I have been researching bills that affect child welfare and found that you recently voted in favor of AB 102, a bill sponsored by Rod Pacheco that is adding the category of "emotional abuse not amounting to mental cruelty" to the mandated reporter law.

I object to this bill very strongly - on the basis that it is too vague. Mandated reporters will be using their own subjective and prejudicial views to decide what constitutes "emotional abuse".

Too many children are already being taken away by our government. Because of ASFA, the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1997, the federal government is paying the state when it takes away children, keeps them in foster care 15 months, then terminates parental rights in favor of adoption to strangers. Adoption bonus payments are an incentive payment. This is causing extreme grief all over this country already, because children are picked up for incredibly trivial reasons and then kept in foster care until the 15 months have passed.

Please consider families!! Children need their parents, regardless of trivial problems that may come up in the course of family life. It has been statistically proven that children are 8 to 10 times more at risk of abuse in state care than they are in their own homes. We need to strengthen families, not tear them apart!

This emotional abuse clause will just add to the arsenel of CPS and will encourage them to remove children on even more trivial charges than before. Please do what you can to stop this travesty of justice that is destroying thousands of California families!

I know of many cases, and could give many examples. Please let me know if you want more information. I would appreciate a reply in which you would explain to me your views on this matter.

Your constituent in Siskiyou County:

Linda Martin
.

Response:

April 20, 2001

Dear Linda:

Thank you very much for contacting regarding your concerns for AB 102 (Pacheco) relating to the endangerment of a child's emotional well-being.

This bill was designed to make technical corrections to several penal code sections relating to child abuse reporting requirements. I supported this bill because it reinstates the definition of "abuse or neglect in out-of-home care" to add "physical injury infliction upon a child by another person by other than accidental means". Also, this bill replaces the section amended referring to mandated reporters (pre-AB 1241). The amendments require mandated reporters to refer cases where they suspect mental suffering has been inflicted which would endanger the emotional well-being of a child. This bill also makes a few other technical changes such as "voluntary firefighters" to volunteer firefighters".

Last year the Legislature passed a bill to reform the child abuse and neglect reporting requirements to ensure a clear understanding of when the duty to report arises and who should be reporting. Because of the large undertaking, a few minor changes were overlooked. I support this bill simply because it makes technical clean-ups.

Again, thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding this bill. If you have further questions regarding this bill or any other state related issue please feel free to contact my office again.

Respectfully,

Dick Dickerson