BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1751
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1751 (Pan)
As Introduced February 17, 2012
Majority vote
HUMAN SERVICES 5-0 JUDICIARY 10-0
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|Ayes:|Beall, Jones, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Feuer, Wagner, Atkins, |
| |Wagner, Portantino | |Dickinson, Gorell, Huber, |
| | | |Jones, Monning, |
| | | |Wieckowski, Alejo |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, | | |
| |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | |
| |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | |
| |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, | | |
| |Hall, Hill, Lara, | | |
| |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, | | |
| |Solorio, Wagner | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires that county child welfare agencies and county
probation departments be given access to specified child support
information related to the noncustodial parents of children who
are subject to juvenile court proceedings. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Requires the disclosure, by all state departments, boards,
agencies, bureaus, or other agencies of the state or local
government, of a parent's name, social security number, most
recent address, telephone number, place of employment, or
other contact information to a county child welfare agency or
county probation department to identify, locate, and notify
parents of children who are the subject of juvenile court
proceedings, to establish parent and child relationships, and
to assess the appropriateness of placements of a child with a
noncustodial parent.
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2)Authorizes the release of a parent's name, social security
number, most recent address, telephone number, place of
employment or other contact information to county child
welfare agencies and probation departments established or
maintained by any public entity pursuant to the administration
and implementation of the child and spousal support
enforcement program.
3)Requires the state Department of Social Services (DSS), no
later than January 30, 2013, to amend the foster care state
plan required by federal law to implement access to
information provided to the California Parent Locator Service
and Central Registry (CPLS) by the federal Parent Locator
Services (FPLS) to ensure compliance with and facilitation of
provisions related to the location of parents of children who
are the subject of juvenile court proceedings.
4)Requires DSS, on or before July 1, 2013, to issue an
all-county letter or similar instruction explaining the
entitlement of county child welfare and probation agencies to
specified information in child and spousal support records.
5)Authorizes DSS to adopt emergency regulations, and to develop
an interagency agreement with the Department of Child Support
Services, to implement the provisions of this bill.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that when a child is removed from the physical
custody of his or her parents, preferential consideration
shall be given whenever possible to the placement of the child
with a relative. (Welfare & Institutions (W&I) Code Section
16000)
2)Requires, with specified exceptions, the confidentiality of
all information and records established or maintained by any
public entity pursuant to the administration and
implementation of the child and spousal support enforcement
program established pursuant to federal law. (Family Code
Section 17212)
3)Establishes within the California Department of Child Support
Services the CPLS, which collects and disseminates specified
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information about parents, putative parents, spouses, or
former spouses. (Family Code Section 17506)
4)Requires the assignment to the county of any rights to support
by any applicant for or recipient of aid under the California
Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Act, subject to
confidentiality requirements pertaining to implementation of
the child and spousal support enforcement program. (W&I Code
Sections 11477, 11478.1)
5)Under the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997
(Public Law 105-89), establishes the FPLS, enabling authorized
state agencies to access information on, or to facilitate the
discovery and location of any individual who is under an
obligation to pay child support, against whom an obligation is
sought, or to whom an obligation is owed, including the
person's Social Security Number, address, employer's name and
address, and employment wages, benefits and other income.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Costs associated with DSS updating the foster care state plan
and issuing an all-county letter should be minor and
absorbable within existing resources.
2)To the extent this allows county child welfare departments to
more easily locate noncustodial parents, it should provide
some administrative workload relief for the counties.
COMMENTS : The author points out that, in recognition of the
importance of family preservation and in alignment with federal
law, following a child's removal from their home a social worker
must, within 30 days, conduct an investigation to "identify and
locate all grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult
relatives of the child" in an attempt to find a suitable
relative for placement, consistent with the child's best
interests (W&I Code Sections 361.3, 309(e)). "Unfortunately,"
the author says, "current law does not explicitly allow county
child welfare agencies and probation officers to utilize an
important resource within the child welfare system-the child
support information database-and as a result, social workers do
not routinely access this source of information about
alternatives to foster care."
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This bill would enable county officials responsible for locating
the relatives of an abused or neglected child to use the state's
child support database to access the basic contact information
of the child's noncustodial parent. The author notes that the
measure would decrease the amount of time currently spent by
county officials in unnecessarily difficult attempts to locate
the parents of abused children pursuant to state and federal
mandates. In addressing the need for this bill, the author
says:
With approximately 60,000 children currently in the
state's foster-care system and an ongoing state budget
shortfall, county welfare agencies have fewer
resources than ever to do their jobs. This
common-sense bill would allow local child welfare
agencies and probation officers to access the child
support information that already exists in the state
child support database and to obtain critical contact
information such as the parent's name, social security
number, most recent address, phone number, and place
of employment.
This, in turn, will allow the case worker to contact
the parent to see if they want to and can provide a
caring alternative to foster care for the abused or
neglected child. This measure provides county child
welfare agencies, social workers, and probation
officers with the information they need to make
timely, appropriate decisions regarding the placement
of abused and neglected children who have been removed
from their homes.
The author notes that placing children with relatives decreases
both the number of children in the foster care system and the
costs associated with prolonged stays in foster care:
According to the Public Policy Institute of California
(Foster Care in California: Achievements and Challenges,
2010), the number of children in California's foster
care system has declined by 10 percent or more between
2000 and 2009. The report notes an increased number of
placements with relatives among the reasons for this
decline and credits, in part, the creation of the
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Kinship Guardian Assistance Program Payment (Kin-GAP)
Program in 2000. This program incentivizes kinship care
- a form of foster placement that is significantly less
costly to the state than some other options such a group
home placement.
DSS has had the ability to access data available to the CPLS
through the FPLS since 1997 but has apparently not taken the
prerequisite steps to amend the state foster care plan. This
bill requires DSS, by January 30, 2013, to amend the foster care
state plan required by federal law to implement access to
information provided to the CPLS by the FPLS.
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0003482