At the beginning of July, the Department, in collaboration with the Juvenile Court, County Counsel and the District Attorney’s Office, implemented the Parent Locator Project in an effort to increase the effectiveness of the Department’s due diligence efforts. As a result, regional Due Diligence Clerks and Dependency Investigation Assistants are now able to initiate searches for absent parents on the California Parent Locator System by e-mailing or faxing the necessary information to the Department’s Parent Locator Clerks who are housed at the District Attorney’s Office. Thus far, an impressive number of absent parents have been located via these searches. Training and procedural guides for staff regarding Parent Locator searches are in the works and should be forthcoming in the near future. The following interim procedures for obtaining the searches are provided as a "preview of coming attractions":

E-Mail Procedures

• Upon receipt of a DCFS 136, Notice/Search Request, from a Children’s Social Worker, the regional Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant shall e-mail (via LA Net /Microsoft Outlook) all available identifying information (i.e., full name, including AKAs; gender; date of birth; Social Security Number; Driver’s License Number; State Number; child’s name, date of birth and Social Security Number) to the Department’s Parent Locator Clerk(s) at the District Attorney’s Office in Commerce. The "Parent Locator Search Request" form/template (available on LAKids) shall be used to convey the information to either of the Parent Locator Clerks. Their e-mail addresses are:

Shawn_Atkins/District_Attorney_Office_County_of_Los_Angeles@da.co.la.ca.us

Phyllis_Powell/District_Attorney_Office_County_of_Los_Angeles@da.co.la.ca.us

• Upon receipt of the e-mail form, the Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall log in the request according to District Attorney requirements.

• The Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall complete the search on the system and copy the search findings/results to a secondary screen.

• The Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall input the search results on the second portion of the e-mail form/template, send it back to the requesting Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant and log in completion of the process according to District Attorney requirements.

• The regional Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant shall enter information on CWS/CMS regarding the initiation and results of the Parent Locator search.

FAX (Back-Up) Procedures

• Upon receipt of a DCFS 136, Notice/Search Request, from a Children’s Social Worker, the regional Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant shall fax the form to the Department’s Parent Locator Clerk(s) at (323) 869-0329.

• Upon receipt of a DCFS 136, the Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall log in the request according to District Attorney requirements.

• The Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall complete the search on the system and print out the search findings/results.

• After faxing the results of the search back to the sending/requesting Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant, the Parent Locator Clerk(s) shall log in completion of the process according to District Attorney requirements.

• The regional Due Diligence Clerk/Dependency Investigation Assistant shall enter information on CWS/CMS regarding the initiation and results of the Parent Locator search.