ARTICLE 5. Children’s Trust Fund [18965. - 18971.]

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC 5.

in effect

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18965. Section 18965.

A county board of supervisors may designate an existing local voluntary commission, board or council in order to carry out the purposes of this article. The commission shall either be a commission whose duties are primarily related to services for children, with special emphasis upon child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention services, or whose duties relate to human services.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18966. Section 18966.

(a) When a county board of supervisors designates a commission pursuant to Section 18965, the board of supervisors shall establish a county children’s trust fund. The children’s trust fund shall consist of the fees for birth certificates, collected pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, grants, gifts, or bequests from private sources to be used for child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs, any funds appropriated by local governmental entities to the trust fund, and any funds appropriated to the county for the trust fund by the Legislature. The local registrar or county recorder may, however, retain a percentage, not to exceed 10 percent, of the surcharge collectible pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, in order to defray the costs of collection. (b) (1) The county treasurer shall transmit moneys collected from birth certificate fees for the county children’s trust fund, pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, collected with respect to the birth certificate of a child whose mother was a resident of another county at the time of the birth to the treasurer of the county of the mother’s residence at the time of the birth if the county to receive the funds has established a program pursuant to this article. (2) Paragraph (1) applies only to the collection and payment of the four-dollar ($4) fee to the county children’s trust fund, pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, and does not apply to the collection and payment of the two-dollar ($2) fee to the Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program Fund or any other assessment authorized by statute and levied by a local jurisdiction.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18966.1. Section 18966.1.

(a) Any federal funds provided for child abuse prevention challenge grants to provide matching funds to states that have established children’s trust funds shall be allocated to the counties’ children’s trust funds in the following manner: (1) Counties that receive less than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) per annum for their county children’s trust funds from the fees on birth certificates collected pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, shall be granted from federal matching funds that amount necessary to bring that income to the trust fund to twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) per year. If the state’s annual federal matching fund allocation is insufficient to provide each county children’s trust fund with a minimum total annual funding level of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), the Office of Child Abuse Prevention shall determine an allocation process for federal matching funds to ensure that each county children’s trust fund receives a minimum level of annual funding from all sources. (2) The remaining funds from the federal challenge grant shall then be distributed equally among all the counties, up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per county. (3) If sufficient federal matching funds exist after each county children’s trust fund is provided a total annual children’s trust fund allocation of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) and after each county children’s trust fund receives a maximum annual allocation of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in federal matching funds, the remaining federal matching funds shall be distributed to each county children’s trust fund according to population. (b) (1) Federal challenge grant funds shall be received by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention and allocated in the manner specified in subdivision (a). (2) Boards of supervisors may establish criteria for determining which programs shall receive funding. Boards of supervisors may accept all program proposals, prioritize those proposals, and make the final decision as to which programs shall receive funds. (c) Federal matching funds shall be allocated pursuant to subdivision (a) for counties that have not established a local children’s trust fund and shall be transferred to that county’s existing children’s trust fund established by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention in the State Children’s Trust Fund. Nothing in this section shall prevent a county that has not established a local children’s trust fund from establishing a local children’s trust fund. (d) Receipt by a county of any federal funds available for the purposes set forth in this section shall be contingent upon the provision of assurances that the county will provide to the Office of Child Abuse Prevention all information necessary to meet federal reporting mandates. Those information needs shall be identified by the department at the time federal funds are allocated. (e) Moneys received by a county children’s trust fund from private voluntary contributions shall not be considered in the calculation of federal challenge grant allocations pursuant to subdivision (a).

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18967. Section 18967.

Money in the children’s trust fund of each county shall be used to fund child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs operated by private nonprofit organizations or public institutions of higher education with recognized expertise in fields related to child welfare. The designated commission shall establish criteria for determining those programs which shall receive funding. The commission shall accept all program proposals that meet criteria set by the commission, shall prioritize these proposals, and shall make recommendations to the board of supervisors as to those proposals which the commission feels should receive funding. The board of supervisors shall make the final decision as to which programs shall be funded. The county shall use no more than 5 percent of the amounts in the trust fund for administrative costs.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18968. Section 18968.

In any county where the board of supervisors does not designate a commission to carry out the purposes of this article, pursuant to Section 18965, except for a percentage of the receipts necessary for purposes of collection, the amount collected for the surcharge upon birth certificates pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code shall be transferred by the local registrar or county recorder to the Treasurer for deposit in the State Children’s Trust Fund.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18968.5. Section 18968.5.

