BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2322
Page A
Date of Hearing: May 11, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall, Jr., Chair
AB 2322 (Feuer and Bass) - As Amended: April 29, 2010
SUBJECT : Abuse of children, elder, or dependent persons:
confidentiality.
SUMMARY : Provides eligibility for California Work Opportunities
and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) case managers to
participate on a child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team;
and would broaden the scope of information that can be included
in county multidisciplinary personnel team databases to include
information regarding nonrelatives living in a child's home and
information about the convictions of members of a child's
household. Specifically, this bill:
1)Clarifies that child abuse multidisciplinary personnel teams
(MDTs), as defined in Section 18951 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code (WIC), may share confidential information
and records when engaged in the "management" of cases of child
abuse or neglect.
2)Adds CalWORKs case managers responsible for case planning and
coordination for children and families in need of both child
welfare services and CalWORKs programs, to the personnel
eligible to participate in an MDT.
3)Provides that confidential information related to families in
need of child welfare services may be shared among members of
an MDT and included in an MDT computerized database, and
directs counties with an MDT database to develop standards for
"in need of child welfare services."
4)Permits information regarding any person residing in a child's
home, including individuals not considered part of the child's
family, to be shared by MDTs and stored in an MDT database,
relative to child abuse and neglect investigations or child
welfare services.
5)Adds information about convictions related to crimes against
children for family members and others living in the child's
home to the information that may be shared by members of an
MDT.
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EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes the child welfare services (CWS) system intended
to protect all children, comprised of a continuum of public
social services, including services to prevent, treat, and
care for children who have been, or are at risk for abuse,
neglect, homelessness, delinquency or exploitation. WIC
Sections 16500 and 16501.
2)Defines a child abuse MDT multidisciplinary personnel team as
any team of three or more people trained in the prevention,
identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect cases
and who are qualified to provide a broad range of child
abuse-related services to include, but not be limited to:
a) Psychiatrists, psychologists, marriage and family
therapists, or other trained counseling personnel;
b) Police officers or other law enforcement agents;
c) Medical personnel with sufficient training to provide
health services;
d) Social workers with experience or training in child
abuse prevention; and
e) Any public or private school teacher, administrative
officer, supervisor of child welfare attendance, or
certified pupil personnel employee. WIC Section 18951 (d).
3)Authorizes, notwithstanding existing information
confidentiality protections, any person trained and qualified
to serve on an MDT formed pursuant to WIC Sec. 18951 (d) to be
deemed a part of the team as necessary, for the purposes of a
particular case, provided the reasons for deeming the person a
member of the team are specified in writing. WIC 18964.
4)Permits members of an MDT, as defined in Section 18951, to
exchange confidential information and writings during team
meetings, provided the information disclosed:
a) Is relevant to the prevention, identification or
treatment of child abuse;
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b) Relates to incidents of child abuse;
c) Is kept confidential; and
d) Is not admissible in any criminal, civil, or
juvenile court proceeding. WIC 830.
5)Authorizes counties to establish a computerized data base to
allow provider agencies to share confidential information
related to families at risk for child abuse or neglect through
the formation of MDTs aimed at preventing, identifying,
managing, or treating child abuse or neglect. WIC 18961.5.
6)Restricts information related to a child or family identified
as at risk for child abuse or neglect and entered into the
database to:
a) The name, address, telephone number, and date and
birthplace for family members;
b) The case number assigned to the case by each provider
agency;
c) Contact information for the provider agency employee
assigned to the case; and
d) The date(s) of contact between the provider agency and
family. WIC 18961.5.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
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COMMENTS :
Child abuse multidisciplinary personnel teams :
Multidisciplinary teams have been authorized in California to
allow for a coordinated interagency response to elder and child
abuse cases for over twenty years. MDTs, formed and operated at
the county level are afforded the ability to share confidential
information among team members for the purposes of preventing,
identifying, or treating child abuse. Currently, all 58
California counties operate child abuse MDTs, and counties often
operate multiple MDTs at once.
