HOUSE . . . . . . . . No. 88
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, March 8, 2021.
The committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the Bill
relative to accountability for vulnerable children and families (House, No.
87), reports recommending that the same ought to pass with an amendment
substituting therefor the accompanying bill (House, No. 88).
For the committee,
AARON MICHLEWITZ.
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 FILED ON: 3/8/2021
HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 88
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)
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An Act relative to accountability for vulnerable children and families.
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to
forthwith protect vulnerable children and families, therefore it is hereby declared to be an
emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Subsection (a) of section 172 of chapter 6 of the General Laws, as
2 appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (22) and
3 inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-
4 (22) The district attorney may obtain from the department data permitted under section
5 15 of chapter 18C.
6 SECTION 2. Section 6A of chapter 18B of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby
7 amended by striking out the last paragraph.
8 SECTION 3. Section 7 of said chapter 18B, as so appearing, is hereby amended by
9 striking out paragraph (e).
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10 SECTION 4. Section 20 of said chapter 18B, as so appearing, is hereby amended by
11 striking out the second sentence.
12 SECTION 5. Section 23 of said chapter 18B, added by section 8 of chapter 321 of the
13 acts of 2008, is hereby amended by striking out the sixth sentence.
14 SECTION 6. Section 24 of said chapter 18B is hereby repealed.
15 SECTION 7. Section 25 of said chapter 18B is hereby repealed.
16 SECTION 8. Chapter 18B is hereby amended by adding the following 5 sections:-
17 Section 26. (a)(1) Annually, not later than October 31, the department shall issue a report
18 that provides an overview of the department’s performance during the previous fiscal year. The
19 commissioner or a designee shall file the report with the governor, the child advocate, the clerks
20 of the house of representatives and the senate, the chairs of the house and senate committees on
21 ways and means and the chairs of the joint committee on children, families and persons with
22 disabilities. The commissioner shall provide the recipients of the report with an opportunity to
23 discuss its contents with the commissioner or a designee. The report shall be made publicly
24 available on the department’s website in accordance with section 19 of chapter 66.
25 (2) The report shall include, but not be limited to, narratives, information, data and
26 analysis on: (i) counts, including, but not limited to: (A) case counts; (B) consumer counts; (C)
27 consumer demographic information, including age, race, ethnicity, primary language, and, if
28 available, gender identity and sexual orientation; (D) reports filed pursuant to section 51A of
29 chapter 119; (E) placement metrics, including breakdown by placement type; (F) infants brought
30 into the department’s care pursuant to section 39½ of chapter 119; (G) siblings in placement; and
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31 (H) rates of disproportionality including but not limited to race, ethnicity, and, if available,
32 gender identity and sexual orientation; (ii) processes and outcomes, including but not limited to:
33 (A) safety outcomes; (B) permanency processes and outcomes; (C) the rates of adoptions by
34 race, ethnicity, and, if available, gender identity and sexual orientation of the child; and (D) well-
35 being outcomes, including the rates and timeliness of the delivery of medical services and high
36 school graduation rates; and (iii) operations, including, but not limited to: (A) staffing trends,
37 including the total number of social workers, the total number of social workers holding
38 licensure by level of licensure and the number of social workers and supervisors who have
39 earned a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work; (B) caseloads, including weighted
40 caseload by social workers’ years of employment with the department and area offices that
41 experienced higher or lower caseloads than the negotiated caseload standard over the course of
42 the fiscal year; (C) the department’s budget, including funding levels; (D) service costs,
43 including, but not limited to, a breakdown by type of service provided, the unduplicated number
44 of children receiving each type of service and the unduplicated number of families receiving
45 each type of service; (E) medical services and advancements in providing medical services to
46 children and young adults in the department’s care; (F) amounts expended to foster care and to
47 adoptive and guardianship families to provide assistance, including financial assistance, to
48 provide for the care of children; (G) the use of culturally competent staffing, resources and
49 practices, including the number of requests for oral interpretation services and written translation
50 services respectively, broken down by language; (H) the foster care review system, including the
51 number of foster care reviews conducted by the department, attendance of mandatory invitees to
52 foster care review meetings, reasons why mandatory invitees do not attend foster care review
53 meetings and any recommendations for its improvement; and (I) activities of the central and
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54 regional youth advisory boards; demographic data, guiding principles and governance, methods
55 of outreach to youth, the number of youth participating in each central and regional boards
56 activities and any recommendations made by the boards relative to the department’s services,
57 policies and practices, including any action the department has taken to address those
58 recommendations. The report shall also include comparative departmental information from
59 prior fiscal years.
