Merced County Human Services Agency Child Welfare Division

The Lanterman Act and related laws of the Welfare and Institutions Code 4514 (1) are specific to Mental Health Patients with developmental disabilities .

When a referral is made to Child Protective Services (CPS), the Emergency Response Staff completes an Emergency Response Notice of Referral Disposition form.

The Emergency Response Staff determines the risk factors based on the information given to the Emergency Response Unit. The Emergency Response Unit determines whether the referral will be considered a i immediate response or a ten-day response. All reports must be handled within 10 days of the referral.

Emergency Response Staff investigates the referral and they determine if the allegation can be substantiated or appears to be unfounded . If substantiated, it is referred to another unit within CPS.

After the initial investigation is completed, a computerized program generates the completed Emergency Response Notice of Referral Disposition that should be sent to the mandated reporter. The mandated reporter does not always receive this report or may not receive it in a timely manner.

Many times the comment section of the Emergency Response Notice of Referral Disposition is not completed.

There is confusion as to who is responsible for the training of mandated reporters.

Some mandated reporters. have reported the following problems in dealing with Child Protective Services: Primary contact with law enforcement appears to get more immediate action than going through the usual channels . It is the view of some mandated reporters that when they make numerous referrals on the same child, some social workers dismiss the reporters as being overzealous. 2002-2003 Grand Jurv Report