Strengthening Child Abuse Reporting Requirements

When a child is placed in foster care, congregate care, a short-term residential therapeutic program, or a relative placement, that child's family retains legal representation in dependency court. Today, those attorneys may learn of a new abuse or neglect report only by chance or delay. AB 1688 closes that gap. Under the bill, a county welfare agency that receives a report of an incident occurring in an out-of-home placement must notify the attorney representing a parent or legal guardian in dependency court within 36 hours of receiving the report. The American Council supports this bill and urges every legislator to vote yes.

The bill is carefully bounded. The notice to the parent's attorney may only state that a report has been made. It must not disclose the substance of the report or the identity of anyone named or referenced in it. That constraint protects the integrity of investigations while ensuring that counsel knows to be alert, to ask questions, and to advocate. The bill also exempts parents whose parental rights have already been terminated, so the notice flows only where an active legal relationship remains. We believe these guardrails reflect wise draftsmanship and make the bill stronger, not weaker.

AB 1688 also protects other children who share the same placement. If suspected abuse or neglect occurred in a placement, all attorneys representing any child with an open dependency case in that same placement must receive the same notice. Placements can house multiple vulnerable children, and a safety concern in one case is a safety concern for all. Attorneys who represent those children deserve to know so they can act. This provision embodies the principle that the welfare of one child in state custody cannot be separated from the welfare of all children nearby.

The American Council recognizes that AB 1688 designates these expanded agency duties as a state-mandated local program, and that the bill's reimbursement framework ties state funding to actual appropriations. We take that fiscal structure seriously. But the notice required here is narrow in scope and the moral obligation it serves is large. Attorneys who represent the most vulnerable children and families in our courts should not be the last to know when harm may have occurred. We call on every member of the Legislature to advance this bill without delay.