BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2322
Page A
Date of Hearing: May 19, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2322 (Feuer and Bass) - As Amended: May 13, 2010
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill allows CalWORKs case managers to participate on a
child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team; and broadens 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.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs associated with this legislation would be minor and
absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The purpose of this legislation is to improve the
work of multidisciplinary personnel teams (MDT) in county
welfare departments. These teams are designed to coordinate
the myriad of services that families of children suffering
from abuse and neglect may need in order to successfully
maintain their family. Under current law, CalWORKs case
managers can be involved at certain points on the case but
cannot participate in confidential discussions. This bill
would allow them to participate in all aspects of the case
where they can be useful.
In addition, the County of Los Angeles, one of the bill's
co-sponsors, has found that there are key pieces of
information missing from their MDT database. Specifically,
adding information about all adults living in the home and
AB 2322
Page B
criminal information about those adults is not specifically
allowed under current law. This bill would allow them to add
those data elements to their database.
2)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, which operate
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. In
many cases, the teams have found that a key part of the
services that families need are access to CalWORKs, food
stamps, and other supportive programs specifically related to
poverty. Alternatively, it may be that parents are working
through both the CalWORKs system, where they must meet certain
participation requirements, and the child welfare system,
where they are being given a conflicting set of requirements
in order to keep their children in their homes. In those
cases, without a multidisciplinary approach that coordinates
employment services efforts and family counseling or anger
management efforts, for example, families can lose both their
children and their CalWORKs support.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081