60 (3) The report shall include specific data points, including: (i) the number of medical and
61 psychiatric personnel and their level of training currently employed by or under contract with the
62 department; (ii) the number of children who die in the care and custody of the department; (iii)
63 the number of children served in medical or psychiatric care provided through other publicly-
64 funded sources; (iv) the number of the department’s contracts reviewed by the state auditor; (v)
65 the number of corrective action plans entered into by the department; (vi) the number of children
66 currently eligible for supportive child care; (vii) the number of children receiving supportive
67 child care; (viii) the number of children and families served by the family resource centers by
68 area office and an evaluation of the services provided and their effectiveness; (ix) for residential
69 placements, the length of each placement and the disposition of the child's case at the end of the
70 residential placement, including whether the child was returned to the child's family or placed in
71 other care within the community; (x) placement stability, including the number of times any
72 child in the care and custody of the department has changed placements throughout the fiscal
73 year and throughout their time in the care and custody of the department; (xi) the number of
74 children whose cases were transferred to another area office; and (xii) the number of children
75 who were reassigned social workers, including the reasons why.
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76 (b)(1) Quarterly, not later than 60 days after the end of each fiscal quarter, the department
77 shall issue a profile on its website in accordance with section 19 of chapter 66 that shall include,
78 but not be limited to, departmental, regional office and area office data for the last quarter on: (i)
79 consumer counts; (ii) the number of reports filed pursuant to section 51A of chapter 119,
80 including counts of reports received, screened-in, screened-out, referred to the district attorney,
81 responses completed on time in the quarter and the number of reports filed by each category of
82 mandated reporter, as defined in section 21 of said chapter 119; (iii) department case counts,
83 including counts of clinical and adoption cases in the quarter; (iv) consumer demographic
84 information, including age, race, ethnicity, primary language, and, if available, gender identity
85 and sexual orientation; (v) counts of children and youth in-placement, including method of
86 intake; and (vi) counts of children and youth not in-placement.
87 (2) The profile shall include specific data points for the department and each regional and
88 area office, including: (i) the number of approved foster care placements and utilization rate; (ii)
89 the number of children who die in the care and custody of the department; (iii) the number of
90 children within the care and custody of the department in psychiatric hospitals and community-
91 based acute treatment programs who remain hospitalized beyond their medically-necessary stay
92 while awaiting placement and the number of days each case remains in placement beyond that
93 which is medically necessary; (iv) the number of medical and psychiatric consultation requests
94 made by the department’s social workers; (v) the number of children served by supervised
95 visitation centers; (vi) the total number of families served by the department and residing in
96 shelters; (vii) the number of children receiving multiple 51A reports; (viii) the number of
97 children within the care and custody of the department whose whereabouts are unknown; and
98 (ix) the number of times children transfer schools as a result of a best interest determination.
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 99 (3) The commissioner or the commissioner’s designee shall notify the house and senate
100 committees on ways and means and the joint committee on children, families and persons with
101 disabilities when data from a profile issued pursuant to paragraph (1) significantly departs from
102 trends reported in previous profiles. The commissioner shall send the notification prior to
103 publicly issuing the profile.
104 (c) The commissioner or a designee shall notify the joint committee on children, families
105 and persons with disabilities when draft regulations or departmental policies are made available
106 by the department for public comment. Not more than 30 days after the promulgation of
107 regulations or the effective date of adopted or revised departmental policies relative to services
108 provided to children and families, the department shall provide the joint committee on children,
109 families and persons with disabilities with copies of the regulations or departmental policies.
