Report 2021-112 Recommendations

To ensure that it submits accurate and complete information to CACI, by July 2022 Calaveras County should develop policies and procedures for reporting all incidents of substantiated child abuse that it actively investigates, in accordance with state law.

To ensure that they correctly revise and resend reports that were incomplete and needed correction, by July 2022 Calaveras County should develop policies and procedures for accurately responding to and tracking reports DOJ sends back for correction.

To ensure that CACI contains accurate and complete information, and to ensure that individuals' rights are adequately protected, by July 2022 Calaveras County should develop policies for removing existing reports in CACI when warranted.

To ensure that CWS/CMS contains accurate investigation conclusions, by July 2022 Calaveras County should immediately identify and correct the reports in CWS/CMS that are incorrectly marked as substantiated.

To ensure that CACI contains accurate and complete information, and to ensure that individuals' rights are adequately protected, by July 2022 Contra Costa County should develop policies for removing existing reports in CACI when warranted.

To ensure that CWS/CMS contains accurate investigation conclusions, by July 2022 Contra Costa County should immediately identify and correct the reports in CWS/CMS that are incorrectly marked as substantiated.

To ensure fair and impartial grievance hearings and to comply with state regulations, Contra Costa County should, by July 2022 adopt grievance hearing policies allowing the complainant to challenge the impartiality of the grievance review officer.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, DOJ should immediately develop a process for responding to child abuse background checks that includes checking CACI and the list of 298 reports of child abuse that were not supported by county records, and working with the California Department of Social Services to check the list of 27,000 reports of substantiated child abuse that were not contained in CACI. If the individual is on either list, DOJ should follow up with the relevant county to determine whether the individual's report should be included in CACI.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, DOJ should collaborate with Social Services by November 2022 to identify and reconcile all reports that should have been submitted to CACI by counties. Work with counties to enter all missing reports into CACI by June 2023. This collaboration should not be limited to the reports in our four-year audit period.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, and to ensure that it accurately enters all cases of child abuse it receives, by July 2022 DOJ should develop policies and procedures to track, enter into CACI, and review data entry for all reports of child abuse it receives from counties. Also by July 2022, DOJ should develop policies and procedures to track those reports that it sends back to counties for correction.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, and to ensure that only appropriate records are removed from CACI, by July 2022 DOJ should develop policies and procedures related to how staff remove records from CACI. These policies and procedures should include a process to verify that deletions are appropriate.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, and to prevent omissions in CACI reporting, DOJ should develop policies and procedures by November 2022 to reconcile CACI with monthly reports from Social Services to verify that counties have submitted—and DOJ has entered or deleted as appropriate—all reports into CACI.

To ensure that authorized users have accurate and complete information, by July 2022 DOJ should send revised letters for the suspects whose reports of child abuse were omitted from CACI and for individuals inappropriately included in CACI. To ensure that it is able to revise expedited letters if they are later determined to be incorrect, DOJ should immediately begin maintaining a history of all responses to expedited background checks.

To ensure that suspects' information is deleted from CACI in accordance with state law, by November 2022 DOJ should research and address the 36,000 reports in CACI lacking birth dates by entering the suspect's correct birth date and removing suspects who no longer meet the CACI requirements.

To ensure that they correctly revise and resend reports that were incomplete and needed correction, by July 2022 Kern County should develop policies and procedures for accurately responding to and tracking reports DOJ sends back for correction.

To ensure fair and impartial grievance hearings and to comply with state regulations Kern County should, by July 2022 adopt grievance hearing policies allowing the complainant to challenge the impartiality of the grievance review officer.

To better protect children when an authorized user requests a child abuse background check, the Legislature should amend state law to require DOJ to directly access and review CWS Case Management System (CWS/CMS) data, which counties already use to record the results of their child abuse investigations. If the Legislature implements this change, it should no longer require counties to submit reports of child abuse to DOJ for inclusion in CACI, thus eliminating redundant efforts and reducing the risk of error.

To maximize the effectiveness of child abuse background checks in protecting children, the Legislature should amend state law to require all reports of substantiated child abuse to be included in DOJ's background checks. To protect the due process rights of individuals, the Legislature should continue to require a grievance hearing process.

To ensure that they correctly revise and resend reports that were incomplete and needed correction, by July 2022 Orange County should develop policies and procedures for accurately responding to and tracking reports DOJ sends back for correction.

To ensure the confidentiality of sensitive and personally identifying information protected by state law, Orange County should, by July 2022 adopt grievance hearing policies requiring the return of confidential evidence when the county provides such evidence to suspects for a grievance hearing.

To ensure that they correctly revise and resend reports that were incomplete and needed correction, by July 2022 Shasta County should develop policies and procedures for accurately responding to and tracking reports DOJ sends back for correction.

To ensure that CACI contains accurate and complete information, and to ensure that individuals' rights are adequately protected, by July 2022 Shasta County should develop policies for removing existing reports in CACI when warranted.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use CWS/CMS, Social Services should immediately develop a process to collaborate with DOJ and counties to review the list of 27,000 reports of substantiated child abuse that were not in CACI and ensure that all eligible missing reports are forwarded to DOJ.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use CWS/CMS, Social Services should by November 2022, develop monthly reports from CWS/CMS of cases of child abuse substantiated during the month and another list of cases that changed from substantiated to not substantiated, and then provide these reports to the counties and to DOJ.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use CWS/CMS, Social Services should by November 2022, ensure that all counties develop policies and procedures to review the monthly reports produced by Social Services and ensure that they have sent all appropriate reports to DOJ.

Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use CWS/CMS, Social Services should by November 2022, collaborate with DOJ to identify and reconcile all reports that should have been submitted to CACI by counties and work with counties to send all reports to CACI by May 2023. This collaboration should not be limited to the reports of our four-year audit period.

To ensure that they correctly revise and resend reports that were incomplete and needed correction, by July 2022 Stanislaus County should develop policies and procedures for accurately responding to and tracking reports DOJ sends back for correction.

To ensure fair and impartial grievance hearings and to comply with state regulations Stanislaus County should, by July 2022 adopt grievance hearing policies allowing the complainant to challenge the impartiality of the grievance review officer.

To ensure the confidentiality of sensitive and personally identifying information protected by state law, Stanislaus County should, by July 2022 adopt grievance hearing policies requiring the return of confidential evidence when the county provides such evidence to suspects for a grievance hearing.