M. v. Anderson

No. 982014 (Cal. Super. Ct. San Francisco County filed Oct. 23, 1996) ; Clearinghouse Number: 51582

Description

Former Foster Children Challenge California Department of Social Services’ Failure to Monitor Performance of County Welfare Agencies

Abstract

Petitioners have filed their petition challenging the California Department of Social Services (DSS)’s failure properly to monitor and supervise the operations of county child welfare agencies. Petitioners are concerned citizens of the State of California who, until they reached majority, were dependent children of the court. In each county in California, a county child welfare agency is charged by law with providing child welfare services to dependent children to ensure that such children are kept safe and provided with services necessary to their health, protection, and welfare. DSS is charged by law to administer, supervise, and monitor the county child welfare agencies in their performance of duties under the foster care program. Petitioners allege that DSS has consistently failed and refused to discharge this legal duty. Specifically, petitioners allege that DSS has failed to conduct timely audits of county child welfare agencies’ performance and to monitor effectively county performance of mandatory duties. Petitioners assert that 23 county child welfare agencies have not been reviewed since 1986 and that, of the 35 counties that have been reviewed since that time, only 3 are in compliance with all relevant federal and state statutes and regulations. Petitioners claim that, as a result of DSS’s dereliction of its mandatory duty under the law, children in California’s child welfare system have been subjected to inadequate supervision, substandard conditions, and inadequate health care and education. Petitioners seek a writ of mandate commanding DSS (1) to schedule an audit of every county that has not been audited since 1986, to be completed within the next 12 months; (2) to audit each county in the state no less often than once every three years; (3) to require all county welfare agencies that have been found out of compliance with state and federal statutes and regulations to come into compliance immediately; (4) for county welfare agencies found out of compliance, to require prompt filing of adequate corrective action plans addressing all deficiencies noted in their audits; and (5) to develop a monitoring schedule for county welfare agencies that fail or have failed state audits to ensure that they achieve prompt compliance.

Additional Information

Docket Date
1996-10-23 00:00:00+00:00

Files

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