APPENDIX G: RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COUNTY WELFARE DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION REPORT

1. The State of California should undertake a workload study to determine appropriate caseloads for Child Welfare workers in California in order that those workers may reasonably be expected to fulfill the legislative and regulatory case management requirements of California's Child Welfare System.

2. The State of California should provide immediate additional funding in Funding Year (FY) 1998-99, and thereafter, for workload relief until this new workload study is completed to enable counties to operate at staffing levels at least ten percent below the current State workload target figures.

3. No county should receive an annual allocation of funding for the Child Welfare program for State fiscal year 1998-99 that is lower than each county's FY 1997-98 allocation, until such time as the new workload study is completed and adopted.

4. The development and allocation of future State Child Welfare funding should be based upon county specific cost and caseload data consistent with the 1998 CWDA Child Welfare Services Allocation Principles Policy Paper (see below).

5. The development and allocation of future State Child Welfare funding should provide for costs in addition to those included in the caseload driven fully loaded per worker costs, such as the specialized work and intensive services ordered by the Courts, as discussed in this issue paper.

6. The State of California should renew its commitment to child abuse prevention and recognize that such prevention not only prevents abuse and strengthens families, but also intervenes in behavior which research shows is likely to otherwise produce victims who become perpetrators and criminals, and a threat and cost to society in the future. This renewal should assure that:
   • The State Child Welfare Services program is adequately funded to enable counties to respond to every allegation of child abuse, neglect and exploitation, to make an assessment and intervene or offer services as appropriate;

   • The Structured Decision Making pilot project now underway in seven pilot counties will not produce a system for risk assessment and decision making which the State of California will expect, either through direct program policy or through fiscal policy, to be used to screen children and families out, but instead as a tool to assure that all families in need of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation prevention and intervention services are provided such services.

7. The State of California Health and Welfare Agency should aggressively implement the development and operation of Community Treatment Facilities for juveniles as authorized by the legislature.

8. The State of California should increase its commitment to funding of county shelters to a minimum of sixty days from the current thirty day limit.

CWDA 1998 Child Welfare Services Allocation Principles Policy Paper includes the following:

• Allocations are predictable, i.e. factors don't change from year to year without advance discussion and agreement on the validity of the change

• Allocations include appropriate fiscal incentives, not arbitrary incentives unrelated to program outcomes.

• Allocations are computed and shared with the counties in a timely manner, so that "draft" numbers are available as counties are developing their budgets.

• All budgeting for allocations must be prospective, not retrospective...

• The CWS allocation must include a baseline number of fully loaded, fully funded social workers that any given county must have in order to ensure the provision of the services mandated by CDSS, regardless of the ebbs and flows of the monthly caseloads.

• CWDA and DSS should analyze all proposed legislation or regulations related to the State Child Welfare program for workload and fiscal impacts, and insist that adequate funding for any such impacts accompany said legislation or regulations.⁽¹⁷⁶⁾

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