California Partnership Act Background: The following draft legislation is an outgrowth of four years of work among representatives of the Children’s Committee of the County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA) and the County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators Association of California (CADPAAC). These representatives were originally convened under the auspices of the Stuart Foundation and with staff support from Children and Family Futures. As counties began implementation of CalWORKs, the committee included a focus on alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems among families affected by both welfare and child protection issues. Working together, the two groups developed a policy framework which includes ten elements reflecting the models which have emerged at the county level in nearly half of the counties in California. The group jointly planned a statewide conference held in Ontario in May 2000, which was attended by teams from twenty-two counties as well as state officials and foundation representatives. The priority action items reflected in those sessions have been incorporated into this proposed legislation.
• • • • • • • • • In California, there are 600,000 referrals for the Child Abuse Registry per year. Of these, 65% are investigated and 20% are substantiated.1 In December 2000, there were 102,129 children in the California foster care system, with 75,000 of these children in long-term permanent placement.2 Alcohol and other drugs (AOD) severely impact the lives of an estimated 60-80% of the families who come to the attention of the child welfare system.3 DADP estimates that 5,000 individuals are reported as waiting for treatment in California.4 Alcohol and drug abuse are treatable public health problems with effective remedies.5 Not providing alcohol and drug treatment has a high human and fiscal cost.6 The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (P.L. 106-314) renews emphasis on early decision-making to keep children safe and in permanent families. The California Partnership Act will promote safety and permanence for these children and recovery for their parents. Multiple barriers between the AOD and CWS systems have been identified in working effectively with this population, along with a set of best practices at county levels to respond to these barriers.7
Elements: Section 1: Purposes of the California Partnership Act. 1. To improve the AOD and child welfare service (CWS) systems to more fully integrate AOD treatment as a resource needed to enable the child welfare system to achieve its goals of child safety, reunifying families when possible, and establishing permanency for children To expand funding support for drug and alcohol treatment for families in the child welfare system who are complying with treatment requirements, in order to strengthen families’ ability to keep their children safe, healthy, and at home To enable AOD agencies to respond on a timely and effective basis to the needs of parents with children in the child welfare system
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To provide services to children of substance abusers in the child welfare system 5. To expand the capacity of AOD providers to serve parents in the child welfare system 6. To develop a multi-year funding plan for AOD-CWS services 7. To prepare California counties and state government to implement S. 2435, federal legislation that expands services for parents needing AOD treatment services in the child welfare system 8. To reduce foster care costs 9. To reduce intergenerational AOD abuse 10. To expand training for county and provider staff working in the AOD-CWS systems Section 2: Oversight: The Partnership Act will be guided by a state-wide steering committee with members representing consumers, CWDA Children’s Committee, CADPAAC, DSS, DADP, UC Berkeley Child Welfare Research Center (CWRC), UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center (DARC), the Judicial Council, and other designees determined by the steering committee. Eligibility: County AOD-CWS collaboratives will receive funding for programs serving families in the child welfare system who have been assessed to have AOD involvement; AOD services could also be provided to caretakers from the immediate family of such children or parents. Training would be an allowable activity. County collaboratives would be the receiving entity with the county designating their lead agency for administration of funds. The collaborative must include representatives of county child welfare agencies and county AOD administration and treatment agencies. The presiding judge of the dependency court would be required to review and comment on the application from the collaborative to be submitted to the state. Collaboratives may also include representatives of public and private agencies addressing mental health, family violence, CalWORKs, housing, physical health, and other programs whose clients may be affected by substance abuse and child abuse and/or neglect. Multi-county consortia from smaller counties would be eligible for funding and would receive additional incentive funding above their proportionate shares. Allocation: 90% of the funding would be allocated based on the DADP standard allocation methodology. Services to be provided under this allocation will be locally determined and specified in the county plan. Services can include AOD prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery programs. Other services needed by the families (e.g., temporary housing, transportation, child care) can be provided as specified in the local plan. Ten percent would be available for evaluation of programs and improvements to county and provider information systems required for accountability for results. Evaluation and Technical Assistance: The University of California’s Child
