BILL ANALYSIS
AB 363
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Date of Hearing: March 29, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Noreen Evans, Chair
AB 363 (Chu) - As Amended: March 29, 2005
SUBJECT : Child and Family Service Review System Incentive Fund.
SUMMARY : Creates the Child Welfare Services Outcomes and
Accountability Incentive fund to be used by counties as they
implement improvements outlined through their Child and Family
Service Review. Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes a fund consisting of money appropriated by the
Legislature in the annual Budget Act.
2)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish
a process for allocating the moneys in the fund to counties
that are not already receiving funding through the budget
process for implementation of program improvements in the
2005-06 Budget Act or subsequent budget acts.
3)Requires the allocation process to take into account the
extent to which the proposed funding would be used for
activities that are reasonably expected to help the county
make progress toward their outcome measures as specified.
4)Requires, to the extent possible, that counties use moneys
received through this fund in a manner that enables the county
to draw down additional federal, state and local funds, while
noting that the counties' inability to receive additional
matching funds shall not play a determining factor in the
allocation process.
EXISTING LAW : Requires counties to establish and meet outcome
measures in the delivery of Child Welfare Services on behalf of
abused and neglected children.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : In 2001, the Legislature passed AB 636 (Steinberg)
Chapter 678, Statutes of 2001. This measure established the
Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability System which measures
outcomes-based indicators for each county, including the
measures used in the federal Child and Family Service Review
AB 363
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(CFSR). Counties, in collaboration with other local agencies
and their communities, were required to formulate a County
System Improvement Plan (SIP) which outlined program priorities,
defined strategies and steps to achieve improvement and set
quantitative measurements of success.
In 2002 California, along with nine other states, failed all
seven safety, well-being and permanency outcomes in the federal
CFSR. While states may be penalized for failing to meet their
outcomes and measurements, California and other states have been
given an opportunity to submit plans for improvement, and meet
specific benchmarks towards success before they are assessed
penalties. The state Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability
System also requires counties to address all of the federal
review indicators and measurements.
Counties began to receive data from AB 636 this year, allowing
them to identify weaknesses in their performance and focus on
specific improvements. Every county has submitted their SIP to
the Department of Social Services (DSS). In the coming months,
DSS is expected to send letters to each county indicating their
approval of each SIP. To avoid federal penalties, California
must develop and implement program improvement plans. But,
despite the progress counties have made on the plans, they don't
have the necessary funds to implement needed improvements.
Additionally, the legislatively mandated Child Welfare Workload
Study released in 2000 documented that child welfare workers
carry caseloads that are twice as high as they should be in
order to meet even basic requirements let alone fund the
enhanced activities required to improve county performance.
Despite the need, AB 363 does not appropriate any money, but
instead creates a fund and a competitive grant process the
counties can use to implement their SIPs, should funds be
appropriated by the Legislature. Counties can then use these
dollars to meet the benchmarks for success as outlined in their
SIPs and as required by the federal review.
In 2003, DSS released the legislatively mandated Child Welfare
Services Redesign (Redesign) Final Report. Among other
recommendations, the Redesign selected 11 counties to pilot a
series of CWS system improvements. The original recommendation
also identified a second cohort of counties to continue the
pilot. The Governor's January 2005 Budget contains money to
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both complete the work by the first cohort of counties, and to
initiate a second cohort of Redesign counties. The Legislature
and the Governor may wish to consider allocating funds to the
first cohort of counties to complete their work, but not fund
the second cohort. The budgeted dollars could then be deposited
into the account created by AB 363 and used to fund improvements
to the CWS system as outlined in each individual county SIP.
This would serve to expedite the CWS program improvements as
required by the federal review and could allow California to
avoid federal penalties.
According to the author, "AB 363 will additionally create a
feedback mechanism between the Legislature and DSS." DSS would
be required to provide information to the Legislature regarding
the findings and recommendations for improvements identified in
the counties' SIPs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County Welfare Directors Association of California (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Caitlin O'Halloran / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089