis nurseries licensed in
California, one each in Concord, Davis, Nevada City and two in
Sacramento. Since 2009, more than 9,000 children have been
served by these nurseries. On average, the lengths of stay have
ranged from eight hours to just over 24 hours with 44 children
staying for the maximum allowable days. No exemptions have been
requested for children to stay beyond the 30-day limit.
Currently there are no state or federal monies made available to
crisis nurseries, with all five nurseries relying upon
philanthropic support and local funds to operate (some
facilities may receive funding through their Local First Five
Commission). In many instances a related group home provider
will support and manage a local crisis nursery, usually at a
substantial financial loss. As a result, crisis nurseries rely
substantially on trained volunteers to meet the staffing
requirements. Crisis nursery staff and volunteers are subject to
SB 174 (Wolk) PageF
of?
the same criminal record clearance requirements as child care
providers and the education and experience requirements are
similar to those of teachers in child care regulations.<3>
Budget Committee 2014 hearing
In 2014, the Senate Budget Committee heard, as an informational
item, a similar proposal to that proposed under this bill. The
committee declined to take action on the proposal. As
background, the committee provided the following information:
Usage data for the Yolo Crisis Nursery
EMQ Families First Yolo Crisis
Nursery
CY 2009 CY 2010 CY 2011 CY 2012
CY 2013 Total
Respite Day Services
# of 30 day stays per facility 0 0 0
0 0 0
# of children the facility has served 381 339
368 329 372 1789
Average length of stay per child, per
facility (days) 1.25 1.28 1.19
1.32 1.43 1.29
Overnight Services
# of 30 day stays per facility 0 1
0 0 0 1
# of children the facility has served 73 88
---------------------------
<3> CCR Title 22 101216.1
SB 174 (Wolk) PageG
of?
101 38 6 306
Average length of stay per facility
(nights) 5.45
4.74 3 3.71 3.67
2.93
Budget history of both Sacramento Crisis Nursery and Yolo Crisis
Nursery
Sacramento Crisis Nurseries
o FY 2012- 13, total expense of $2,136,724, with a deficit of
$566,724.
o FY 2013-14 (projected), total expense will be $2,015,452, with
deficit of $500,697.
Yolo Crisis Nursery
o FY 2012-13, total expense was $603,000, with a loss of
$438,000.
o FY 2013-2014 (projected), total expense will be $659,000, with
loss of $480,000.
Crisis Nursery Outcomes
A 2004 report<4> studying crisis nursery outcomes cites a
literature review from 1980 that identified crisis nurseries
"along with access to counseling for parents as extremely
inexpensive forms of prevention when compared to the cost of
foster care placements."
The report also cites a study that found that "thirty-six
parents reported a decrease in parenting stress for problems
related to their children as well as financial and housing
problems when they accessed crisis nursery services and that
"parents using crisis nursery services also reported significant
---------------------------
<4> Cole, Susan. Crisis nurseries: Important services in a
system of care for families and children. University of Illinois
School of Social Work. September 2004.
SB 174 (Wolk) PageH
of?
improvements in parenting stress based on pre- and post-test
scores on the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form."
Additionally, the report cites a user survey in which caregivers
reported that "if crisis nursery services were not available
they might choose to leave their children alone, in the care of
an inappropriate caregiver, or have the child accompany them to
a place the parent perceived as dangerous for the child."
However, the report states there is "limited research addresses
the role crisis nurseries play in strengthening families and
developing independence beyond time-limited crisis
intervention."
Prior legislation:
SB 2228 (Cooley, Chapter 735, Statutes of 2014) revises the
licensing requirements for crisis nurseries and onsite day care
centers.
AB 578 (Dickinson, 2014) sought to establish a two-year pilot
project in Sacramento and Yolo counties for the purpose of
evaluating the effectiveness of crisis nurseries. This bill was
held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1319 (Liu, Chapter 663, Statutes of 2012) eliminated the
sunset date for the establishment of crisis nurseries.
SB 1214 (Wolk, Chapter 519, Statutes of 2010) extended the
sunset date to January 1, 2014, but eliminated provisions of the
original legislation which permitted crisis nurseries to provide
emergency respite care for a limited number of foster children.
Effective July 1, 2012, crisis nurseries were only permitted to
serve children placed voluntarily by their parents or legal
guardians.
SB 104 (Machado, Chapter 288, Statutes of 2007) extended the
sunset date to January 1, 2011.
SB 855 (Machado, Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004) established
SB 174 (Wolk) PageI
of?
crisis nurseries as a separate licensing category, with a sunset
date of January 1, 2009.
COMMENTS
This bill states it is the intent of the Legislature to provide
state funding in the 2015 Budget Act for the purposes specified
in this bill. Last year, a similar item was heard in budget
committee, though no appropriation was included. Should the
Legislature intend to include this item in the Budget Act this
year, it would be necessary for it to be considered and
appropriated through the budget process.
Staff recommends amending the bill to strike Lines 17-20 on Page
2 inclusive, referencing intent language referring to the budget
appropriation.
POSITIONS
Support: None.
Oppose: None.
-- END --