Child welfare services: incarcerated parents.

Under existing law, the state, through the State Department of Social Services and county welfare departments, is required to establish and support a public system of statewide child welfare services. Existing law also establishes that a case plan, which is required to be adopted by the county for each child receiving child welfare services and which includes prescribed information, is the foundation and central unifying tool in child welfare services. This bill would require that the case plan include specified information, to the extent possible, about a parent's incarceration in determining the reasonable services to be offered or provided to that parent's children. The bill would also require social workers to make reasonable efforts to collect and update necessary data regarding a child's incarcerated parent or parents, once a consistent data entry field or fields have been designated in the statewide child welfare database. By expanding the duties of county officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 16501.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, proposed by SB 597, to be operative only if SB 597 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.