10550-10560
WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE
SECTION 10550-10560
10550. There is in the Health and Welfare Agency a State Department of Social Services. 10551. The department consists of the director, the State Social and Services Advisory Board, and such divisions or other administrative units as the director may find necessary. 10552. With the consent of the Senate, the Governor shall appoint, to serve at his pleasure, an executive officer who shall be director of the department. The director shall be appointed wholly on the basis of training, demonstrated ability, experience, and leadership in organized social welfare administration. He shall receive the salary provided for by Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 11550), Part 1, Division 3, Title 2 of the Government Code. The Governor also may appoint, to serve at his pleasure, not to exceed two chief deputy directors of the department, and one deputy director of the department who shall be the deputy director for the social services division. The salaries of the chief deputy directors and the deputy director shall be fixed in accordance with law. 10553. The director shall: (a) Be responsible for the management of the department. (b) Administer the laws pertaining to the administration of public social services, except health care services and medical assistance. (c) Observe and report to the Governor on the conditions of public social services, except health care services and medical assistance, throughout the state. (d) Perform the disability determination function pursuant to Titles II and XVI of the federal Social Security Act. (e) Formulate, adopt, amend or repeal regulations and general policies affecting the purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the department and which are consistent with law and necessary for the administration of public social services, except health care services and medical assistance, and the disability determination function pursuant to Titles II and XVI of the federal Social Security Act. All regulations relating to public social services, except health care services and medical assistance, or relating to the disability determination function pursuant to Titles II and XVI of the federal Social Security Act, the licensing of community care facilities, or any other function vested in the department, heretofore adopted by the State Department of Health, the State Department of Benefit Payments, or any predecessor department, and in effect immediately preceding the operative date of amendments to this section enacted by the Legislature during the 1977-78 Regular Session, shall remain in effect and shall be fully enforceable unless and until readopted, amended or repealed by the director. (f) Perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, and such other administrative and executive duties as have by other provisions of law been previously imposed. 10553.1. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the director may enter into an agreement, in accordance with Section 1919 of Title 25 of the United States Code, and consistent with Section 16000.6, with any California Indian tribe or any out-of-state Indian tribe that has reservation lands that extend into this state, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, regarding the care and custody of Indian children and jurisdiction over Indian child custody proceedings, including, but not limited to, agreements that provide for orderly transfer of jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis, for exclusive tribal or state jurisdiction, or for concurrent jurisdiction between the state and tribes. (b) (1) An agreement under subdivision (a) regarding the care and custody of Indian children shall provide for the delegation to the tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, of the responsibility that would otherwise be the responsibility of the county for the provision of child welfare services or assistance payments under the AFDC-FC program, or both. (2) An agreement under subdivision (a) concerning the provision of child welfare services shall ensure that a tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, meets current service delivery standards provided for under Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 16500) of Part 4, and provides the local matching share of costs required by Section 10101. (3) An agreement under subdivision (a) concerning assistance payments under the AFDC-FC program shall ensure that a tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, meets current foster care standards provided for under Article 5 (commencing with Section 11400) of Chapter 2 of Part 3, and provides the local matching share of costs required by Section 15200. (4) An agreement under subdivision (a) concerning adoption assistance shall ensure that a tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, meets the current service delivery standards provided for under Chapter 2.1 (commencing with Section 16115), and provides the local matching share of costs, as required by Section 15200. (c) Upon the implementation date of an agreement authorized by subdivision (b), the county that would otherwise be responsible for providing the child welfare services or AFDC-FC payments specified in the agreement as being provided by the tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, shall no longer be subject to that responsibility to children served under the agreement. (d) Upon the effective date of an agreement authorized by subdivision (b), the tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, shall comply with fiscal reporting requirements specified by the department for federal and state reimbursement child welfare or AFDC-FC services for programs operated under the agreement. (e) An Indian tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, that is a party to an agreement under subdivision (a), shall, in accordance with the agreement, be eligible to receive allocations of child welfare services funds pursuant to Section 10102. (f) Implementation of an agreement under subdivision (a) may not be construed to impose liability upon, or to require indemnification by, the participating county or the State of California for any act or omission performed by an officer, agent, or employee of the participating tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, pursuant to this section. 10553.15. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the director may provide funding to Indian health clinics to provide substance abuse and mental health treatment services, and other related services authorized under the CalWORKs program to CalWORKs applicants and recipients and Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) applicants and recipients living in California. 10553.2. Child welfare services allocation methodologies for agreements entered into pursuant to Section 10553.1 shall be developed in consultation with the State Department of Social Services, the affected counties, and the affected Indian tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization. 