BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: SB 774
S
AUTHOR: Ashburn
B
VERSION: To be amended
HEARING DATE: April 28, 2009
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FISCAL: To Appropriations
7
4
CONSULTANT:
Hailey
SUBJECT
Social workers: criminal history
SUMMARY
Requires counties to obtain a criminal history before
hiring a social worker assigned to child welfare services
and prohibits a county from hiring in that position a
person convicted of specified crimes.
ABSTRACT
Current law
1. Establishes child welfare services as emergency
services, family reunification, family maintenance, and
permanency planning.
2. Requires counties, as an arm of the state, to provide
those child welfare services to children who are abused or
neglected or are at risk of abuse or neglect.
3. Provides for statewide coordinated training programs to
meet the needs of county social workers assigned to child
welfare services and adoption responsibilities. (Welfare
and Institutions Code 16206.)
Continued---
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4. Provides that the attorney general shall maintain
summary criminal history information and shall furnish the
information to specified persons including any city or
county, city and county, district, or any officer or
official thereof if access is needed in order to assist
that agency, officer, or official in fulfilling employment,
certification, or licensing duties, and if the access is
specifically authorized by the city council, board of
supervisors, or governing board of the city, county , or
district if the criminal history information is required to
implement a statute, ordinance, or regulation that
expressly refers to specific criminal conduct applicable to
the subject person of the state summary criminal history
information, and contains the requirements or exclusions,
or both, expressly based upon that specified criminal
conduct. [Penal Code 11105 (b)(11)]
This bill
1. Provides that before hiring a person for a position as
a county child welfare services social worker, the county
shall secure from the State Department of Justice a
criminal history to determine if the applicant has ever
been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, felony
spousal abuse, a registerable sex offense, or child abuse
or endangerment.
2. Provides that the criminal history information shall
include the applicant's full criminal record, if any, and
subsequent arrest information.
3. Provides that the county may require the applicant to
pay any fees charged by the State Department of Justice for
the processing of the criminal history.
4. Provides that if the county finds through the criminal
history that an applicant has been convicted of one of the
listed crimes, the applicant shall not be hired.
5. Provides that if the county finds that the applicant is
awaiting trial for a crime specified, the county may cease
processing the application until the conclusion of the
trial.
6. Provides that if the county determines, after hiring an
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applicant, that the person has been convicted of a crime,
the county shall terminate the employee. Note: the author
is amending the bill to make it prospective, so anyone
assigned to child welfare services before the bill takes
effect would not be liable for transfer or termination if
the conviction took place before the effective date of the
bill.
7. Provides that for the purposes of this chapter,
"conviction" means a plea or verdict of guilty or a
conviction following a plea of nolo contendere in any court
in this or another state. A conviction has occurred when
the time for appeal has elapsed, when the judgment of
conviction has been affirmed on appeal, or when an order
granting probation is made suspending the imposition of
sentence, notwithstanding a subsequent order to withdraw a
plea of guilty or setting aside the verdict of guilty, or
dismissing the accusation, information or indictment.
8. Provides that an applicant denied a position because of
a criminal record shall receive a copy of his or her
criminal history report.
9. Exempts from these provisions an individual who has a
certificate of rehabilitation, which can be secured under
certain conditions by persons who have committed a felony.
Note: This bill was heard in the Senate Public Safety
Committee. That committee's vote on the bill was
contingent on the author's agreeing to offer a set of
amendments once the bill reached the Human Services
Committee. The author will be offering those amendments
and they are reflected in this analysis.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Need for the bill
According to the author, the state bears the responsibility
of reducing the ability of unscrupulous individuals to
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abuse and neglect their charges. Individuals working in
child welfare services have the authority to remove
children from their home. The judgment of social workers,
says the author, is vital to the protection of one of the
state's most vulnerable populations. An individual who has
been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, felony
domestic violence, a registerable sex offense, and child
abuse has shown a serious deficiency in judgment and should
not be entrusted important duties of a social worker
assigned to child welfare services.
Mandatory background check
Under existing law, a county is permitted to background
check through the State Department of Justice any employee
to assist in employment. This bill would require the
county to get a criminal background check before hiring a
person for a position as a county child welfare worker.
Child welfare workers are assigned to emergency response,
family maintenance, family reunification, permanency
placement, and adoption services. The criminal background
check will include the ability to get subsequent arrest
information. The criminal background check is intended to
determine if the person has been convicted of assault with
a deadly weapon, felony spousal abuse, a registerable sex
offense, or child abuse.
Prohibition from hiring
The bill provides that if an applicant has been convicted
of one of the specified crimes, then the county may not
hire the applicant. If the applicant is awaiting trial on
any of the specified crimes, the county may stop processing
the application until the case is decided.
Required termination
This bill provides that the county shall terminate an
employee who is determined, after hiring, to have been
convicted of one of the listed offenses.
Local context
In the spring of 2009, a Sacramento County grand jury
issued reports criticizing the management of the county's
child welfare services. Among its findings were that
persons with criminal convictions, including domestic
violence, were working as social workers within the unit
providing child welfare services. The grand jury made no
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connection between any individual's criminal record and his
or her performance on the job, but did challenge the
department's hiring practices.
Previous votes
Senate Public Safety: 7-0
Arguments in opposition
The opponent argues that provisions of the bill are
unnecessarily punitive; the organization recommends
amendments providing an opportunity to appeal the adverse
action and removing the provisions that allow counties to
charge applicants the costs associated with processing a
criminal background check. The organization is also
concerned that certificates of rehabilitation are not
available for persons guilty of a misdemeanor.
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
1. Hiring versus assignment; termination versus
reassignment
Child welfare services are one set of county social
services. County departments of social services also have
social workers assigned to disability evaluations, in-home
supportive services determinations, Cal-WORKS eligibility
and welfare to work services, food stamp eligibility, among
others. This bill applies only to assignments in child
welfare services. However, the bill uses phrases "shall
not be hired" and "terminate the employee," which appear to
preclude assignment to another social services unit.
To maintain its focus on child welfare services, the bill
should be amended to prohibit the assignment of a person
with a criminal record as specific from working in child
welfare services, not necessarily from being excluded from
or terminated from employment in a county department of
social services.
2. Limit only to persons in regular contact with children?
The County Welfare Directors Association reports that it is
working with the author on the definition of affected staff
positions, with the goal of focusing on those social
workers who have contact with children on a regular basis.
Does the committee wish to consider such an amendment?
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3. The first of many bills in this arena?
As noted above, counties have the authority to check the
criminal background of current and potential employees.
This bill singles out a particular job assignment within
county services, requires a criminal records check for
anyone being considered for that assignment, and precludes
giving that job to a person who has a conviction of any one
of four specific offenses. If this bill becomes law and if
history is any guide, the Legislature will for the
foreseeable future be considering legislative proposals to
add crimes to this list and to extend a similar mandatory
process to other county assignments. For example, should
all social workers conducting evaluations of applicants for
in-home supportive services be subject to a criminal
records clearance and precluded from that assignment if it
is found they have a conviction for elder abuse or for
defrauding a public benefits program? Absent evidence that
someone in child welfare services has committed a crime
against a client and had a previous criminal conviction in
one of the four listed offences, is there sufficient need
for a bill that is almost certain to be followed by similar
bills that could result in many mandated criminal
background checks? Should the state be managing county
employment procedures at this level of detail?
POSITIONS
Support: None received
Oppose: National Employment Law Project
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