BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
488 (Torres)
Hearing Date: 07/23/2009 Amended: 07/14/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human
Services 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 488 authorizes the Department of Social
Services (DSS) to renew or extend beyond a three-year time
period specified performance agreements with private, nonprofit
agencies that provide child welfare services. This bill requires
the county or private nonprofit agency to fund an independent
evaluation of the agency's performance, with a report of the
results due to the department six months prior to the end of the
agreement period, as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Allows contract extensions **Likely
substantial savings** General
Requires new report Unknown, one-time costs
Private
Local
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STAFF COMMENTS: Existing statute gives counties the authority to
enter into performance agreements with private, nonprofit
agencies to encourage innovation in the delivery of children's
services, to develop services not available in the community,
and to promote change in the child welfare services system.
Statute directs counties entering into these agreements to
"pursue services that enhance the ability of children to remain
in the least restrictive, most family-like setting possible and
promote services that address the needs and strengths of
individual children and their families."
Upon request from a county (or counties), DSS may waive
regulations governing foster care payments or the operation of
group homes to enable counties to implement the agreements
established, if DSS determines that all of the following apply:
1) The agreement promises to offer a worthwhile test of an
innovative approach or to encourage the development of a new
service for which there is a recognized need.
2) The regulatory requirement prevents the implementation of
the agreement.
3) The requesting county proposes to monitor the agreement
through performance measures to ensure that the purposes of
the waived regulation will be achieved.
4) DSS will take steps that are necessary to prevent the loss
of any substantial amounts of federal funds as a result of
the waivers granted under this section. (The waiver may
specify the extent to which the requesting county shall share
in any cost resulting from any loss of federal funding.)
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AB 488 (Torres)
5) DSS will not waive regulations that apply to the health and
safety of children served by participating private agencies.
6) DSS will notify the appropriate policy and fiscal committees
of the Legislature whenever waivers are granted and when a
waiver of regulations was required for the implementation of
the county's proposed agreement.
Foster care group home payments are determined by a Rate
Classification Level (RCL) payment structure, and foster care
facilities are reimbursed for their care of wards based on their
DSS-determined RCL. RCLs are determined by a formulaic point
system, which takes into account the staffing ratios in a
facility, education level of staff, experience of staff,
services provided by the facility, etc. Points are totaled and
the total equates to a facility RCL designation of 1-14, with 14
being the highest level of services and supervision. Typically,
the more difficult the population of wards is, the higher the
RCL will be because those wards require more supervision and
services.
DSS currently has the authority to approve waivers of the
regulations and point values in the RCL system for the specified
private, nonprofit agencies with which counties can enter into
performance agreements. One such waiver was approved in 2007,
for the Boys Republic facility, which contracts with 8 counties
to house and serve approximately 300 adolescent boys. All youth
in the Boys Republic main campus program have been placed by a
county Probation Department, after adjudication in Juvenile
Court for a delinquency offense under Section 602 of the Welfare
and Institutions Code.* These youth have committed crimes which,
if they were adults, would have been considered felonies, and
they are wards of the court (rather than standard foster care
dependents of the court).
Boys Republic employs a staffing model that focuses more on
experience and training of staff, rather than its formal
post-graduate education and staffing ratios. The existing RCL
formula is heavily weighted to value the latter two
considerations above the former. Boys Republic received a waiver
of regulations and points, which allows it to be reimbursed at
RCL Level 10. Without the waiver (and, thus, using the existing
RCL rubric), Boys Republic would have been reimbursed at RCL
Level 5. It is unclear whether Boys Republic, an established
nonprofit in operation for over 100 years, would have been able
to provide its services without the waiver. The waiver allows
the facility to be reimbursed at RCL Level 10, which is more
than $2,000 more per month, per ward than RCL Level 5.
While the waiver actually allows the facility to be reimbursed
at a higher RCL than it would have otherwise qualified for, it
likely saves the state and counties money because it is less
expensive than alternative placements. While the Boys Republic
program, when scored against the RCL rubric, met the standard of
an RCL Level 5, it serves a population that, in the absence of
Boys Republic, would have to be placed in comparable or higher
RCL facilities. Every ward placed under Section 602 would be
served in a facility of RCL Level 10 or above, and most would
have to be placed in RCL Level 12 or above. Serving these youth
at Boys Republic is comparable to other placements for all
wards, and for most is saves more than $800 per month per
ward.**
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AB 488 (Torres)
If the waiver is not able to be extended, and Boys Republic did
not continue to serve these wards, the alternatives would be
more costly, and the state and county would incur additional
costs to find the other appropriate placements. The discussion
of this bill focuses primarily on Boys Republic because it is
the only facility that has been granted the specified waiver
that this bill extends.
This bill specifically allows DSS to extend waivers related to
the specified performance agreements. DSS currently has the
authority to grant RCL-related waivers for counties entering
into performance agreements with private, nonprofit facilities.
By doing so, DSS essentially decides the rate at which the
facility will be reimbursed by the state and county. While it is
possible that DSS can decide to reimburse at a higher rate than
is necessary, and thereby cost the state more money, it both
does not appear to have occurred and also can occur under
existing authority. In the absence of this bill, DSS can
continue to approve waivers for counties entering into
performance agreements with private agencies. If the Boys
Republic waiver lapses, DSS can approve a new agreement with a
different agency, in accordance with governing statute.
Moreover, DSS can continue to approve additional 3-year waivers
now and in the future; statute does not limit the number. This
bill would allow those future agreements, should they occur, to
be extended for an additional three years, as specified.
This bill also provides for an additional reporting requirement.
The county or private nonprofit agency will have to fund an
independent evaluation of the waiver, with a report of the
results due to the DSS six months prior to the end of the waiver
period of three years. The cost will not be shared by the state.
* Section 602. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), any
person who is under the age of 18 years when he or she violates
any law of this state or of the United States or any ordinance
of any city or county of this state defining crime other than an
ordinance establishing a curfew based solely on age, is within
the jurisdiction of thejuvenile court, which may adjudge such
person to be a ward of the court. (b) Any person who is alleged,
when he or she was 14 years of age or older, to have committed
one of the following offenses shall be prosecuted under the
general law in a court of criminal jurisdiction: (1) Murder, as
described in Section 187 of the Penal Code, if one of the
circumstances enumerated in subdivision (a) of Section 190.2 of
the Penal Code is alleged by the prosecutor, and the prosecutor
alleges that the minor personally killed the victim. (2) The
following sex offenses, if the prosecutor alleges that the
minor personally committed the offense, and if the prosecutor
alleges one of the circumstances enumerated in the One Strike
law, subdivision (d) or (e) of Section 667.61 of the Penal Code,
applies: (A) Rape, as described in paragraph (2) of subdivision
(a) of Section 261 of the Penal Code. (B) Spousal rape, as
described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 262 of
the Penal Code. (C) Forcible sex offenses in concert with
another, as described in
Section 264.1 of the Penal Code. (D) Forcible lewd and
lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 years, as
described in subdivision (b) of Section 288 of the Penal Code.
(E) Forcible sexual penetration, as described in subdivision (a)
of Section 289 of the Penal Code. (F) Sodomy or oral copulation
in violation of Section 286 or 288a of the Penal Code, by force,
violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful
bodily injury on the victim or another person. (G) Lewd and
lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 years, as defined
in subdivision (a) of Section 288, unless the defendant
qualifies for probation under subdivision (c) of Section
1203.066 of the Penal Code.
**The reimbursement Rate for RCL 10 is $5,092 (per ward, per
month) compared to $5,891 for RCL 12, $6,294 for RCL 13, and
$6,694 for RCL 14.