CALIFORNIA STATUTES AND CODES
SECTIONS 18965-18971
WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE
SECTION 18965-18971
18965. A county board of supervisors may designate an existing
local voluntary commission, board or council in order to carry out
the purposes of this article. The commission shall either be a
commission whose duties are primarily related to services for
children, with special emphasis upon child abuse and neglect
prevention and intervention services, or whose duties relate to human
services.
18966. When a county board of supervisors designates a commission
pursuant to Section 18965, the board of supervisors shall establish a
county children's trust fund. The children's trust fund shall
consist of the fees for birth certificates, collected pursuant to
Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, grants, gifts, or
bequests from private sources to be used for child abuse and neglect
prevention and intervention programs, any funds appropriated by local
governmental entities to the trust fund, and any funds appropriated
to the county for the trust fund by the Legislature. The local
registrar or county recorder may, however, retain a percentage, not
to exceed 10 percent, of the surcharge collectible pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, in
order to defray the costs of collection.
The county treasurer shall transmit moneys collected from birth
certificate fees for the county children's trust fund, pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code,
collected with respect to the birth certificate of a child whose
mother was a resident of another county at the time of the birth to
the treasurer of the county of the mother's residence at the time of
the birth if the county to receive the funds has established a
program pursuant to Article 5 (commencing with Section 18965) of
Chapter 11 of Part 6 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code and does not have a licensed health facility that provides
maternity services within its jurisdiction.
18966.1. (a) Any federal funds provided for child abuse prevention
challenge grants to provide matching funds to states that have
established children's trust funds shall be allocated to the counties'
children's trust funds in the following manner:
(1) Counties that receive less than twenty thousand dollars
($20,000) per annum for their county children's trust funds from the
fees on birth certificates collected pursuant to Section 103625 of
the Health and Safety Code, shall be granted from federal matching
funds that amount necessary to bring that income to the trust fund to
twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) per year.
If the state's annual federal matching fund allocation is
insufficient to provide each county children's trust fund with a
minimum total annual funding level of twenty thousand dollars
($20,000), the Office of Child Abuse Prevention shall determine an
allocation process for federal matching funds to ensure that each
county children's trust fund receives a minimum level of annual
funding from all sources.
(2) The remaining funds from the federal challenge grant shall
then be distributed equally among all the counties, up to ten
thousand dollars ($10,000) per county.
(3) If sufficient federal matching funds exist after each county
children's trust fund is provided a total annual children's trust
fund allocation of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) and after each
county children's trust fund receives a maximum annual allocation of
ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in federal matching funds, the
remaining federal matching funds shall be distributed to each county
children's trust fund according to population.
(b) (1) Federal challenge grant funds shall be received by the
Office of Child Abuse Prevention and allocated in the manner
specified in subdivision (a).
(2) Boards of supervisors may establish criteria for determining
which programs shall receive funding. Boards of supervisors may
accept all program proposals, prioritize those proposals, and make
the final decision as to which programs shall receive funds.
(c) Federal matching funds shall be allocated pursuant to
subdivision (a) for counties that have not established a local
children's trust fund and shall be transferred to that county's
existing children's trust fund established by the Office of Child
Abuse Prevention in the State Children's Trust Fund. Nothing in this
section shall prevent a county that has not established a local
children's trust fund from establishing a local children's trust
fund.
(d) Receipt by a county of any federal funds available for the
purposes set forth in this section shall be contingent upon the
provision of assurances that the county will provide to the Office of
Child Abuse Prevention all information necessary to meet federal
reporting mandates. Those information needs shall be identified by
the department at the time federal funds are allocated.
(e) Moneys received by a county children's trust fund from private
voluntary contributions shall not be considered in the calculation
of federal challenge grant allocations pursuant to subdivision (a).
18967. Money in the children's trust fund of each county shall be
used to fund child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention
programs operated by private nonprofit organizations or public
institutions of higher education with recognized expertise in fields
related to child welfare. The designated commission shall establish
criteria for determining those programs which shall receive funding.
The commission shall accept all program proposals that meet criteria
set by the commission, shall prioritize these proposals, and shall
make recommendations to the board of supervisors as to those
proposals which the commission feels should receive funding. The
board of supervisors shall make the final decision as to which
programs shall be funded. The county shall use no more than 5 percent
of the amounts in the trust fund for administrative costs.
18968. In any county where the board of supervisors does not
designate a commission to carry out the purposes of this article,
pursuant to Section 18965, except for a percentage of the receipts
necessary for purposes of collection, the amount collected for the
surcharge upon birth certificates pursuant to Section 103625 of the
Health and Safety Code shall be transferred by the local registrar or
county recorder to the Treasurer for deposit in the State Children's
Trust Fund.