110 (d) If the department is unable to submit the report under subsection (a), issue the profile
111 under subsection (b), or any other legislatively mandated reports by the respective deadlines, the
112 commissioner or the commissioner’s legal counsel shall notify the governor, the child advocate,
113 the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate, the house and senate committees on
114 ways and means and the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities in
115 writing and provide an explanation for the delay. The department shall, at the written request of
116 the chairs of the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities, provide the
117 committee with partial data if the report under subsection (a), the profile under subsection (b), or
118 any other legislatively mandated report is late due to maturation or confirmation of certain data
119 points while other information may be ready for public submission. For the purposes of this
120 section, the term “legislatively mandated report” shall mean a report required by law of the
121 department of children and families.
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122 Section 27. Annually, not later than October 31, the department shall submit a report on
123 transition planning for children in foster care and young adults over the age of 18 receiving
124 services from the department to the child advocate, the clerks of the house of representatives and
125 the senate, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on
126 children, families and persons with disabilities. The report shall summarize the process by which
127 the department develops transition plans for youth and how a young adult may continue to
128 receive services from the department upon reaching the legal adult age of 18. The report shall
129 also include, but not be limited to: (i) consumer demographic information, including age, race,
130 ethnicity, primary language, and, if available, gender identity and sexual orientation; (ii) the
131 number of young adults who have elected to sustain a connection with the department in the
132 previous fiscal year; (iii) the number of young adults who have elected not to remain with the
133 department and have transitioned out of the child welfare system in the previous fiscal year,
134 including, but not limited to, at the time of transition: (A) the number of young adults with and
135 without employment, (B) the number of young adults with plans to attend post-secondary
136 education, (C) the number of young adults without secure housing and (D) the number of young
137 adults who had previously elected to sustain a connection with the department; (iv) the number
138 of young adults who elected to return to the child welfare system after initially electing to
139 transfer out; (v) reasons for youth and young adults exiting care from age 18 to their 23rd
140 birthday; (vi) the total payments made from commonwealth funds to young adults in the previous
141 fiscal year; (vii) a description of services provided to young adults by the department in the
142 previous fiscal year, including those funded wholly or in part by federal funds; and (viii) rates of
143 disproportionality including but not limited to race, ethnicity, and, if available, gender identity
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144 and sexual orientation. The department may satisfy the reporting requirements of this section by
145 providing the requested information in an annual report filed under section 26.
146 Section 28. Annually, not later than October 31, the department shall file a report on its
147 fair hearing process and cases with the child advocate, the clerks of the house of representatives
148 and the senate, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on
149 children, families and persons with disabilities. The report shall be made available to the public
150 electronically in accordance with section 19 of chapter 66 of the General Laws. The report shall
151 include, but not be limited to, information in a form that shall not include personally-identifiable
152 information on the fair hearing requests open at any time during the previous fiscal year and, for
153 each hearing request, shall provide: (i) the subject matter of the appeal; (ii) the outcomes of cases
154 resolved prior to a fair hearing decision; (iii) the number of days between the hearing request and
155 the first day of the hearing; (iv) the number of days between the close of the evidence and the
156 hearing officer’s decision; (v) the number of days of continuance granted at the appellant’s
157 request; (vi) the number of days of continuance granted at the request of the department of
158 children and families or the hearing officer’s request, specifying which party made the request;
159 and (vii) whether the department’s decision that was the subject of the appeal was affirmed or
160 reversed.
161 The department shall maintain and make available to the public, during regular business
162 hours, a record of its fair hearings in a form that shall not include personally identifiable
163 information and shall include, for each hearing request: (i) the date of the request; (ii) the date of
164 the hearing decision; (iii) the decision rendered by the hearing officer; and (iv) the final decision
165 rendered upon the commissioner’s review. The report shall provide for the fair hearing requests
166 that are pending for more than 180 days at any time during the fiscal year, except for those
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167 requests stayed at the request of the district attorney, the number of those cases, how many of
168 those cases have been heard but not decided and how many have been decided by the hearing
169 officer but not yet issued a final agency decision. If there are more than 225 fair hearing requests
170 open for more than 180 days at the close of any month of the first 6 months of a fiscal year, then
171 an additional report of these requests shall be provided not later than February 28. The
172 department shall make redacted copies of fair hearing decisions available within 30 days after a
173 written request.
174 Section 29. Annually, not later than November 30, the department shall file a rep