(1) Existing law requires a county social worker to investigate the circumstances of each child taken into temporary custody by a peace officer under specified circumstances. Existing law requires the social worker to conduct an investigation, within 30 days of the child’s removal, to identify and locate adult relatives of the child, as specified, and to provide them with a notification that the child has been removed from the custody of the child’s parents, guardians, or Indian custodian, and an explanation of the various options to participate in the care and placement of the child. Existing law requires a social worker to use due diligence in investigating the names and locations of relatives, and defines “due diligence” to include family finding, as specified.

This bill would additionally require that a social worker’s investigation under these provisions be conducted within 30 days of when a child has been accepted for services, as defined, by a county child welfare or probation department. The bill would specify that family finding activities include conducting outreach to identified relatives and kin and would require social workers to notify the relatives and kin of specified information, including services and support available to relatives and kin. The bill would require family finding activities to be conducted throughout the life of a case unless discontinued because of specified circumstances, including that a child is in a preadoptive placement and adoption proceedings have been commenced. The bill would require the disclosure of certain information to identified relatives and kin, and would authorize disclosure of certain information after verification of the relationship to the child or youth and determination that sharing of the information would be in the best interest of the child, as specified. The bill would set forth requirements for county personnel to make the authorized disclosures and would set forth standards for use of social media for outreach to relatives and kin. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to develop training for county personnel on the above-described requirements and would require all county child welfare and probation personnel who conduct family finding activities to complete the training within 180 days of the training becoming available or within 60 days of assignment to family finding duties, whichever is later.

(2) Existing law establishes various public social services programs to provide for protection, care, and assistance to the people of the state in need of those services. Existing law, in this regard, and with some exceptions, requires all applications and records concerning any individual made or kept by any public officer or agency in connection with the administration of public social services for which grants-in-aid are received by this state from the federal government be kept confidential. Existing law exempts from those confidentiality provisions the disclosure of information between employees of a county’s adult protective services agency and a county’s child welfare agency for the purpose of multidisciplinary teamwork in the prevention, intervention, management, or treatment of child abuse or neglect or abuse or neglect of an elder or dependent adult. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly secure or possess a list of persons who have applied for or who have been granted any form of public service in violation of these provisions.

(3) Existing law generally provides for the confidentiality of information regarding a minor in proceedings in the juvenile court and related court proceedings and limits access to juvenile case files, as defined. Existing law authorizes only certain individuals to inspect a juvenile case file, including, among others, county counsel, city attorney, or any other attorney representing the county child welfare agency in dependency proceedings, and the county counsel or city attorney representing the child welfare agency or probation department in connection with the administration or review of child welfare or probation services, as specified, to access juvenile case files.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.