10553.25. (a) The department shall make an annual allocation of funds appropriated for the purpose of this subdivision to all eligible federally recognized American Indian tribes with reservation lands or rancherias located in this state that administer a program pursuant to the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193). (b) The department shall collect and maintain specific available data for each tribe in this state for federal fiscal year 1994 for the purpose of the implementation and administration of the federal program. (c) The department shall submit requests on behalf of tribes, for all applicable federal waivers and exemptions for all eligible federally recognized American Indian tribes located on reservations and rancherias, or for consortia of tribes, for the administration of the CalWORKs program, whether or not tribes administer an approved Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) plan, independent of any county participation, demographics, or circumstances. (d) Each county, in the administration of the CalWORKs program, shall consult with all eligible federally recognized tribes within any portion of the county, for the purpose of providing American Indian recipients with equitable access to assistance under the state program or an approved tribal TANF program if implemented in the county, and for the consideration of transfers of administration responsibilities to those entities. (e) Beginning July 1, 2006, state funding for tribal TANF programs provided pursuant to this section shall be based on the caseload used to develop the Tribal Family Assistance Grant negotiated with the Administration for Children and Families and the state. Tribal TANF programs shall do both of the following: (1) Report to the department, on a quarterly basis, the aggregated data, as reported by tribal TANF programs to the federal Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Part 286.255 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and any additional federal data required to meet the state maintenance of effort (MOE) reporting requirements. (2) Provide the department, on an annual basis, corresponding with the program's fiscal year, a certified audit in accordance with the requirements of the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-133. (f) In no case shall the state match under subdivision (e) exceed the original state share designated for the tribal TANF program in the original negotiation of 1994 caseload counts. (g) The department shall amend the state TANF plan to reflect that the state adopts by reference the federally approved financial eligibility criteria established by each tribal TANF program as the state's financial eligibility criteria when determining eligibility for state funded services provided by tribal TANF programs. (h) Beginning July 1, 2005, the department shall not reduce county single allocations to offset funding provided for tribal TANF programs. The department may adjust county single allocations to reflect the actual caseload declines associated with the number of Native American cases transferring from the counties to the tribal TANF programs. 10554. The department shall adopt regulations, orders, or standards of general application to implement, interpret, or make specific the law enforced by the department, and those regulations, orders, and standards shall be adopted, amended, or repealed by the department only in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340), Part 1, Division 3, Title 2 of the Government Code, provided that the regulations need not be printed in the California Code of Regulations or California Administrative Register if they are included in the publications of the department. In adopting regulations the department shall strive for clarity of language that may be readily understood by those administering public social services or subject to the regulations. The rules of the department need not specify or include the detail of forms, reports or records, but shall include the essential authority by which any person, agency, organization, association or institution subject to the supervision or investigation of the department is required to use, submit or maintain the forms, reports or records. 10555. Subject to the State Civil Service Act, the director shall appoint such assistants and other employees as are necessary for the administration of the affairs of the department and shall prescribe their duties and, subject to the approval of the Department of Finance, fix their salaries. 10556. The chief administrative law judge of the department shall be an attorney, and shall otherwise meet such qualifications as may be prescribed by the State Personnel Board. The director shall appoint the chief administrative law judge. The office of the chief administrative law judge shall not be made a part of any other division, office, or subdivision of the department. The chief administrative law judge shall be directly responsible to the director. 10557. No person while holding the office of director shall be a trustee, manager, director, or other officer or employee of any agency performing any function supervised by the department or any institution which is subject to examination, inspection, or supervision by the department. No member of the State Social Services Advisory Board shall hold any office or employment in the department. 10558. Except as otherwise expressly provided, the provisions of Part 1 (commencing with Section 11000) of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, as the same may be added to or amended from time to time, shall apply to the conduct of the department. 10559. There are in the department a division or office devoted to carrying out the provisions of this division pertaining to the services to the blind and another division or office devoted to carrying out the public social services to deaf and hearing impaired persons. The divisions or offices shall each be headed by a chief, one who is a trained social worker experienced in work for the blind, the other a trained social worker or counselor experienced in work for the deaf and hearing impaired or a person experienced in administering a deaf or hearing impaired services program. The duties of the division for the blind and its chief shall be confined to carrying out the provisions of this division pertaining to services to the blind. The duties of the division or office for the deaf and hearing impaired shall be confined to carrying out the provision of public social services to the deaf and hearing impaired. Blindness, deafness, or hearing impairment shall not be grounds to disqualify a person from holding the position of chief of the office or division. The divisions or offices shall not be made a part of any other division, office, or subdivision of the department. The chiefs of the divisions or offices shall be directly responsible to the director. The director through the divisions or offices may provide consultative services to county personnel administering services to the blind, deaf, or hearing impaired which shall include, but not be limited to, information concerning the various aspects of blindness, deafness, and hearing impairment and its problems and implications, the rehabilitative potential of the blind, deaf and hearing impaired, public and private services available, employment opportunities for blind, deaf, and hearing impaired persons, and concepts in counseling blind, deaf, and hearing impaired persons. 10560. The department and each county department shall, to the extent feasible, train recipients of public assistance and potential recipients for private employment or for government service. Employment by the state or counties shall be subject to applicable civil service and merit system requirements. The provisions of this section may be accomplished in conjunction with the provisions of a contract between the department and the State Department of Education, or Employment Development Department, or Department of Rehabilitation.