BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1440
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 10, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
AB 1440 (Perea) - As Amended: March 29, 2012
SUBJECT : Child abuse and neglect: reports
SUMMARY : Requires county child welfare agencies to prepare a
written report, as specified, within 60 days of determining that
abuse or neglect led to a child's death in the county.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a county child welfare agency, within 60 calendar
days of determining that abuse or neglect led to a child's
death in the county, to review the child's death and prepare a
written report containing all of the following:
a) An analysis of the circumstances leading to the child's
death;
b) An evaluation of whether child welfare services provided
to the child, if any, could have been improved; and,
c) If it is determined that child welfare services could
have been improved, recommendations regarding how to
improve the delivery of child welfare services in the
future.
2)Requires the county child welfare agency to provide a copy of
each of the child death review reports to the State Department
of Social Services (DSS) within 10 calendar days of completing
the report and requires DSS to review each report for any
systemic issues or patterns that need improvement.
3)Requires DSS, commencing January 1, 2013, to include
information from the county child welfare agency death review
reports in its annual report identifying child fatalities and
any systemic issues or patterns revealed, and requires the
annual report to include the following additional information:
a) Child death information stated separately for each
county;
b) Whether each county prepared and submitted to DSS the
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required child death review reports;
c) A comparison of child death information over multiple
years, commencing with the 2013 calendar year, and an
analysis of whether the deaths indicate any systemic issues
or patterns that need improvement; and,
d) The percentage of child deaths from abuse or neglect in
each county involving children who had previously received
child welfare services.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires the county welfare department or agency, within 5
business days of learning that a child fatality has occurred
in the county and that there is a reasonable suspicion that
the fatality was caused by abuse or neglect, to release the
following information upon request:
a) The age and gender of the child;
b) The date of death; and,
c) Whether an investigation is being conducted by a law
enforcement agency or the county child welfare agency.
2)Requires additional specified disclosures based on whether the
child's death due to abuse or neglect occurred while the child
was living with a parent or guardian, or while the child was
in foster care.
3)Provides that abuse or neglect is determined to have led to a
child's death if one or more of the following conditions are
met:
a) A county child protective services agency determines
that abuse or neglect was substantiated;
b) A law enforcement investigation concludes that abuse or
neglect occurred; or,
c) A coroner or medical examiner concludes that the child
who died had suffered abuse or neglect.
4)Requires DSS, based on required notices received from each
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county child welfare agency of child fatalities within its
jurisdiction resulting from abuse or neglect, to annually
issue a report identifying child fatalities and any systemic
issues or patterns revealed by the notices and other relevant
information.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author:
Every year, about a half million children in
California come to the attention of child welfare
officials through reports of suspected child abuse or
neglect. In 2010, Child Welfare Services (CWS)
agencies received 479,672 allegations of maltreatment
of children and substantiated 88,858 of these
allegations through their investigatory efforts.
Maltreatment can take many forms, and some children
can suffer from more than one type:
neglect/abandonment, physical trauma or abuse, sexual
abuse, emotional abuse including threats to harm the
child, and medical neglect.
Children die every day from abuse and neglect. For
2009, California CWS agencies reported 117 child
fatalities and 85 near fatalities determined to be the
result of abuse and/or neglect. Of the 117 child
fatality cases, 95 were children four years of age and
younger. Of those, 46 children were less than one
year-old and 49 children were between the ages of one
and four. Of the 95 fatalities, the finding for
specific cause of fatality in 41 of these cases was
blunt force trauma (Department of Social Services:
California Fatality and Near Fatality Annual Report
Calendar Year 2009-May 2011).
Although not required by law, some but not all county child
welfare agencies review child abuse and neglect deaths. A
recent report by the California State Auditor pointed out that
"�c]ounty child welfare services (CWS) agencies that do not
formally conduct an internal evaluation of the services they
delivered to a family prior to a child's death from abuse or
neglect are missing opportunities to identify needed changes
that may prevent similar future tragedies." Child Welfare
Services: California Can and Must Provide Better Protection and
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Support for Abused and Neglected Children (October 2011 Report
2011-101.1), p. 61. In addition, counties that perform child
death reviews are only reviewing a portion of child abuse and
neglect deaths and are not implementing their own
recommendations to strengthen and improve their policies and
practices. Id.
