LA County Board

17. Redefining the Board Priority around Child Protection and Renaming the Office of Child Protection Recommendation as submitted by Supervisors Horvath and Mitchell: Instruct the Acting Executive Director of the Office of Child Protection to: Work with the Acting Chief Executive Office and the Executive Officer of the Board, to immediately redefine the Board Directed Priority from “Child Protection” to “Child, Youth, and Family Well-Being” and direct the Office of Child Protection (OCP) to change its name to the “Office of Child, Youth, and Family Well-Being.” The priority language should include both language from the County’s stated mission to protect children, support families, and champion success as well as explicitly reflect community members feedback, that supporting families is the most effective form of prevention. The new priority area should frame prevention, stability, family preservation, and economic and emotional well-being as core child protection strategies. This change should be reflected and on all County websites, materials, and work moving forward. Integrate the following structural implementation actions into their implementation of their strategic plan, as well as the Countywide Prevention and Promotion Strategic Plan: simplify access to programs and reduce system-induced harm; better coordinate a Countywide network of care; and outline a strategy for investment in community capacity, workforce stability, and trust. As part of this work, the Acting Executive Director of the Office of Child Protection should work with all relevant County Department Heads and initiative leads to incorporate these actions into their departmental workplans and strategic plans, consistent with the Unified Prevention Framework. The OCP to include accountability mechanisms within the Prevention and Promotion Strategic Plan, including: clear communication with communities about what structural changes are being implemented and on what timeline; ongoing engagement of lived experts as partners in implementation and evaluation; identify and implement the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators to assess whether families report feeling safer seeking help earlier and experiencing improved access and coordination including indicators such as early help-seeking, reduced crisis-driven system entry, improved service coordination, and family-reported trust and access. Instruct all County Departments and County initiatives that provide direct services to children, youth and families to operationalize the redefined priority through Departmental planning, budget decision-making, and performance alignment. This should be done by the end of Fiscal Year 2026-27. Departments should prepare Departmental workplans that discuss how they will: Prioritize effective prevention and early-intervention investments when making budgetary decisions, particularly those demonstrated to reduce entries and system involvement for children, youth, and families. This should include establishing guardrails that prevent effective prevention models from being cut from budgets without evaluation. Align existing performance measures, where applicable, to emphasize prevention and positive family outcomes, such as reduced removals, reduced crisis-driven entry, increased family stability, and increased engagement in positive, upstream supports, rather than creating new reporting requirements. Enhance or integrate existing strategies-or develop new strategies-to address economic stressors for children, youth, and families. Identify and address policy or administrative barriers across Departments that unintentionally create access barriers or system-induced harm for families. Continue working to align or integrate data systems that support coordinated prevention and family well-being efforts. These written workplans should be submitted to the Board by June 30, 2027. The OCP and relevant County Departments integrate addressing basic needs and economic stability into the Prevention and Promotion Strategic Plan and Departmental workplans, rather than treating them as ancillary or separate efforts. Economic stability should be recognized as a core child safety and maltreatment prevention strategy. As part of the ongoing work through the Prevention and Promotion Strategic Plan, Departments should identify how existing programs and initiatives address economic stress for families they serve and where gaps remain. This should be done on an annual basis. Departments administering housing and homelessness programs, including Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Homeless Services and Housing, Department of Mental Health, Department of Youth Development, to align housing stability efforts as a core prevention strategy for children and families. Departments supporting childcare and early learning, including the Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Office of Education, to explore ways to expand access to childcare, including extended-hour childcare (e.g., early morning, evening, and non-traditional-hour care) to support working families. Departments focused on workforce development, including the Department of Economic Opportunity, to align workforce pathways and livable-wage strategies with family-serving systems. Departments and initiatives implementing direct financial assistance or guaranteed income pilots, including the Poverty Alleviation Initiative, to coordinate learning and explore expansion where evidence supports prevention and family stability outcome. (26-1590) Motion by Supervisors Horvath and Mitchell (Updates Following Cluster)