(1) Existing law generally requires parents to support their minor children and requires each county to maintain a local child support agency with responsibility for promptly and effectively enforcing child support obligations. Existing law establishes within the state's child support program a quality assurance and performance improvement program. Under this program, the 10 counties with the best performance standards receive an additional percentage of the state's share of those counties' collections that are used to reduce or repay aid that is paid under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Existing law suspends the payment of this incentive percentage for specified fiscal years.
This bill would additionally suspend the payment of this incentive percentage for the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years.
Existing law provides that the Department of Child Support Services and local child support agencies have the responsibility for promptly and effectively collecting and enforcing child support obligations. Existing law requires the Director of Child Support Services, in consultation with specified entities, to develop uniform forms, policies, and procedures to be employed statewide by all local child support agencies, including establishing a standard caseworker-to-case staffing ratio and a standard attorney-to-caseworker ratio, as specified.
This bill would require the Department of Child Support Services to develop the uniform forms, policies, and procedures in consultation with the Child Support Directors Association of California, in addition to the currently prescribed entities. The bill would also require the department to establish a standard caseload-to-staffing ratio in place of the caseworker-to-case staffing ratios and would remove the requirement for an attorney-to-caseworker ratio. The bill would require the department to implement a revised local child support agency funding methodology in the 2019–20 fiscal year. The bill would require the department to convene a series of stakeholder working sessions to establish an ongoing local child support agency funding methodology to commence in the 2020–21 fiscal year, and would require the department to recommend changes to the 2019–20 funding methodology to the Legislature on February 1, 2020, as specified.
Existing law requires the Department of Child Support Services to impose a $25 administrative service fee on a never-assisted custodial party who received child support collection services from the state and an annual amount of $500 or more in collected child support payments.
This bill would increase the administrative service fee, effective October 1, 2019, to $35 on a never-assisted custodial party who received child support collection services from the state and an annual amount of $550 or more in collected child support payments.
(2) Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act and the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, effective July 1, 2019, each prohibit the Department of Justice or the State Department of Social Services from charging a fee for fingerprinting or obtaining a criminal record for a license applicant who will provide services to 6 or fewer children.
This bill would delete this prohibition and specifically authorize the Department of Justice or the State Department of Social Services to charge a reasonable fee for the costs of processing electronic fingerprint images and related information.
(3) Under existing law, the State Department of Social Services regulates the licensure and operation of child day care centers and family day care homes. Existing law requires the department to inspect child day care centers as often as necessary to ensure the quality of care provided, or at least once every 3 years, and requires the department to conduct an annual unannounced inspection under specified circumstances. Existing law requires the department to make an unannounced site visit to all licensed family day care homes annually and as often as necessary to ensure compliance if specified funds are available for these purposes. If those specified funds are not available to implement annual unannounced site visits, existing law requires the department to inspect family day care homes similarly to child day care centers, as previously described.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to achieve annual inspections for licensed child day care centers and licensed family day care homes and facilities on or before July 1, 2021.
Existing law generally prohibits a person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation from operating, establishing, managing, conducting, or maintaining a child day care facility in this state without a current valid license. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish and continuously update a Trustline registry of persons who provide child care, supervision, or in-home educational or counseling services and who are not required to be licensed. Under existing law, a provider who is registered pursuant to these provisions is known as a Trustline provider. Existing law generally requires a license-exempt child care provider receiving subsidized payments for child care services under the CalWORKs program to be registered as a Trustline provider.
Existing law establishes the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children, under which county welfare departments may distribute vouchers, or payment, for child care services for an eligible child who is placed with an approved resource family, a licensed or certified foster family, or an approved relative or nonrelative extended family member, or who is the child of a young parent involved in the child welfare system. Existing law requires counties that choose to participate, to determine eligibility for the bridge program and provide monthly payment either directly to the family or to the child care provider or provide a monthly voucher for child care, in an amount that is commensurate with the regional market rate, for up to 6 months following the child's initial placement.
This bill would require, to the extent required by federal law, a child care provider who receives compensation, in whole or in part, under the bridge program to be registered as a Trustline provider, at no cost to the provider. The bill would require compensation under the bridge program to cease if the provider has a criminal conviction for which the department has not granted a criminal conviction exemption pursuant to specified provisions. These provisions would be implemented only if funding for Trustline registration is appropriated to the department for this purpose in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
(4) Existing law provides for various public social services programs, including both long-term programs and short-term pilot programs, aimed at providing services to individuals in need of assistance. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and other state agencies to prepare specified reports relating to those programs.
