Report 2007-124 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2007-124: Safely Surrendered Baby Law: Stronger Guidance From the State and Better Information for the Public Could Enhance Its Impact (Release Date: April 2008)

Recommendation #5 To: Social Services, Department of

To ensure that individuals who surrender babies receive proper protection under the safe-surrender law, Social Services should require counties to correct records in the CWS/CMS that Social Services' staff believe are erroneous because counties have misclassified babies as either surrendered or abandoned. Because Social Services does not believe it presently has the authority to do so, Social Services should seek legislation to obtain this authority.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From January 2011

When the law was enacted, previous CWPPD staff pursued such corrections during quarterly reviews of SSB data and recorded the information manually (stored in binders). Staff currently assigned to SSB have developed and maintained an electronic tool to complete the quarterly reviews. Additionally, in July 2008, staff developed a separate directory of referrals that require follow-up with assigned county personnel. This has enabled CWPPD staff to track correspondence when there are questions involving the correct classification of SSB cases, as well as other issues. We are currently re-visiting electronic copies of quarterly review data back to July 2008 and have identified a small number of cases that, although CDSS contacted county personnel regarding the issue, require additional follow up for clarification. For each case identified, CWPPD staff will contact county personnel and track subsequent conversations. (2010-041, p. 55)

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

---

All Recommendations in 2007-124

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.