Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code § 16501.95

(a) The State Department of Social Services shall determine which entities meet the definition of a “child welfare contributing agency,” as defined in Section 1355.51 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations. (b) The department shall develop and issue written directives for child welfare contributing agencies to submit data to the applicable statewide child welfare information system. These directives shall address all of the following: (1) Identification of which entities meet the definition of a child welfare contributing agency, as defined in federal regulations. (2) The data that a child welfare contributing agency shall provide. (3) The method in which a child welfare contributing agency shall provide data, which shall include either of the following: (A) Direct data entry into the statewide child welfare information system. (B) A bidirectional data exchange between the information systems maintained by the child welfare contributing agency and the statewide child welfare information system. (4) A timeline for providing the specified data in the required manner. (c) In accordance with the written directives of the department, a child welfare contributing agency shall provide child welfare services data that is collected as a result of fulfilling their contracts or agreements with the department or a county child welfare department, to the statewide child welfare information system. (d) Notwithstanding any other law, until regulations are adopted, the department may issue written directives by provider bulletins or all-county letters, as applicable. These written directives shall have the same force and effect as regulations. The written directives shall be exempt from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code).