Article 2. County Program Evaluation of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 10.5. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 6. >> Article 2.

The Legislature recognizes that local program effectiveness may be evaluated in a variety of ways, but should reflect the needs and priorities of the local community and attempt to measure the achievement of objectives determined through the planning process described in this part. The Legislature further recognizes that the conducting of these evaluations is essential to holding county alcohol and other drug programs accountable for their use of funds and increasing program effectiveness. The Legislature recognizes the beneficial results of the local evaluation process to those participating in this process. The Legislature desires to encourage experimentation and diversity in the methods utilized by counties to evaluate the county alcohol and other drug programs' achievement of their objectives, including, but not limited to, evaluations of individuals' progress, changes in utilization rates, changes in community attitudes, and measurement of specific programmatic goals in order to advance our knowledge about the effectiveness of programs in alleviating alcohol and other drug problems.

Each county shall ensure the evaluation of all funded programs to determine whether they have achieved their objectives as determined in the planning process. In addition, recognizing the difficulty and expense of conducting effective county alcohol and other drug program evaluation, the department may assist counties in developing evaluation designs for implementation by counties to measure progress of alcohol or other drug users, changes in community attitudes toward inappropriate alcohol use and other drug problems, changes in the incidence and prevalence of alcohol and other drug problems within the county, or other objectives identified in the planning process. The department, in cooperation with counties that choose to participate, may assist and fund counties to implement the evaluation designs developed. Counties may contract with public or private agencies and utilize funds allocated under this part for purposes of conducting the evaluations.

The department may disseminate information about the evaluation projects to all counties and interested persons throughout the state in order to advance the knowledge of the field about these evaluation methodologies.