Amounts collected for the surcharge upon birth certificates pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code that would have been transferred by the local registrar or county recorder to the Treasurer for deposit in the State Children’s Trust Fund shall, instead, revert to the county children’s trust fund when the board of supervisors designates a commission to carry out the purposes of this article, pursuant to Section 18965.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18969. Section 18969.

(a) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a fund which shall be known as the State Children’s Trust Fund. The fund shall consist of funds received from a county pursuant to Section 18968, funds collected by the state and transferred to the fund pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code and Article 1 (commencing with Section 18701) of Chapter 3 of Part 10.2 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, grants, gifts, or bequests made to the state from private sources to be used for innovative and distinctive child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention projects, and money appropriated to the fund for this purpose by the Legislature. The State Registrar may retain a percentage of the fees collected pursuant to Section 103625 of the Health and Safety Code, not to exceed 10 percent, in order to defray the costs of collection. (b) Money in the State Children’s Trust Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, shall be allocated to the State Department of Social Services for the purpose of funding child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs. The department may not supplant any federal, state, or county funds with any funds made available through the State Children’s Trust Fund. (c) The department may establish positions as needed for the purpose of implementing and administering child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs that are funded by the State Children’s Trust Fund. However, the department shall use no more than 5 percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this section, exclusive of the funds transferred to the State Children’s Trust Fund pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 18701) of Chapter 3 of Part 10.2 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, for administrative costs. Administrative costs do not include the moneys allocated to the department to pursue public education about child abuse and neglect prevention and early intervention as described in subdivision (b) of Section 18703 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. (d) No State Children’s Trust Fund money shall be used to supplant state General Fund money for any purpose. (e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the State Children’s Trust Fund provide for all of the following: (1) The development of a public-private partnership by encouraging consistent outreach to the private foundation and corporate community. (2) Funds for large-scale dissemination of information that will promote public awareness regarding the nature and incidence of child abuse and the availability of services for intervention. These public awareness activities shall include, but not be limited to, the production of public service announcements, well-designed posters, pamphlets, booklets, videos, and other media tools. (3) Research and demonstration projects that explore the nature and incidence and the development of long-term solutions to the problem of child abuse. (4) The development of a mechanism to provide ongoing public awareness through activities that will promote the charitable tax deduction for the trust fund and seek continued contributions. These activities may include convening a philanthropic roundtable, developing literature for use by the State Bar of California for dissemination, and whatever other activities are deemed necessary and appropriate to promote the trust fund.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18970. Section 18970.

(a) The department shall expend funds appropriated to it pursuant to Section 18969 for innovative local child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs operated by private nonprofit organizations or public institutions of higher education with recognized expertise in fields related to child welfare. These projects shall be joined to formal evaluation components. (b) These funds may also be used for evaluation, research, or dissemination of information concerning existing program models for the purpose of replication of successful models. (c) The Office of Child Abuse Prevention and those local commissions designated by the county boards of supervisors shall collect and publish the following data relevant to the state and local children’s trust funds: (1) Descriptions of the types of programs and services funded by local and state children’s trust funds and the target populations benefiting from these programs. (2) The amount in each portion of the state and local trust fund as of June 30 each year, beginning June 30, 1987, as well as the amount disbursed in the preceding fiscal year. (e) (1) Funds shall be expended from the moneys appropriated to the State Children’s Trust Fund pursuant to Section 18969 of this code and Section 103590 of the Health and Safety Code to enable the Office of Child Abuse Prevention to annually collect and publish the data specified in subdivision (c). (2) Funds may be expended from local children’s trust funds established pursuant to Section 18966 to enable those local commissions designated by the county boards of supervisors in accordance with Section 18966 to annually collect and publish the data specified in subdivision (c).

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 18971. Section 18971.

Priority for funds transferred to the State Children’s Trust Fund pursuant to Section 18968 shall be given to funding child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs operated by private nonprofit organizations or public institutions of higher education with recognized expertise in fields related to child welfare in the county where the funds originated, and where the county board of supervisors has not designated a commission pursuant to Section 18965 and has not established a county children’s trust fund pursuant to Section 18966. The department may allow the funds for a small county to accumulate to a usable amount, or fund regional programs serving several small counties. The department shall establish criteria for determining which programs shall be funded. Applicants for funding shall submit proposals to the department in response to a request for proposals. If there is no acceptable response to the department’s requests for proposals from qualified public institutions of higher education or private nonprofit organizations in a county, then the department may use the funds from that county pursuant to Section 18970.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026