This bill would delete the authorization to conduct specified pilot programs and demonstration projects related to certain public social services programs. The bill also would delete various obsolete reporting requirements, including, among other things, annual ongoing reporting requirements relating to public social services programs and foster care.
(5) Existing law, as part of the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, establishes the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, under the direction of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, in the California Department of Aging. Existing law requires the State Ombudsman to ensure that residents have regular and timely access to the services provided through the office.
This bill would specify that the State Ombudsman shall provide residents with regular and timely access to the services provided by the office through quarterly facility visits by the office to skilled nursing facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly.
Existing law establishes an Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) program, administered by the California Department of Aging, to provide information to consumers and their families on available long-term services and supports (LTSS) programs and to assist older adults, caregivers, and persons with disabilities in accessing LTSS programs at the local level. Existing law requires area agencies on aging and independent living centers to be the core local partners in developing ADRC programs. Existing law makes the establishment of these provisions contingent upon the appropriation of funds for this purpose.
This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the department to administer the ADRC Infrastructure Grants Program for the purpose of implementing a No Wrong Door System, as defined. The bill would require funds to be awarded pursuant to the grant program to interested and qualified area agencies on aging and independent living centers to complete the planning and application process for designation and approval to operate as an ADRC program. The bill would also authorize grant funds to be awarded to aid designated ADRC programs operated by area agencies on aging and independent living centers in expanding or strengthening the services that they provide. The bill would suspend the implementation of these provisions on December 31, 2021, unless the Department of Finance makes a specified determination.
(6) Existing law requires the Department of Rehabilitation to administer a program of services for persons with acquired traumatic brain injury under which service providers develop and utilize an individual service plan to identify the needs of consumers and deliver, either directly or by arrangement, coordinated services designed to meet those needs. Existing law authorizes the department to make grants from the funds in the Traumatic Brain Injury Fund to service providers for the purpose of carrying out the program. Existing law makes these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2024.
This bill would delete that inoperative date, thereby extending the operation of the program indefinitely.
(7) Existing law requires the Office of Systems Integration to implement a statewide automated welfare system for specified public assistance programs. Existing law declares the intent of the Legislature that representatives from the State Department of Social Services, the State Department of Health Care Services, the Office of Systems Integration, the Interim Statewide Automated Welfare System consortia, and counties meet with advocates, clients, and other stakeholders at least quarterly to review the development status of the Statewide Automated Welfare System (SAWS) project and to engage with stakeholders to discuss current and planned functionality changes, among other topics.
This bill would require, to the extent possible within the technology, the development of the SAWS enrollment and eligibility functionality, case management systems, ancillary services, public portals, and mobile applications to have the goals of minimizing the burden of the overall eligibility process for enrollment and retention of benefits for low-income Californians, streamlining interactions for both clients and eligibility workers, and facilitating applicant and client submission of feedback. The bill would require the participants in the meetings described above to jointly update the Legislature at least twice per year through existing processes as to how the SAWS development, implementation, and maintenance minimizes client burden in order to improve access to safety net programs and incorporates ongoing applicant and client feedback toward continuous improvement. By imposing additional duties on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(8) Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to implement and maintain an automated, nonbiometric identity verification method in the CalWORKs program, and requires the department to annually review the method and provide an update to the Legislature, as specified.
This bill would revise and recast those provisions to delete that annual review and update requirement and to repeal the requirement to implement and maintain a nonbiometric identity verification method in the CalWORKs program on January 1, 2021. The bill would also replace obsolete references to former statewide fingerprint imaging system requirements with reference to identity verification requirements for the CalWORKs program.
Existing law establishes the maximum aid payment amounts to be provided to each family receiving aid under CalWORKs, increases the maximum aid payments by 10%, effective April 1, 2019, and states the intent of the Legislature to increase CalWORKs maximum aid payment levels in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years.
This bill would, effective October 1, 2019, increase the maximum aid payment amounts for CalWORKs recipients, based on the number of people in the assistance unit, whether the assistance unit includes a recipient who is exempt from participating in welfare-to-work activities, and the region in which the family resides, as specified.
