BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2435
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 2435 (Hagman) - As Amended: April 22, 2014
SUBJECT : CalWORKs: ineligibility
SUMMARY : Authorizes communication between specified law
enforcement entities and a county welfare department that
administers the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility
to Kids (CalWORKs) program related to persons released on
probation or parole who are prohibited from residing with a
minor as a condition of release.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(CDCR) or a local sheriff's department to notify a county
welfare department that administers CalWORKs of persons
released on probation or parole who have been prohibited from
residing with a minor as a condition of release.
2)Authorizes a county welfare department that administers
CalWORKs to notify law enforcement of anyone reported to the
department by CDCR or a local sheriff's department who applies
for benefits under the CalWORKs program if the department has
reason to believe that the applicant is residing with a minor
as a condition for eligibility to receive benefits under the
CalWORKs program.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes under federal law the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program to provide aid and
welfare-to-work services to eligible families and, in
California, provides that TANF funds for welfare-to-work
services are administered through the CalWORKs program. (42
U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et seq.)
2)Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
determine eligibility for the program, including net income
below the Maximum Aid Payment (MAP), based on family size and
county of residence, which is approximately 40% of the Federal
Poverty Level. (WIC 11450, 11150 et seq.)
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3)Establishes the number of weekly hours of welfare-to-work
participation necessary to remain eligible for aid, including
requirements for an unemployed parent in a two-parent
assistance unit, as specified. (WIC 11322.8)
4)Establishes the Child Abuse Neglect and Reporting Act (CANRA),
which defines 44 categories of mandated reporters, including
public assistance workers, social workers, probation officers
and parole officers. (PC 11164 et seq.)
5)Authorizes any probation officer, parole officer, or peace
officer with probable cause to believe that a person
supervised on probation or parole, as specified, is violating
any term or condition of his or her supervision to, without
warrant or other process, as specified, rearrest the person
and bring him or her before the court, and allows the court
to, in its discretion, issue a warrant for his or her
rearrest. (PC 1203.2 (a))
6)Sets forth standard statutory parole timelines for released
inmates. Requires CDCR to meet with each inmate at least 30
days prior to his or her release and provide, under guidelines
specified by the parole authority or the department, the
conditions of parole and the length of parole up to the
maximum period of time provided by law. (PC 3000, 3000.08)
7)Requires a mandated reporter to make a report to the local
child protective services agency whenever the mandated
reporter, in his or her professional capacity or within the
scope of his or her employment, has knowledge of or observes a
child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects
has been the victim of child abuse or neglect, and sets forth
requirements for the initial report and follow-up reports, as
specified. (PC 11166)
8)Requires all parole officers to report to the appropriate
child protective services agency if a person paroled following
a conviction of child abuse has violated the terms or
conditions of parole related specifically to restrictions on
contact with the victim or the victim's family. (PC 3058.4)
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9)Requires notification of the following individuals at least 60
days prior to the release of an inmate convicted of child
abuse, as specified:
a) The immediate family of the parolee who requests
notification and provides the department with a current
address; and
b) A county child welfare services agency that requests
notification pursuant to Section 16507 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code. (PC 3058.65)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to
Kids (CalWORKs) program provides monthly income assistance and
employment-related services aimed at moving children out of
poverty and helping families meet basic needs. Federal funding
for CalWORKs comes from the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) block grant. The average monthly cash grant for
a family of three on CalWORKs (one parent and two children) is
$463. According to recent data from the California Department
of Social Services, 554,292 families rely on CalWORKs, including
over one million children. Nearly 80% of the children are under
age twelve and 40% are under age five.
Average grants of $463 per month for a family of three means
$15.43 per day, per family, or $5.14 per family member, per day
to meet basic needs, including rent, clothing, utility bills,
food, and anything else a family needs to ensure children can be
cared for at home and safely remain with their families. This
grant amount puts the annual household income at $5,556 per
year. Federal Poverty Guidelines show that 100% of poverty for
a family of three is over three and a half times that at $19,790
per year.
Welfare-to-Work requirements : Welfare-to-work activities within
the CalWORKs program include public or private sector subsidized
or unsubsidized employment; on-the-job training; community
service; secondary school, adult basic education and vocational
education and training when the education is needed for the
recipient to become employed; specific mental health, substance
abuse, or domestic violence services if they are necessary to
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obtain or retain employment; and a number of other activities
necessary to assist a recipient in obtaining unsubsidized
employment.
Unless they are exempt, single parent adults must participate
for at least 30 hours per week in welfare-to-work activities,
whereas the minimum participation requirement for two-parent
families is 35 hours per week. After receiving aid for up to a
maximum of 24 months, adults without an exemption must work in
unsubsidized employment or participate in community services
activities for the minimum number of hours listed above. If a
CalWORKs recipient who is not exempt from participation does not
meet his or her welfare-to-work requirements, the recipient is
sanctioned for noncompliance, and that recipient's portion of
the family's grant is removed, resulting in a reduction of the
family's maximum monthly grant of up to $122.
