The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the overarching federal law
regarding state and federal activities to address child abuse and neglect. CAPTA was originally enacted in 1974 and has been amended numerous times since then. CAPTA first was amended to require states to develop procedures for the release of specified information about child fatalities that occur as a result of abuse or neglect.

In 2007, California enacted a comprehensive set of requirements related to the public release of information related to child fatalities. SB 39 (Migden) went beyond the requirements of CAPTA for fatalities that occur as a result of abuse or neglect. CAPTA was more recently amended to require states to develop procedures for the release of information related to near fatalities that occur to children as the result of abuse or neglect.

The Governor’s May Revision contains proposed trailer bill language, which has been reviewed and approved by the federal Administration for Children and Families as bringing California into compliance with CAPTA, would require counties to release information about near-fatalities in the form of a written summary.

CWDA and SEIU State Council support the trailer bill language proposed in the May Revision by the Administration to bring the state into compliance with federal requirements related to the reporting of information on near-fatalities that occur to children as the result of abuse or neglect.

Read CWDA and SEIU’s joint support letters:

• Letter of Support to the Honorable Holly Mitchell, Chair, Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 3 - May 17, 2016
• Letter of Support to The Honorable Tony Thurmond Chair, Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 - May 17, 2016