18968.5. Amounts collected for the surcharge upon birth
certificates pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code
that would have been transferred by the local registrar or county
recorder to the Treasurer for deposit in the State Children's Trust
Fund shall, instead, revert to the county children's trust fund when
the board of supervisors designates a commission to carry out the
purposes of this article, pursuant to Section 18965.
18969. (a) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a fund
which shall be known as the State Children's Trust Fund. The fund
shall consist of funds received from a county pursuant to Section
18968, funds collected by the state and transferred to the fund
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and
Safety Code and Article 2 (commencing with Section 18711) of Chapter
3 of Part 10.2 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code,
grants, gifts, or bequests made to the state from private sources to
be used for innovative and distinctive child abuse and neglect
prevention and intervention projects and money appropriated to the
fund for this purpose by the Legislature. The State Registrar may
retain a percentage of the fees collected pursuant to Section 10605
of the Health and Safety Code, not to exceed 10 percent, in order to
defray the costs of collection.
(b) Money in the State Children's Trust Fund, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, shall be allocated to the State Department of
Social Services for the purpose of funding child abuse and neglect
prevention and intervention programs. The department may not supplant
any federal, state, or county funds with any funds made available
through the State Children's Trust Fund.
(c) The department may establish positions as needed for the
purpose of implementing and administering child abuse and neglect
prevention and intervention programs that are funded by the State
Children's Trust Fund. However, the department shall use no more than
5 percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this section for
administrative costs.
(d) No State Children's Trust Fund money shall be used to supplant
state General Fund money for any purpose.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the State Children's
Trust Fund provide for all of the following:
(1) The development of a public-private partnership by encouraging
consistent outreach to the private foundation and corporate
community.
(2) Funds for large-scale dissemination of information that will
promote public awareness regarding the nature and incidence of child
abuse and the availability of services for intervention. These public
awareness activities shall include, but not be limited to, the
production of public service announcements, well designed posters,
pamphlets, booklets, videos, and other media tools.
(3) Research and demonstration projects that explore the nature
and incidence and the development of long-term solutions to the
problem of child abuse.
(4) The development of a mechanism to provide ongoing public
awareness through activities that will promote the charitable tax
deduction for the trust fund and seek continued contributions. These
activities may include convening a philanthropic roundtable,
developing literature for use by the State Bar for dissemination, and
whatever other activities are deemed necessary and appropriate to
promote the trust fund.
18970. (a) The department shall expend funds appropriated to it
pursuant to Section 18969 for innovative local child abuse and
neglect prevention and intervention programs operated by private
nonprofit organizations or public institutions of higher education
with recognized expertise in fields related to child welfare. These
projects shall be joined to formal evaluation components.
(b) These funds may also be used for evaluation, research, or
dissemination of information concerning existing program models for
the purpose of replication of successful models.
(c) The Office of Child Abuse Prevention and those local
commissions designated by the county boards of supervisors shall
collect and publish the following data relevant to the state and
local children's trust funds:
(1) Descriptions of the types of programs and services funded by
local and state children's trust funds and the target populations
benefiting from these programs.
(2) The amount in each portion of the state and local trust fund
as of June 30 each year, beginning June 30, 1987, as well as the
amount disbursed in the preceding fiscal year.
(e) (1) Funds shall be expended from the moneys appropriated to
the State Children's Trust Fund pursuant to Section 18969 of this
code and Section 103590 of the Health and Safety Code to enable the
Office of Child Abuse Prevention to annually collect and publish the
data specified in subdivision (c).
(2) Funds may be expended from local children's trust funds
established pursuant to Section 18966 to enable those local
commissions designated by the county boards of supervisors in
accordance with Section 18966 to annually collect and publish the
data specified in subdivision (c).
18971. Priority for funds transferred to the State Children's Trust
Fund pursuant to Section 18968 shall be given to funding child abuse
and neglect prevention and intervention programs operated by private
nonprofit organizations or public institutions of higher education
with recognized expertise in fields related to child welfare in the
county where the funds originated, and where the county board of
supervisors has not designated a commission pursuant to Section 18965
and has not established a county children's trust fund pursuant to
Section 18966. The department may allow the funds for a small county
to accumulate to a usable amount, or fund regional programs serving
several small counties. The department shall establish criteria for
determining which programs shall be funded. Applicants for funding
shall submit proposals to the department in response to a request for
proposals. If there is no acceptable response to the department's
requests for proposals from qualified public institutions of higher
education or private nonprofit organizations in a county, then the
department may use the funds from that county pursuant to Section
18970.