Answer:
This report concludes that, although the intent of the safe-surrender law is admirable, it
does not impose sufficient requirements on any state agency to publicize its availability, thus
potentially reducing the law’s effectiveness. Moreover, the State’s failure to provide consistent
funding for promoting the law may further reduce its effectiveness. However, the Department
of Social Services (Social Services) did conduct a media campaign from October 2002 to
December 2003 to increase public awareness of the safe-surrender law. We also found that
many counties have developed interesting approaches to increase public awareness of the law.
Although Social Services’ initial efforts exceeded its statutory obligations, it has not developed
any further goals for conducting additional activities to publicize the safe-surrender law
because it believes it has fulfilled its minimal obligations. The department also stated that the
ongoing awareness efforts at the local level, combined with the lack of an “alarming increase”
in the number of abandoned babies mitigate the need for additional efforts. However, our
audit revealed that Social Services is using understated statistics on abandoned babies when it
concludes that further efforts to heighten public awareness are unnecessary.
Explanation:
