BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
82 (Evans)
Hearing Date: 08/17/2009 Amended: 08/17/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human
Services 4-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 82 establishes a pilot project that would
create additional requirements in the court approval process for
requests to administer psychotropic medications to children in
foster care. This bill requires the Judicial Council to adopt
specified rules and forms to implement the project by July 1,
2010. The pilot project will be operative until January 1, 2013,
in three counties, as specified, selected by the Department of
Social Services (DSS) in consultation with the California
Welfare Directors Association (CWDA), California Mental Health
Director Association (CMHDA) and the Judicial Council. This bill
requires DSS, after consultation with the Department of Mental
Health, to report to the Legislature before July 1, 2013,
regarding the findings of the pilot project, as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
DSS workload (report and $32 $56
$32 General
Pilot implementation) $18 $24
$18 Federal
Local assistance ***Unknown, potentially
significant*** General
New Judicial Council forms Minor and absorbable General*
*Trial Courts Trust Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
This bill would require DSS, in consultation with specified
stakeholders, to develop the described pilot program, select
three counties to participate in the program, and implement the
program (including any necessary training and negotiations with
participating counties). Considering both the scope of the
project, and DSS budget reductions and furloughs, it is likely
that DSS will need one additional staff person at the Social
Services Consultant III level to initiate this new program. This
staff person would also be responsible for establishing the
structure for the report, and the interaction between counties
and DSS to exchange the specified information and monitor the
pilot. In fiscal years 2011-12 and 2012-13 (after designing and
establishing the program) the ongoing workload could be
completed by PY.
DSS is also required to report demographic information on
specified youth, which can be collected and reported easily by
counties if DSS establishes a framework for doing so at the
beginning of the pilot. This bill also requires DSS to report
"data on mental health outcomes for these youth." The specific
information required is unclear, and thus, so is the extent of
the workload which may result.
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AB 82 (Evans)
Implementing this pilot project as the county level will likely
require local assistance. DSS, in consultation with specified
stakeholders, will select the counties that will participate. It
is unlikely that counties will volunteer to take on additional
work at a time when they are facing substantial reductions,
without some amount of local assistance to implement the
program. This pilot project requires participating counties'
social workers, medical providers, and judicial officers take on
additional tasks, and they will require some amount of training
and/or information about the new expectations.
This bill could also result in additional cost pressure in
2014-15 to make the pilot project a statewide, permanent
program. Because the success of the pilot is related to mental
health outcomes of individual foster youth, which is necessarily
subjective, and is not related to a fiscal impact to the state,
this pilot project's deemed success may put substantial cost
pressure on the state to mandate a similar program statewide in
the future.