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).

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1023, Sec. 502. Effective September 29, 1996.)