BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1978|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1978
Author: Jones-Sawyer (D)
Amended: 8/19/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 3-1, 6/10/14
AYES: Beall, DeSaulnier, Liu
NOES: Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 6/24/14
AYES: Jackson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning
NOES: Anderson, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 64-9, 5/23/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Child welfare services
SOURCE : Childrens Advocacy Institute
SEIU California
DIGEST : This bill prohibits a county child welfare agency
(CWA) from retaliating against a social worker if the social
worker discloses that they believe a policy, procedure, or
practice endangers the health or well-being of a child or
children, as specified. This bill requires counties, in
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developing self-assessments and improvement plans of their child
welfare services, to consult with stakeholders, as specified,
and to consult with at least one county child welfare worker
named by the bargaining unit representing children's social
workers. This bill makes other related changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Requires the state, through the Department of Social Services
(DSS) and CWAs, to establish and support a public system of
child welfare services to protect and promote the welfare of
children.
2.Establishes the California Child and Family Service Review
(C-CFSR) System to maximize compliance with federal Social
Security Act (SSA) Title IV-E Regulations and to improve child
welfare outcomes for children and their families in the areas
of child protection, foster care, adoption, family connections
and independent living services.
3.Under federal law, establishes the Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act which provides fully federal grant funding to
applicant states to improve child protective service systems
and for child abuse prevention activities. Requires the
submission of a state plan, as specified, and requires
services to be coordinated with Title IV-B services.
Additionally requires states to report specified information
regarding child fatalities.
4.Establishes the California State Child Death Review Council to
oversee the statewide coordination and integration of state
and local efforts to address fatal child abuse or neglect and
to create a body of information to prevent child deaths.
5.Provides for the establishment of county Child Death Review
Teams to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing
suspicious child deaths and facilitating communication among
persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and
agencies involved in child abuse or neglect cases.
6.Requires each child death review team to make findings,
conclusions, recommendations and specified data available to
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the public no less than once each year.
7.Provides that all applications and records maintained or kept
regarding to the administration or provision of social
services, as specified, to be confidential and not be made
open other than for the purposes of the administration or
provision of the social service programs, unless otherwise
specified.
8.Requires specified information from a child welfare case
related to the suspected death of a child caused by abuse or
neglect to be released within five days, and permits DSS and
the CWA to comment on the case within the scope of the
release, as specified.
This bill:
1.Makes legislative findings regarding the role that the
delivery of child welfare service by state and local
government plays in meeting the needs of vulnerable children.
2.Requires counties, in developing self-assessments and
improvement plans of their child welfare services, to consult
with stakeholders, including county child welfare agencies and
probation agency staff at all levels, current and former
foster children, children's attorneys, and foster care
providers.
3.Requires counties, when doing self-assessments and improvement
plans in child welfare, to consult with at least one county
child welfare worker named by the bargaining unit representing
children's social workers.
4.Requires that county child welfare improvement plans include a
separately titled provision that lists and provides the
rationale for proposed operational improvements identified
during the stakeholder process that can be implemented at a
cost savings to the county or within existing county
resources.
5.Provides that if a county social worker who is engaged in
providing child welfare services has reasonable cause to
believe that a policy, procedure, or practice related to the
provision of child welfare services constitutes improper
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governmental activity and the social worker discloses this
information to a government or law enforcement agency, an
appointed or elected official, or the public, an employee of a
county child welfare agency shall not directly or indirectly
use or attempt to use his or her official authority or
influence to engage in specified purposes, including
intimidation or coercion against that county social worker.
6.Provides that nothing in this bill authorizes a social worker
within a county CWA to disclose the identity of a child or any
portion of a case file.
7.Authorizes CWA social workers to comment on a child welfare
case, within the scope of the information released, once
documents have been released by the custodian of records, as
specified.
Background
California has a complex child welfare system incorporating
federal, state and local funds expended for the broad purpose of
child welfare, including child abuse prevention and response.
The federal Administration of Children and Families (ACF)
administers numerous federal grants intended to assist states
with child abuse prevention and response and to support the
foster care system which provides board and care payments for
eligible dependent children. Within the statutorily established
parameters for each grant, states have substantial flexibility
in how to apportion funds but are accountable to significant
federal oversight of program administration.
DSS supervises the 58 county-administered Child Welfare Services
system which investigates approximately 32,000 reports of severe
injury, death and life threatening neglect of children annually.
According to DSS, as of January 2014, there were nearly 61,000
children currently in foster care placement, with nearly one in
three residing in Los Angeles County.
Prior Legislation
AB 921 (Jones-Sawyer, 2013) which was vetoed. The Governor's
veto message for AB 921 stated:
Among its provisions, the bill would allow any social worker
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to comment on any child welfare services policy, procedure and
practice, or any publicly released child fatality case, with
impunity.
While this bill has the best of intentions, it overreaches.
The judgment of social workers should be valued, but we don't
need a law to protect their opinions, and theirs alone.
Social workers, like other public or private employees,
already have "whistleblower" protections for illegal acts they
report. Specific county policies and practices that are legal
but problematic should be resolved at the county level, or
through legislation as a last resort, when counties cannot do
it on their own.
Social workers, the state and counties all have a duty to
protect children who are abused and neglected. We should all
work together in good faith to that end.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, potential
state costs in excess of $50,000 to $100,000 (General Fund*) for
mandated activities on local agencies associated with the
current and future development of county self-assessments and
county improvement plans.
*Pursuant to Proposition 30 (November 2012) any legislation
enacted after September 30, 2012, that has an overall effect of
increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for
programs or levels of service mandated by realignment (including
child welfare services) only apply to local agencies to the
extent that the state provides annual funding for the cost
increase.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/14)
Children's Advocacy Institute (co-source)
SEIU California (co-source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the sponsor of the bill,
SEIU, this bill is a response to a series of tragic child deaths
as a result of abuse and neglect that occurred in two of
California's largest counties; Los Angeles and Sacramento. SEIU
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writes:
Over the years, SEIU members who are social workers have
shared numerous stories of their attempts to make changes in
the child protective services systems they work in to benefit
children and families?but workers' recommendations often fall
on deaf ears, and in some cases, suggestions and concerns have
even been met with responses ranging from indifference to
hostility. AB 1978 seeks to provide protections to workers
who have firsthand experience and knowledge on how policies
and procedures affect child safety.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 64-9, 5/23/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra,
Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
Ch�vez, Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman,
Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine,
Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A.
P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Allen, Conway, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Grove, Jones, Logue,
Mansoor, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Donnelly, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Nestande, V. Manuel P�rez, Vacancy
JL:nl:k 8/19/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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