MDTs operate, not just to investigate possible child abuse and
neglect but also to facilitate coordination among the different
agencies and entities participating on the team so that
decisions can be made through team decision-making. According
to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention<1>, elements of a successful
MDT include confidentiality policies in line with legislative
mandates, agency policies and professional practices, and the
best interests of the child; conflict resolution practices; and
periodic self-analysis and outside evaluation to ensure the team
continues to achieve its intended purpose.
Under existing state law, counties may form computerized
databases for the purpose of allowing specified provider
agencies to share identifying information regarding families at
risk for child abuse or neglect in order to form MDTs to
prevent, identify, manage and treat child abuse. According to
the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the County Welfare
Director's Association (CWDA), Los Angeles County (LA County)
has the only known computerized MDT database provided pursuant
to WIC Section 18961.5.
Confidentiality : Existing state and federal laws prohibit most
county health and human services programs and educational
entities from sharing confidential patient, recipient, and
student information without the express consent of the
individual, or in the case of minors, the parent or guardian.
These laws seek to safeguard the constitutional right to
---------------------------
<1> Ells, Mark. "Forming a Multidisciplinary Team to
Investigate Child Abuse." Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention. Second printing March 2000.
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privacy, and to ensure that individuals are comfortable sharing
the personal information necessary to the provision of services.
Confidential information may be shared in rare cases among
government agencies although written permission is often
required, and civil and criminal penalties may apply if the
information is unlawfully disclosed.
Federal law provides exceptions to confidentiality protections
for child abuse or neglect reports and records under the Child
Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) (42 U.S.C. 5101 et
seq.), which requires federal, state, or local government
agencies to share confidential information in order to fulfill
their legal responsibilities to protect children from abuse and
neglect.
This bill seeks to clarify and expand on existing MDT laws, to
allow for greater interagency communication and improved
response to families at risk for child abuse or neglect
following several high-profile cases of child deaths stemming
from child abuse or neglect in Los Angeles County in recent
years.
According to the author:
LA County's Department of Child and Family Services
(DCFS) and the LA County Board of Supervisors are
taking several steps, through staff training, policy
changes, and through legislation, to address the
problem of several county departments knowing about
problems in a child's home, but not sharing
information with one another to make decisions that
protect the child. Child Social Workers [CSWs] use a
pointer-system database to help them figure out which
departments/agencies have had contact with children,
but the database has some shortcomings and CSWs do not
always know whether or not they are able to share
information.
The author goes on to detail problems with existing law,
including, an underutilized database and lack of clarity
among several statutes. In recent months, according to
the author, Los Angles County has required social workers
to consult its database, the Family Child Index (FCI).
The County of Los Angeles , one of the co-sponsors of this
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bill, defines the FCI as follows: "Family and Children's
Index serves as a "pointer" system to direct authorized
users of a participating agency to other County agencies
who have had contact with the family subject to the initial
inquiry. Once users are pointed to other agencies, WIC
189561.5 requires that confidential, substantive
information about a family must be shred through the
formation of Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs), unless some
other legally permissible way to share that information
already exists."<2> Currently, DCFS, the District
Attorney, Public Health, Mental Health, Probation, Public
Social Services, and Sheriff participate in the FCI. In
addition, LA County intends to expand FCI participation to
at least two non-county agencies such as schools or private
hospitals.
With regard to the inclusion of CalWORKs case managers to
the eligible MDT team members, precedent for the inclusion
of CalWORKs case managers in case coordination was
established by AB 1518 (Soto), Chapter 919, Statutes of
1999, and continued with private, foundation funding and
federal grant funding under the "Linkages Project." The
purpose of the Linkages coordination model is to draw on
the resources available through both the CWS system as well
as CalWORKs to help individuals become more successful in
meeting the goals of both programs. According to DSS, the
Linkages model is currently being utilized in 33 counties
across California. This bill would clarify that those
CalWORKs case managers engaged in case planning and
coordination for families who crossover between CWS and the
CalWORKs program, may participate as members of an MDT.
