The Welfare of Child Welfare: Comparison of Budgets

The State of California determines a minimum total CWS budget for each county. Some factors that influence the total minimum budget are: • number of children served; • cost to employ qualified social workers (as determined by the state); and • state ratios for number of social workers to children in need of services. Of this minimum required budget, the state contributes 70 percent and mandates that counties contribute 30 percent as a county share of the total CWS budget. Monies contributed by counties to their CWS budgets above the minimum required share are supplemented by other monies from state and federal sources. The resulting increased budget may not reflect the 70:30 budget contribution ratio.

Some counties supplement their CWS budget with additional state, federal and other monies. Santa Cruz County CWS has been able to access some of these funds.

In 2002-2003, Santa Cruz County overmatched the required minimum share of the CWS budget by $696,152. In 2003-2004, Santa Cruz County overmatched the required share of the minimum CWS budget by $718,541.

CWS budgets, county shares of these budgets, number of active cases and budget-to- child ratios vary from county to county. Fiscal Year 2002- Fiscal Year 2003- 2003 2004 Santa Cruz County Population: 251,584 Number of Active Cases 687 809 Total CWS Budget $8,246,650 $9,002,816 County Share Budget $1,538,957 $1,497,975 Total Budget Per Child $12,004 $11,128 County Share Budget Per Child $2,240 $1,852 County A Population: 246, 073 Number of Active Cases 470 391 Total CWS Budget $3,917,501 $4,778,564 County Share Budget $701,473 $967,956 Total Budget Per Child $8,335 $12,221 County Share Budget Per Child $1,493 $2,476 County B Population: 1,678,421 Number of Active Cases 5,638 5,242 Total CWS Budget $202,603,417 $214,665,827 County Share Budget $56,017,081 $52,586,883 Total Budget Per Child $35,936 $40,951 County Share Budget Per Child $9,936 $10,032 County C Population: 697,456 Number of Active Cases 1,175 1,216 Total CWS Budget $29,555,012 $31,736,859 County Share Budget $5,346,921 $7,453,884 Total Budget Per Child $25,153 $26,099 County Share Budget Per Child $4,551 $6,130 County D Population: 131,607 Number of Active Cases 251 227 Total CWS Budget $8,523,987 $8,275,200 County Share Budget $779,255 $820,399 Total Budget Per Child $33,960 $36,455 County Share Budget Per Child $3,105 $3,614 Note: The total CWS budget number includes the 30 percent county share of the minimum budget, the 70 percent state share of the minimum budget and all additional county, state, federal and other dollars contributed to the CWS budget regardless of source. The populations of each county are 2003 US Census Bureau estimates.1 Table 1: Child Welfare Services Dollars Per Child Comparison.

The Grand Jury also researched information from the UC Berkeley “Point in Time” studies found on the UC Berkeley web site. This information, although very thorough in reporting data by children’s ages, caseloads of social workers and numbers of children in each category, is derived from the data of a single given day for each quarter.2 Conclusions

Compared to other counties, Santa Cruz County CWS has less funds available to serve an increasing number of active cases.

The UC Berkeley “Point in Time” studies do not reflect an annualized number of children served which the Grand Jury believes were needed for this budget analysis.