SEC. 289.

Section 16521.8 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read: 16521.8. (a) (1) A child welfare public health nursing early intervention program shall be conducted in the County of Los Angeles as provided in this section, with the county’s consent. The purpose of the program is to improve outcomes for the expanded population of youth at risk of entering the foster care system, by maximizing access to health care, health education, and connection to safety net services. It is the intent of the Legislature for the program to maximize the use of county public health nurses in the field, in order to provide families with children who are at risk of being placed in the child welfare system with preventative services to meet their medical, mental, and behavioral health needs. (2) The program shall be administered by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH), in cooperation with the county’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). (3) Funding appropriated for purposes of the program shall be used for, but not limited to, the following: (A) Hiring a sufficient number of new public health nurses, with the goal of achieving an average caseload ratio of 200:1. (B) Hiring additional public health nursing supervisors to provide necessary guidance and support. (C) Hiring senior and intermediate typist clerks to assist with data entry. (D) Establishing an accountability mechanism and a shared information and data exchange system. (b) A county public health nurse providing services under the program may do all of the following: (1) Respond to emergency response referrals with social workers. (2) Conduct emergency and routine home visits with social workers. (3) Educate social workers on behavioral, mental, and physical health conditions. (4) Identify behavioral and health conditions that social workers are not trained to identify. (5) Provide followup with families of youth who remain in the home to monitor compliance with the medical, dental, and mental health care plans to promote well-being and minimize repeat referrals. (6) Conduct routine followups and monitoring of medically fragile and medically at-risk children and youth in the Family Maintenance and Reunification programs. (7) Provide parents and guardians with educational tools and resources to ensure the child’s physical, mental, and behavioral health needs are being met. (8) Interpret medical records and reports for social workers. (c) (1) DPH, in cooperation with DCFS, shall develop appropriate outcome measures to determine the effectiveness of the program, including established triaging tools and visitation protocols, in achieving the objectives described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). Commencing January 1, 2021, and each January 1 thereafter, the DPH shall report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of the program using those outcome measures, including any recommendations for continuation or expansion of the program. (2) A report submitted under this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code. (d) The State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the County of Los Angeles, shall seek any federal approvals necessary to implement the program described in subdivision (a) and shall seek to maximize federal financial participation available for this purpose. (e) Contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, the State Department of Social Services shall provide funds to DPH for the purposes described in this section. (f) Notwithstanding any other law, including the personal services contracting requirements of Article 4 (commencing with Section 19130) of Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code, Part 2 (commencing with Section 10100) of Division 2 of the Public Contract Code, and the State Contracting Manual, any nonfederal share funds annually appropriated to the State Department of Social Services for the purposes described this section shall be passed through in a single lump-sum to DPH. (g) (1) The implementation of this section shall be suspended on December 31, 2021, unless paragraph (2) applies. (2) If, in the determination of the Department of Finance, the estimates of General Fund revenues and expenditures determined pursuant to Section 12.5 of Article IV of the California Constitution that accompany the May Revision required to be released by May 14, 2021, pursuant to Section 13308 of the Government Code contain projected annual General Fund revenues that exceed projected annual General Fund expenditures in the 2021–22 and 2022–23 fiscal years by the sum total of General Fund moneys appropriated for all programs subject to suspension on December 31, 2021, pursuant to the Budget Act of 2019 and the bills providing for appropriations related to the Budget Act of 2019 within the meaning of subdivision (e) of Section 12 of Article IV of the California Constitution, then the implementation of this section shall not be suspended pursuant to paragraph (1). (3) If paragraph (1) applies, it is the intent of the Legislature to consider alternative solutions to facilitate the continued implementation of the program created pursuant to this section.