BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1440
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1440 (Perea) - As Amended: March 29, 2012
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill expands the reporting requirements for county child
welfare departments when a child dies due to abuse or neglect.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires that commencing January 1, 2013, the annual child
death report produced by the Department of Social Services
(DSS) include:
a) Child death information broken out separately by each
county.
b) A comparison of child death information over multiple
years.
c) Specific information about whether the child had
received child welfare services.
2)Requires the county child welfare department, within 60 days
of determining a child's death was due to abuse or neglect,
prepare and submit a report to DSS that includes the following
information:
a) An analysis of the circumstances leading to the child's
death.
b) An evaluation of whether or not the child welfare
services provided to the child, if any, could have been
improved.
c) Recommendations for future improvement.
FISCAL EFFECT
County workload costs associated with conducting internal
AB 1440
Page 2
reviews for approximately 120 child deaths per year would likely
be between $575,000 and $775,000 GF per year.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . An October 27, 2011, Bureau of State Audits (BSA)
report found that county child welfare departments could do a
better job in preventing the deaths of children who have come
into contact with their agency. Among other things, the
auditor recommended that in order to improve their practices
and increase the safety of children within the Child Welfare
Services (CWS) system, all agencies should formally review the
services that they delivered to each child before he or she
died of abuse or neglect. In addition, the report recommended
encouraging counties to perform internal child death reviews
for children with CWS histories, by requiring that DSS, in its
annual report on child deaths, provide information on whether
county CWS agencies conducted formal reviews of child deaths
with prior CWS history. This bill is intended to implement
those BSA recommendations.
The author contends that this bill would ensure 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.
2)Background . Based on a May 2011 report compiled by DSS, in
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081