Prior legislation, SB 39 (Migden), Chapter 468, Statutes of
2007, requires county CWS agencies to notify DSS of all child
fatalities that occur within their jurisdiction that resulted
from abuse or neglect. SB 39 also requires DSS to annually
report on these fatalities and on any systemic issues or
patterns revealed by this information. As the State Auditor's
report notes, however, DSS' "information on child deaths
resulting from abuse or neglect is only as good as the
information submitted by county CWS agencies." Id. at 71.
Based on its review, the State Auditor recommended that "all
county CWS agencies should perform a formal internal review of
the services they delivered to each child before he or she died
of abuse or neglect and implement any resulting
recommendations." Id.
In commenting on the need for this bill, the author says:
It is unconscionable that children under the State's
care are vulnerable to abuse and neglect. It is
reported that most child fatalities occur due to
physical abuse, mainly head trauma. The next most
common cause being punches and kicks to the abdomen,
which result in internal bleeding. Many of these
children are abused over time; however, a one-time
event can also result in death. The most common forms
of neglect include failing to provide food for the
child leading to malnutrition, starvation, and
dehydration. Young children are the most vulnerable
victims. National statistics show that children under
six years of age account for 86% of all maltreatment
deaths and infants account for 43% of these deaths.
�This bill] would ensure that our most vulnerable
children are protected by requiring that counties
review a child's death due to abuse and neglect and
report their findings to �DSS]. The report would
include recommendations on improving agency practices.
This bill would require the county child welfare
agencies to learn from mistakes that were made along
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the way and ensure that our most vulnerable children
are protected.
Concerns
While not stating a specific position on this bill, the County
Welfare Directors Association (CWDA) has expressed concerns and
proposed amendments. CWDA recommends "removing some of the
specificity from the bill regarding the development of
individual child death reports, what those reports must contain,
how fast the reports must be completed, and providing each
individual report to the state." CWDA explains:
Current law, added by SB 39 ?, already provides for
child-specific reporting when a child dies due to
abuse or neglect. It is our understanding that the
purpose of �this bill] is not to duplicate those
existing efforts, but rather to ensure that child
welfare agencies are internally reviewing their
responses to allegations of abuse and neglect when a
child dies to identify systemic changes that can be
made.
Based on this understanding, CWDA recommends amendments that
would do the following:
Require that each county have internal procedures in
place to investigate the death of any child who had
previously received child welfare services in that county,
if that death is determined to have been caused by abuse or
neglect.
State that the purpose of this review is to assist the
county child welfare agency in the identification of
systemic issues or patterns that need improvement.
Provide that counties with existing internal review
procedures as of the date of the bill's enactment would be
deemed to meet these new requirements.
Require an annual report to the state by each county
that provides data about child deaths and any systemic
issues or patterns that need improvement, so that the state
can analyze these reports and provide any overall findings
in the child death report it already produces annually.
CWDA also recommends eliminating the requirement that the annual
state-level report include county-by-county death statistics,
noting that the county numbers are so small that variations
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among counties and year-to-year changes would not be meaningful.
IT IS RECOMMENDED that, if this bill is passed, the Committee
request the author to continue to work with CWDA and Committee
staff to address concerns to the extent that the purpose of this
bill can be achieved while not overburdening counties with
duplicative or excessive reporting requirements.
Prior legislation :
SB 39 (Migden), Chapter 468 Statutes of 2007, provides for the
release of specified information by county welfare agencies
regarding a deceased child where the death is the result of
abuse or neglect.
SB 1668 (Bowen), Chapter 813, Statutes of 2006, requires that no
less than once each year, each county interagency child death
review team shall make available to the public findings,
conclusions and recommendations of the team, including aggregate
statistical data on the incidences and causes of a child's
death, as specified.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Youth Connection
First 5, Fresno County
Fresno Barrios Unidos, Executive Director
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
The Crime Victims Alliance
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089