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Welfare Research Center (CWRC) at Berkeley and the Drug Abuse Research Center (DARC) at Los Angeles will receive contracts from the state agencies to jointly develop and implement a state-wide evaluation program. The evaluation will include specific methods to determine baseline measures, cost effectiveness and cost offsets derived from the Partnership Act. The evaluation will be guided by the Partnership Steering Committee who will make final determinations of data to be collected statewide and submitted to University evaluators. As determined by the steering committee, a portion of the evaluation/technical assistance allocation will be available to counties to implement the data collection activities. The state will also contract with an appropriate entity to provide technical assistance to county collaboratives, provide staff services to the steering committee, and to develop and disseminate best practice models. Section 6: Funding Level and Funding Source: Level to be set; sources to include federal TANF funding, a dedicated portion of the alcohol excise tax, and general funds. Funding levels to implement the Partnership Act will be estimated by DADP and DSS in consultation with CWDA Children’s Committee and CADPAAC and will include state and county administrative costs. Funding levels may include a developmental implementation plan to allow counties who need time and technical assistance to plan and develop programs to phase their implementation over the first two years. Requirements for funding: County collaboratives will submit (a) an annual plan for implementation of AOD-CWS joint activities, including interagency agreements and court protocols for providing services to families in the child welfare system with AOD problems, (b) an inventory of all funded programs in the county (to which the state would be required to submit an annual update of allocation of state funds), (c) a summary of AOD-CWS services provided, including client data taken from CWS/CMS and CADDS systems regarding treatment services to parents in the child welfare system with AOD problems, (d) a review of the prior year’s evaluations of effectiveness of county-funded treatment programs for child welfare parents, (e) the county’s quality assurance plan and justification for providing AOD services by any non-licensed or noncertified program, and (f) a summary of the gap between services provided and estimated level of need for AOD-CWS treatment. Initially, these would be suggested elements of the plan, and state technical assistance would be available on request to assist counties in moving toward these elements which would become requirements over a five-year transitional period. County applications would also be required to describe methods of collaboration among CWS and AOD agencies and their partners. Applications would also need to specify compliance with state data collection and evaluation criteria. State Support: The Departments of Social Services and Alcohol and Drug Programs will be required to (a) develop an interagency agreement for dissemination of the funds to county collaboratives, (b) provide counties with an
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annual summary of state-funded evaluations of the effectiveness of programs for parents and children with AOD problems in the child welfare system, (c) provide counties with an annual inventory of all state and state-channeled federal funding for AOD and CWS provided to counties or treatment agencies in counties, (d) develop a clearinghouse for best practices in serving parents and children with AOD problems in the child welfare system, (e) contract to provide technical assistance to counties and providers, and (f) contract for the development of best practice standards with specific focus on serving families from cultural and/or ethnic groups that are over represented in the child welfare caseload. Section 9: Preparation for Implementation of S. 2435: The two Departments and the Judicial Council would be required to present the legislature with a unified report on June 1, 2003 assessing California’s readiness to implement federal legislation along the lines of S. 2435, with special reference to (a) California’s reports on AOD prevalence in the foster care population in its annual federal AFCARS reports, (b) the adequacy of CWS/CMS in capturing data on AOD problems, and (c) the adequacy of CADDS and the CalTOP process in capturing information on AOD services among child welfare parents and children and the effectiveness of such programs. This report should include the most recent data submitted to the relevant state and federal agencies through these existing information and reporting systems. The report should also include a description of state agency progress in implementing use of Medi-Cal, TANF, Title IV-E, SAPTBG, and other relevant funding for AOD-CWS programs at the county and local level. County Authorization for Funding Pools: Counties or multi-county consortia which have submitted approved annual plans would be authorized to create funding pools of multiple state and federal (to the extent allowable by federal law and waivers) funding for CWS and AOD services for the eligible population.
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CDSS website: www.dss.cahwnet.gov CDSS website: www.dss.cahwnet.gov
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Young, N., Gardner, S. & Dennis, K. (1998) Responding to Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Child Welfare: Weaving Together Practice and Policy, CWLA Press.
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DADP website: www.adp.cahwnet.gov NIDA (1999). Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-based guide, NIH Publication. CASA (2001). Substance Abuse and State Budgets, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University.
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DHHS. Blending Perspectives and Building Common Ground: A Report to Congress on Substance Abuse and Child Protection. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999
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