In support of this bill, CWDA writes:
Increasing attention has recently been paid to the
cross-program needs of families and children. In some
cases, multiple agencies are providing services to
children or their parents, but not all of the agencies
know the others' involvement. If a database could be
developed to allow authorized agency staff to
determine that another service provider already is
----------------------
<2> William T. Fujioka, Chief Executive Officer. "Status Report
on the Implementation of the County's Family and Children's
Index Recommendations," Memo to Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors. March 9, 2010.
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assisting a family, it can help in the investigation
of child abuse and neglect reports as well as allow
for better coordination of services to these families.
The hope is to better prevent child abuse and neglect
from occurring and more effectively respond to these
issues when they do arise?
The 32 counties participating in Linkages report that
inclusion of the CalWORKs staff on the
multidisciplinary team would greatly enhance their
capacity to coordinate case management for these
families. The law defining multidisciplinary teams
currently does not include these staff.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposes this bill unless
it is amended to : restrict access to conviction records
only to those entities currently entitled to obtain
criminal history records; require notice to individuals in
the database that information is being held about him or
her, and to allow for correction of inaccuracies in the
information; require destruction of data after specified
time periods; specify the level of security protections and
to include precautions against the deliberate abuse or
misuse of information; require monitoring of the system to
detect possible violations of the security of the system;
and to establish a legal remedy for individuals, should
their information be wrongfully accessed or deliberately
misused.
Concerns and Recommended Amendments:
1)Staff recommends the author amend the bill to delete
added references to "in need of child welfare services"
and "the provision of child welfare services" in WIC
Sections 830, 5328, and 18961.5. Unlike the "at risk for
child abuse or neglect" language in existing law, the
designation to be determined by counties related to "in
need of child welfare services" is much broader, and
could encompass families with no indication of possible
or past child abuse or neglect. State law defines child
welfare services broadly to encompass services to
homeless children and juvenile delinquents, irrespective
of child abuse and neglect. CAPTA, on the other hand,
sets forth exemptions to federal privacy protections for
agencies fulfilling their legal obligations to protect a
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child from child abuse or neglect, as well as for other
entities or classes of individuals authorized by statute
to receive information pursuant to a legitimate State
purpose. Each of these exemptions specifically applies
to the confidentiality of child abuse and neglect records
or reports.
2)Staff also recommends the author limit access to
information regarding convictions to law enforcement and
child welfare services personnel, as personnel within
these agencies would have sufficient justification to
access that information. Current law allows for a
variety of agencies, for example schools or hospitals, to
view general information regarding a contact with a
family at risk for child abuse or neglect. This
information is not detailed, and although names of family
members may be included, does not encompass other
private, confidential types of information.
Urgency : The Committee voted unanimously to approve adding
an urgency clause to this bill at the April 27, 2010
hearing. Most bills take effect on January 1 of the year
following the bill's passage, unless otherwise specified.
An urgency clause is a section of a bill specifying that a
bill is to take effect immediately upon signature of the
Governor, due to a measure affecting the public peace,
health, or safety. Adding an urgency clause to this bill
will result in this bill requiring a two-thirds vote in
each house.
Prior and Related Legislation:
AB 2229 (Brownley) of the current session is sponsored by
the Los Angeles County District Attorney and seeks to
create a new child abuse investigation multidisciplinary
team to allow two or more persons to share confidential
information electronically and by phone within the first 48
hours of a report of possible child abuse or neglect.
AB 1518 (Soto) Chapter 919, Statutes of 1999 established a
three-year, three county pilot in Alameda, San Bernardino
and Ventura counties to create an integrated coordinated
case management system for CalWORKs families with multiple
barriers to employment through MDTs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
AB 2322
Page I
Support
County Welfare Directors Association of CA (CWDA) (co-sponsor)
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (co-sponsor)
Service Employees International Union (co-sponsor)
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Michelle Doty Cabrera / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089