Report 2016-126 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2016-126: California Department of Social Services: Its Caregiver Background Check Bureau Lacks Criminal History Information It Needs to Protect Vulnerable Populations in Licensed Care Facilities (Release Date: March 2017)

Recommendation #4 To: Justice, Department of

To ensure that Social Services receives all appropriate criminal history information, Justice should immediately update its procedures to accurately reflect that staff should disseminate nonreferable arrests when there is a corresponding conviction and ensure that staff follow these updated procedures.

60-Day Agency Response

As previously reported to the CSA, the DOJ updated its Applicant Procedures on 1/17/2017 to direct staff to disseminate, non-referable arrests when there is a corresponding conviction; specifically to include the entire arrest cycle in the response. The procedure change was noted in the document's change log, and a copy of the updated procedures were provided to the CSA on 2/15/2017. A description of the program's response verification process is outlined in the Applicant Procedures. To ensure all Applicant program staff are aware of the requirement, the supervisors have met with there respective teams to discuss the updated requirement and changes to the Applicant Procedures, completed transactions have been spot checked, and a follow up email reminding staff of the specific procedure change was recently issued by the Section Manager.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2016-126

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.