BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: SB 452
S
AUTHOR: Dutton
B
VERSION: April 13, 2009
HEARING DATE: April 14, 2009
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FISCAL: To Judiciary
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CONSULTANT:
Hailey
SUBJECT
At-risk children: registration of birth: notification to
child protective services
SUMMARY
Requires the state registrar of vital statistics to notify
the appropriate child protective services agency of the
birth of a child to a parent who has had his or her
parental rights terminated due to abuse or neglect of a
child, and requires that agency to conduct an immediate
investigation to ensure the infant's safety and well-being.
ABSTRACT
Current law :
1. Prescribes the duties of the state registrar of vital
statistics and local registrars of births and deaths with
respect to the registration of a live birth.
2. Requires the State Department of Social Services (DSS)
to implement a statewide child welfare services case
management system for the effective administration of child
welfare services.
Continued---
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3. Provides that counties shall be the arm of the state
for the provision of child welfare services.
4. Provides for hearings in the juvenile court that can
allow the court to permanently terminate the rights of a
parent or parents.
This bill :
1. Requires the state registrar of vital statistics to
cross check the names of parents of newly-born infants with
the names of parents who have previously had their parental
rights terminated due to abuse or neglect.
2. Requires the state registrar of vital statistics to
forward to the appropriate local child protective services
agency the names of parents so identified.
3. Requires county child protective services agencies,
upon receipt of the information from the state registrar of
vital statistics, to conduct an immediate investigation to
ensure the safety and well-being of the infant.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The author states that "there are too many instances of
children being needlessly and severely abused by parents
who previously had their parental rights terminated. By
notifying child protective services when these parents have
a new baby, the number of child abuse cases could be
reduced." The author reports instances of serial child
abuse by parents, and notes that Minnesota and Michigan
have laws similar to that proposed by this bill.
Sibling groups in foster care
According to the State Department of Social Services (DSS),
almost 70 percent of the children in foster care have a
sibling who is also in the child welfare system: of the
66,500 children in foster care, 45,500 are siblings to at
least one other child in foster care.
Children who enter foster care after a sibling is already
entered
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An analysis of data from New York City, reported to the
committee by researchers at the Center for Social Services
Research, at the University of California, Berkeley, found
that nearly half of the children in foster care have been
preceded by or will be followed by a sibling entering care.
The committee has asked DSS to provide a breakout to tell
us how many children entered foster care at the same time
as at least one sibling and how many entered foster care
after a sibling was already in foster care. These data
will not be available by the time of the hearing.
Researchers at the UC Berkeley's Center for Social Services
Research also report that they are proposing changes in the
child welfare services case management system so that
questions of siblings' involvement in foster care can be
more easily tracked.
The research questions are not always easy to frame and
answer: for example, definitions of "sibling" vary in
states' statutes and in research; and, tracking young
children who already have a sibling in foster care at the
time of their referral to child protective services may not
include any siblings already in adoptive placement.
However, a general portrait of the extent of serial abuse
and neglect should materialize soon.
Arguments in support:
Anecdotal evidence finds that there are infants each year
who are abused, some fatally, by a parent who previously
had his or her parental rights terminated. Visits by child
protective services workers to the home of an infant with
such a parent would reduce incidences of abuse and neglect,
either by saving babies from dangerous situations or
enabling social workers to connect parents voluntarily to
helpful community resources.
Arguments in opposition:
The California Association of Counties and the County
Welfare Directors Association believes that counties have
no authority to insist that a parent cooperate with a
presumptive investigation, that such investigations would
be costly, and that less-costly alternatives exist to
provide services to at-risk families.
The American Civil Liberties Union believes the bill, as
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introduced, raises Fourth Amendment concerns of unwarranted
government intrusion into families' lives, takes county
resources away from investing reports of abuse and neglect,
and gives no opportunity for a person to challenge their
inclusion in the child welfare services case management
system database.
QUESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The committee may want to ask the author of a
representative of DSS to describe the current status of the
state's child welfare services data management system as it
relates to the challenges presented by this bill:
Are all parents in the system whose parental rights
have been terminated because of abuse or neglect? How
far back do the records go?
Is the information about a parent that is included
in a live birth record sufficient to match the
identity of a person listed in the child welfare
services data management system?
Can the provisions of this bill be implemented
immediately or will implementation be delayed until
changes are made in that data management system?
POSITIONS
Support: San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner
Oppose: American Civil Liberties Union, California
Legislative Office
California State Association of Counties
County Welfare Directors Association
Service Employees International Union
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