Report 2018-126 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2018-126: Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services: It Has Not Adequately Ensured the Health and Safety of All Children in Its Care (Release Date: May 2019)

Recommendation #4 To: Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services

To ensure that it protects children by completing investigations, assessments, home inspections, and background checks in a timely manner, by November 2019 the department should implement a tracking mechanism to monitor live scan criminal record checks.

1-Year Agency Response

In November 2019, the Department issued the RFA policy as outlined in the 6-month response. The policy included procedures RFA staff must follow to utilize the Criminal Clearance Tracking System (CCTS) for the tracking and monitoring of timely Live Scans by RFA applicants.

Through Criminal Clearance Tracking System (CCTS) enhancements, RFA Children's Social Workers (CSWs) and Supervising Children's Social Workers (SCSWs) now receive email alerts when RFA records are created for applicants to inform them that Live Scans for adults are required within five days.

In addition, since the Department's last update in November 2019, the DCFS Business Information Systems (BIS) division worked with dedicated RFA managers to create a Live Scan management oversight report that identifies RFA applicants who have not submitted to Live Scans as required. The report was tested in March and feedback from RFA mangers was incorporated accordingly. The RFA management teams are integrating the updated report into their internal control protocols to help support the timely compliance of RFA requirements.

The Department continues to pursue efforts in making the Live Scan management report more meaningful to its regional operations.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

The department provided documentation demonstrating that is has implemented the tracking mechanism described in its response to the recommendation.

6-Month Agency Response

The Department's Criminal Clearance Tracking System (CCTS) is a web-based application system that was previously developed to automate the manual tracking of Live Scan, California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), and Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) activity. CCTS transmits Live Scan, CLETS, and CACI requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the California Department of Justice and allows for the retrieval of results for those requests.

In October 2019, the Department's Business Information Systems Division programmed enhancements to CCTS so that it displays a dashboard for the RFA Children's Social Workers (CSWs)/Supervising Children's Social Workers (SCSWs) with information about Live Scans sorted in the following categories:

- Pending (still within the 5-days);

- Completed (within 5-days);

- Completed (beyond 5-days); and

- Not completed.

Using the date of placement as a trigger, CCTS will sort Resource Family Approval (RFA) applicants in the referenced categories to help RFA CSWs/SCSWs better track and monitor the status of applicants' Live Scans. The data will also be extracted for inclusion in management reports for regional/program managers to assist with oversight efforts. In addition, CCTS will generate email alerts to RFA CSWs/SCSWs once the CCTS RFA record is created for applicants to provide notification that Live Scans for adults are required within 5-days. CCTS will also generate email alerts to RFA/case-carrying CSWs/SCSWs when applicants' Live Scan results are received.

A policy with details on system enhancements and procedural/practice changes will be issued by the end of November 2019, to coincide with the release of the FCSS update.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The Department is evaluating how live scan practices can be adjusted to meet the requirements set forth in the Resource Family Approval (RFA) Written Directives and the Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) statutes. The e Department's Business Information Systems (BIS) division will also examine the feasibility of further developing the Criminal Clearance Tracking System (CCTS) to add tracking features for use in its monitoring efforts.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2018-126

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.