Released inmates : Under existing law, any person who serves a
prison sentence for a serious felony and is released is subject
supervision by CDCR or the county probation office, and is
within the jurisdiction of the court of the county in which the
person resides. This includes a person who has been imprisoned
for felony harm to a child that would prohibit the person from
residing with a child upon release, which is considered a
"special condition" of parole. CDCR's parole duties and county
probation departments supervising former inmates play an
essential role in ensuring former inmates are able to
rehabilitate and do not recidivate.
Need for this bill : According to the author, this bill is
necessary to protect defenseless children from child molesters.
However, this bill is narrowly crafted to target needy
households to which an inmate is expected to return to, in
violation of his or her parole.
Staff comments : While numerous, statutorily-mandated reporting
requirements and actions intended to prevent child abuse or
protect children from further abuse demonstrate the
Legislature's continued commitment to protect children in any
way possible, committee staff believes the language in this bill
does not achieve the author's intended goal for the following
reasons:
1)The scope of the bill is narrow and targets the wrong line of
communication. The current language in the bill targets poor
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families. If the author's intent is to ensure all children
are shielded from potential abuse, there is no rationale for
only focusing on county welfare departments that administer
the CalWORKs program.
The 1999 Bureau of State Audits (BSA) report titled "Child
Protective Services: Agencies Are Limited in Protecting
Children From Abuse by Released Inmates," was cited by the
author in the background on the need for the bill. The report
discusses SB 1199 (Costa), Chapter 957, Statutes of 1999,
which required the Board of Prison Terms and the Department of
Corrections to notify local law enforcement of the release of
an inmate convicted of child abuse. The BSA report, as
indicated by the title, addresses the need for better
notification of Child Protective Services (CPS) upon the
release of inmates who have been convicted of child abuse, as
local CPS agencies are the primary entities throughout the
state charged with protecting children from abuse. Subsequent
to SB 1199, SB 1343 (Monteith), Chapter 314, Statutes of 2000,
required notification of the immediate family of a parolee's
impending release when the parolee had been convicted of child
abuse and the family requested notification of the release.
While this bill seeks to strengthen the notification required
when a parolee convicted of child abuse is being released from
prison, it does not require the more reasonable line of
communication between CDCR or the local sheriff's department
and CPS.
2)The authority in the bill is permissive. The language
provides that communication "may" occur between CDCR or the
local sheriff's department and the county welfare department,
but there is no guarantee that the communication authorized in
this bill will take place. Furthermore, beyond reporting any
observed or suspected abuse-which is required under current
law for mandated reporters-cross-checking for convictions not
currently provided for in statute is not one of the tasks
required of CalWORKs intake and eligibility workers. Even if
it were a required task of the intake or eligibility worker,
the current language also lacks a mechanism for the social
worker to cross-check names of parolees, and there is no
indication as to what information, such as special conditions
of parole, may be provided by CDCR or the local sheriff's
department to the county office.
3)Monitoring of parolees and probationers is the required duty
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of parole and probation officers. It is the duty of parole
and probation officers, not the county welfare department, to
know where and with whom parolees who are paroled under
special conditions live, work, and socialize.
Opposition : In expressing opposition to this bill, the Western
Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP) states:
"Sidestepping the particulars of when the County would be
required to report a household, we still oppose the bill for
three reasons. First, none of our legal services partners or
domestic violence provider partners have raised this as an issue
in any of our quarterly roundtable discussions or various
stakeholder workgroups so we believe that the bill is seeking to
resolve a problem that may not exist. Second, it should be the
role of the probation and parole office, not the job of the
already overburdened CalWORKs intake worker, to monitor the
compliance of the rules of probation and parole. Third, the
County already has the authority and responsibility to open a
Child Protective Services case when they believe a child could
be in danger. The authority of the County to report a household
to police authority using a list that may or may not be
maintained timely and may or may not be accurate should not be
expanded without significant thought and stakeholder input.
"We all agree that protecting a child is the most important goal
of the County Human Services programs, and we welcome dialogue
about how to achieve that goal. It is our sincere opinion that
we can do this best by reducing the number of CalWORKs children
living in deep poverty, the number of children forfeited to the
Child Protective Services (CPS) system simply because their
parents cannot afford to care for them, and reducing the number
of families forced to live with child predators (those known to
the law and those who are not) by establishing better
protections for domestic violence victims and increasing grants
to levels that ensure that basic material needs are met."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
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County Welfare Directors Association of CA (CWDA)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc.
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089