Child support income withholding orders, deferred prosecution agreements, determining the amount of a home visitation program grant, modifications to the references to Milwaukee County by population, modifications to certain appropriations, and making an appropriation. (FE)

Other courts and procedure Current law allows a district attorney to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with a defendant who is charged, or who may be charged, with certain crimes related to domestic abuse or to child sexual abuse against a child who is related to or who lived with the person, or over whom the person had guardianship, custody, power, or authority. Generally, in a deferred prosecution agreement, the district attorney agrees to dismiss a charge or not file a charge if the defendant complies with specified conditions, such as paying restitution to the victim or completing counseling or treatment.

Current law allows a deferred prosecution agreement to include, as a condition of the agreement, that the person pay a domestic abuse surcharge and, under certain circumstances, a global positioning surcharge, if he or she faces charges of child sexual abuse and he or she is either a close relative of the alleged victim or is a guardian or legal custodian of the alleged victim.

Under this bill, a deferred prosecution agreement may include, as a condition of the agreement, that the person pay the domestic abuse surcharge and, if applicable, a global positioning surcharge, if he or she is an adult who faces charges of any of the crimes related to domestic abuse against an adult that may be subject to a deferred prosecution agreement.

health and human services Children Under current law, if, after distributing money to counties for children and family services, there is an amount allocated for that purpose that is left over and that is in excess of the amount received by the federal government for foster care and transitional independent living programs and adoption assistance for children with special needs, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) must carry forward and distribute not less than 50 percent of that excess amount. DCF must distribute this excess amount to counties other than Milwaukee County that are making good faith efforts to implement the statewide automated child welfare information system for services and projects to assist children and families. Current law also generally requires counties to use not less than 50 percent of these moneys for services for children who are at risk of abuse or neglect to prevent the need for child abuse and neglect intervention services. This bill eliminates the requirement that DCF carry forward and distribute excess federal money.

Under current law, a county must match funds received from DCF for children and family services, in an amount specified annually by DCF, using county tax levies, federal and state revenue sharing funds, or private donations to the county that meet certain requirements. Current law prohibits a county from using private donations to make up more than 25 percent of the total county match. This bill removes the restriction on using private donations in the total county match.

Current law requires each county department of social services or human services (county department) to submit its final budget to DCF for services directly provided by or purchased from DCF (DCF service budget) by December 31 each year.

Current law also requires DCF, under certain circumstances, to distribute, allocate, and carry forward funds for children and family services to county departments and tribal governing bodies. Current law requires each county department and tribal governing body to submit to DCF a proposed budget for the expenditure of these funds (children and family aids budget) before December 1 of each year. This bill eliminates the requirement to submit a children and family aids budget, but does not eliminate the requirement to submit a DCF service budget.

Current law requires DCF, at the request of a county, tribal governing body, or private nonprofit organization, to carry forward up to 3 percent of the total amount allocated to the county, tribal governing body, or private nonprofit organization for children and family services for a calendar year. This bill eliminates the authority of DCF to carry forward amounts allocated to a tribal governing body or private nonprofit organization for children and family services for a calendar year.

Current law allows DCF to carry forward up to 10 percent of allocated children and family services funds, less any amount carried forward as requested, for emergencies, justifiable costs above planned levels, and increased costs due to population shifts. This bill instead requires DCF, at a county's request, to carry forward up to 10 percent of those funds for emergencies or other circumstances that DCF agrees were unforeseen when the original allocation to the county was made.

In addition, this bill requires any children and family services funds carried forward from one calendar year to the next to be used for children and family services and not general county administrative costs. The bill also prohibits any amount of funds carried forward from affecting the determination of a county's share of the children and family services funding allocated for a calendar year.

Under current law, DCF provides grants to certain counties, private agencies, and Indian tribes to fund home visitation programs. In a home visitation program, pregnant women who are eligible for Medical Assistance (MA) are offered an opportunity to undergo a risk assessment to determine whether they present risk factors for poor birth outcomes or for perpetrating child abuse or neglect. A person who is assessed to be at risk of poor birth outcomes or of abusing or neglecting his or her child is offered home visitation program services that begin during the prenatal period and may continue up until the child reaches five years of age. This bill allows DCF to provide these grants to cities as well.

Also under current law, DCF determines the amount of a home visitation program grant awarded to a county, private agency, or Indian tribe based on a formula that determines need based on the number of births that are funded by MA in the county, service area of the private agency, or reservation of the tribe and on the rate of poor birth outcomes, including infant mortality, premature births, low birth weights, and racial or ethnic disproportionality in the rates of those outcomes in that county, service area, or reservation. This bill changes how DCF determines the amount of a home visitation program grant by requiring the amount to be based on the need of the county, city, private agency, or Indian tribe and its capacity to participate in the home visitation program.

Various statutes are limited in application to Milwaukee County by references to "a county that has a population of 500,000 or more." Because of population increases in the state, this bill changes certain of those references that relate to children or DCF or Department of Health Services (DHS) responsibilities to "a county that has a population of 750,000 or more" so that those statutes continue to apply only to Milwaukee County.

Medical Assistance Under current law, certain federal MA moneys that are received in reimbursement of the cost of providing targeted case management services to children whose care is not eligible for reimbursement under Title IV-E of the federal Social Security Act (Title IV-E) are appropriated to DHS, transferred to DCF, and used to support the costs of augmenting the amount of moneys received under Title IV-E and of implementing the statewide automated child welfare information system and to provide services to children and families. This bill eliminates the transfer of MA moneys from DHS to DCF for these purposes and eliminates the requirement that DCF support the costs of augmenting the moneys received under Title IV-E.

Other health and human services Under current law, the state receives federal moneys as a result of a contract in conjunction with the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs (income augmentation funds). DHS is required to distribute a certain portion of these income augmentation funds to certain counties receiving community aids for providing community social, mental health, developmental disabilities, and alcohol and other drug abuse services. This bill eliminates the statutory requirements on spending income augmentation funds by DHS.