BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2229
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 19, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                  AB 2229 (Brownley) - As Amended:  April 29, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Public  
          SafetyVote:  7-0
                        Human Services                                 6-0

          Urgency:                          State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill authorizes counties to establish a new type of child  
          abuse investigation and prevention multidisciplinary personnel  
          team to allow provider agencies to share confidential  
          information in child abuse investigations. Specifically, this  
          bill:

          1)Defines "child abuse investigation and prevention  
            multidisciplinary personnel team" as a team of two or more  
            persons trained to prevent, identify, or treat child abuse  
            cases.   

          2)Authorizes, during the 48-hour period following a report of  
            suspected child abuse or neglect, members of a  
            multidisciplinary personnel team to disclose and exchange with  
            one another information designated confidential under state  
            law if a team member believes it is relevant to prevent,  
            identify, or treat child abuse. 

          3)Specifies disclosure and exchange of information pursuant to  
            this section may occur telephonically and electronically.  

          4)Requires the information sharing permitted under this measure  
            be governed by memoranda of understanding among the service  
            provider.   

          5)Deems information communicated or provided to, or created by,  
            the team members to be confidential, and protected from  
            discovery and disclosure by statutory and common law  
            protections. Existing civil and criminal penalties apply to  








                                                                  AB 2229
                                                                  Page  2

            inappropriate disclosure.   

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor nonreimbursable local costs to the extent counties opt to  
          form these teams.

           COMMENTS  

           Rationale  . This bill, sponsored by the L.A. D.A., seeks to  
          remedy a problem faced by members of an multidisciplinary team  
          (MDT) investigating a potential case of child abuse who are  
          time-limited in making detention determinations, and have  
          difficulty accessing necessary information from other members of  
          the MDT because current law requires discussions among three or  
          more MDT members.   

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081