Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
Best Interest of a Child – Report on Child Protective Services Perception Is Reality
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 6 findings
F1
It is hard to contact the relevant people in CPS to get information since there is no organizational chart published on the website. People don’t know who they can contact for specific issues.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish an organizational chart by October 31, 2024. (F1)
F2
The lack of readily available CPS data metrics accessible on the Santa Cruz County website can lead to perceptions based on individual experiences. Perception becomes reality if data is not provided which can lead to public distrust of the system.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
F3
Lots of data is available on the California Welfare Indicators Project maintained by University of California for the whole state of California for each county. It is hard to sift through and find relevant data for Santa Cruz County.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
F4
There is no formal complaint process. You can lodge a complaint only with your social worker. When the complainant is not happy with the resolution, complaints are lodged with the Grand Jury. This is ineffective and results in a lack of accountability or follow up on the complaint.
Related Recommendations (2)
R3
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS create and publish the complaint process. This published process should include a supervisor not vested in the outcome who can review the complaints. This process and the accompanying metrics like number of complaints and resolution times should be made available to the public by December 31, 2024. (F4)
R4
The Grand Jury recommends that the County Board of Supervisors establish a Child Welfare Oversight board and an Inspector General similar to what the 2002-2003 Grand Jury recommended. This could help resolve bias, impropriety and undue influence complaints and will help provide transparency and increase trust in the CPS process. The Grand Jury recommends that the planning for this should start by December 31, 2024, with the board fully implemented six months after the planning is finished. (F4, F5)
F5
Child Family Team members often dispute the accuracy of "official" meeting notes taken by the attending CPS Social Workers, leading to lack of trust between team members.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
The Grand Jury recommends that the County Board of Supervisors establish a Child Welfare Oversight board and an Inspector General similar to what the 2002-2003 Grand Jury recommended. This could help resolve bias, impropriety and undue influence complaints and will help provide transparency and increase trust in the CPS process. The Grand Jury recommends that the planning for this should start by December 31, 2024, with the board fully implemented six months after the planning is finished. (F4, F5)
R5
The Grand Jury recommends that the CPS department begin to record the Child Family Team meetings by the end of December 31, 2024. (F5)
F6
The lack of data makes it difficult to determine whether bias is present either to Resource Families or Birth Families to the detriment of the child.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
Conclusions 1
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CL1This investigation was undertaken as a result of complaints received by the Grand Jury. Complainants believed that CPS policies regarding child safety were not being followed. The investigation was hampered by data that was largely insufficient or unobtainable. This results in Resource Families' perception that child safety is not being prioritized. The Grand Jury was not able to substantiate this claim based on the available data reviewed. The Grand Jury remains concerned that this perception will persist unless there is more transparency of both data and operations. This perception may prevent a sufficient number of Resource Families from signing up to provide this valuable service which is critical for the protection of neglected and abused children in our community.