Existing law establishes the CalWORKs Home Visiting Initiative as a voluntary program for the purpose of supporting positive health, development, and well-being outcomes for eligible pregnant and parenting women, families, and infants born into poverty. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to award funds to participating counties in order to provide voluntary evidence-based home visiting services to any assistance unit that meets specified requirements. Existing law provides that a voluntary participant in the program is either a member of a CalWORKs assistance unit or the parent or caretaker for a child-only case, and requires the participant to be pregnant with no other children at the time of enrollment or a first-time parent or caretaker relative of a child less than 24 months of age at the time of enrollment.
This bill would rename the initiative the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program and would make various technical, nonsubstantive changes to the program's provisions. The bill would revise program eligibility requirements, including by making eligible for the home visiting program an individual who is apparently eligible for CalWORKs aid and a pregnant individual who has applied for CalWORKs aid within 60 calendar days prior to reaching the 2nd trimester of pregnancy and would be eligible for CalWORKs aid other than not having reached the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. The bill would authorize a county and the home visiting program to incorporate participation of the noncustodial parent of a child who is a member of a CalWORKs assistance unit into home visiting services, as specified.
As part of the CalWORKs program, a homeless family that has used all available liquid resources in excess of $100 is eligible for homeless assistance benefits to pay the costs of temporary shelter if the family is eligible for aid under the CalWORKs program. Under existing law, eligibility for temporary shelter assistance is limited to one period of up to 16 consecutive days every 12 months, except as specified. Existing law limits homeless assistance payments to 2 periods of not more than 16 consecutive calendar days of temporary assistance if homelessness is a direct result of domestic violence by a spouse, partner, or roommate, physical or mental illness, or other specified circumstances.
This bill would, on January 1, 2020, or upon a specified notification from the department, whichever is later, delete the requirement that temporary shelter assistance be used in consecutive calendar days, and would make conforming changes. Because this bill would increase the administrative duties of counties, it would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law generally requires a recipient of CalWORKs benefits to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility for aid. Existing law requires that necessary supportive services be available to participants in welfare-to-work activities, including child care, which is provided pursuant to the Child Care and Development Services Act. The act establishes 3 stages of child care services through which a recipient of CalWORKs will pass. The act requires county welfare departments to manage the first stage of child care, and requires the State Department of Education to manage the 2nd and 3rd stages.
Existing law declares the intent of the Legislature that the annual Budget Act appropriate state and federal funds in a single allocation to counties for the support of administrative activities undertaken by the counties to provide CalWORKs benefit payments, required work activities, and supportive services, as specified.
This bill would provide that, commencing with the 2020–21 fiscal year, the funding provided for stage one child care shall be allocated to counties separately from that single allocation.
This bill would increase access to childcare supportive services for welfare-to-work participants by, among other things, requiring that the childcare be full time unless the participant determines that part-time care better meets the family's needs, requiring first-stage childcare to be authorized for one year, or until the participant is transferred to the 2nd stage of childcare, and prohibiting the first stage or the 2nd stage of childcare services from being discontinued until confirmation is received from the administrator of the subsequent stage of childcare that the family has been enrolled or that the family is ineligible for services in the subsequent stage of childcare. The bill would also specify additional welfare-to-work program activities for which childcare services are available. This bill would require that a person be informed of the availability of childcare services upon enrollment in the CalWORKs program and at later times when the person expresses a need for childcare, as prescribed. By imposing new duties on county welfare departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law makes confidential and prohibits the release of information about applicants for public social services. Notwithstanding this prohibition, existing law authorizes a county welfare department to share information necessary for the administration of childcare programs and the CalWORKs program.
This bill would require that specified information necessary to enroll or transfer a family into childcare services be made available by a county welfare department to a contractor that provides childcare services. The bill would require a county welfare department to provide a monthly report to stage-2 contractors containing specified information, as prescribed. The bill would authorize a county welfare department to provide training on security protocols and confidentiality of individual family data to a contractor who is given access to data pursuant to those provisions. By imposing new duties on county welfare departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to work with representatives of county human services agencies and the County Welfare Directors Association of California to develop recommendations for revising the methodology used for development of th