State Children's Trust Fund

The State Children’s Trust Fund (SCTF) was established as a separate fund in the state treasury in 1983 for the purpose of child abuse and neglect prevention. The Legislature specified the Office of Child Abuse Prevention as responsible for administering programs and projects with the SCTF’s annual allocation. Welfare and Institutions Code Section 18969 limits administrative costs to no more than five percent of the annual allocation. The SCTF is derived from moneys from state income tax voluntary donations, a percentage of birth certificate fees from state vital statistics, and a portion of specialty license plate revenue.

Visit SCTF Program descriptions and expenditures to learn more about programs supported by the State Children's Trust Fund. You can help continue the efforts to protect our children from abuse and neglect by donating to the SCTF. Click to learn how.

Programs currently supported by the SCTF include:

Strategies Technical Assistance

Strategies Technical Assistance (TA) is a collaborative effort between the Child Abuse Prevention Center and the Children's Bureau of Southern California to support and inspire cross-sector networks throughout California to advance community-driven action to strengthen children and families, centered in equity and inclusion. Together, they work with child welfare systems and Child Abuse Prevention Councils to build county and state-wide coordinated, comprehensive, and integrated networks of care through individualized technical assistance focused on building statewide long-term solutions that are research-driven, trauma-informed, and community-focused. Strategies TA is focused on building long-term statewide solutions that enable counties to work together toward creating a seamless, sustainable, and impactful statewide child abuse prevention network.

Economic Empowerment

The Economic Empowerment grants provide funding for support and training in the “Your Money, Your Goals” financial empowerment toolkit developed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau throughout the state of California. The intent of the curriculum is to empower parents by building their ability to manage money, use financial services, and provide access to products that work for them, thus lowering financial stress and reducing the risk factors of child maltreatment.

Department of General Services

Department of General Services provides materials to advertise special Kids Plate automobile license plates.

Public Awareness Campaigns

Public awareness campaigns for child safety concerns such as Abusive Head Trauma/Shaken Baby Syndrome, Safe Surrender Baby Law, Safe Sleep and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The Legislature’s intent for the SCTF includes:

Dissemination and Research

Funding of large-scale dissemination of information that will promote public awareness regarding the nature and incidence of child abuse and neglect and the availability of services for intervention including but not limited to, the production of public service announcements, well-designed posters, pamphlets, booklets, videos, and other media tools.