BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          AB 1434 (Feuer) - Child abuse reporting: specified postsecondary 
          employees.
          
          Amended: June 25, 2012          Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: August 16, 2012                          
          Consultant: Jolie Onodera       
          
          SUSPENSE FILE.


          Bill Summary: AB 1434 would add an employee or administrator of 
          a public or private postsecondary institution whose duties bring 
          the person into contact with children on a regular basis, or who 
          supervises those whose duties bring the person into contact with 
          children on a regular basis, as to child abuse or neglect 
          occurring on that institution's premises or at an official 
          activity of, or program conducted by, the institution, to the 
          list of mandated child abuse and neglect reporters, as 
          specified.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              First-year cost pressure to public postsecondary 
              institutions potentially in excess of $200,000 (General 
              Fund) to develop training modules, policies and forms.
              Annual cost pressure to public postsecondary institutions 
              for ongoing training and administrative costs associated 
              with noticing, tracking, and compliance. 
              Potential costs, likely less than $150,000 (General Fund) 
              for increased state prison commitments to the extent 
              increasing the number of mandated reporters results in 
              additional felony convictions.
              Potential ongoing costs (Local Revenue Fund 2011/General 
              Fund) to county child welfare services departments for 
              fielding and investigation of increased mandated reports. 
              Ongoing costs to the Judicial Branch, likely in the range 
              of $25,000 to $50,000 (General Fund) for additional 
              misdemeanor and felony court filings.
              Minor, absorbable costs to the Department of Justice (DOJ) 
              to process additional CANRA reports.
              Non-reimbursable local law enforcement costs due to 
              additional reporting and investigation, as well as increased 








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              enforcement for failure to report, offset to a degree by 
              fine revenue.


          Background: Current law establishes the Child Abuse and Neglect 
          Reporting Act, which generally is intended to protect children 
          from abuse and neglect. Existing law enumerates 40 categories of 
          persons who are mandated child abuse and neglect reporters and 
          provides that, except as specified, "a mandated reporter shall 
          make a report?whenever the mandated reporter, in his or her 
          professional capacity or within the scope of his or her 
          employment, has knowledge of or observes a child whom the 
          mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the 
          victim of child abuse or neglect." 

          This bill and several others this session (see Related 
          Legislation) have been introduced largely in response to the 
          incidents at Penn State in 2011.
          
          Proposed Law: This bill would add to the existing list of 
          mandated reporters any employee or administrator of a public or 
          private postsecondary institution whose duties bring the 
          employee or administrator into contact with children on a 
          regular basis, or who supervises those whose duties bring the 
          employee or administrator into contact with children on a 
          regular basis, as to child abuse or neglect occurring on that 
          institution's premises or at an official activity of, or program 
          conducted by, the institution. This bill provides that nothing 
          in this section shall be construed as altering the lawyer-client 
          communication privilege as set forth in the Evidence Code, as 
          specified.
           
          Related Legislation: 
          AB 1435 (Dickinson) 2012 makes an athletic coach, athletic 
          administrator, or athletic director employed by any public or 
          private school that provides kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 
          12, inclusive, a mandated reporter. This bill is scheduled to be 
          heard in this Committee today.

          AB 1438 (Bradford) 2012 expands the existing crime for failing 
          to notify a peace officer of a specified violent crime against a 
          child under 14 to include non-forcible child molestation. This 
          bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Public Safety.









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          AB 1564 (Lara) 2012 makes volunteers of public or private 
          organizations including nonprofit organizations, whose duties 
          require direct contact with and supervision of children, 
          mandated reporters. This bill was not heard in the Assembly 
          Committee on Public Safety.

          AB 1713 (Campos) 2012 expands the existing definition of 
          commercial film and photographic print processors who are 
          mandated reporters to include several enumerated types of 
          computer-related data and imagery. This bill is scheduled to be 
          heard in this Committee today.

          AB 1817 (Atkins) 2012 would make commercial computer 
          technicians, as specified, mandated reporters. This bill has 
          been referred to this Committee for analysis.
          
          SB 1264 (Vargas) 2012 would add to the existing list of mandated 
          reporters any athletic coach, including, but not limited to, an 
          assistant coach or a graduate assistant involved in coaching, at 
          public or private postsecondary institutions. This bill has been 
          referred to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
          
          Staff Comments: Under current law, there are 40 enumerated 
          categories of mandated reporters including teachers, 
          instructional aides and others, which already may include the 
          individuals covered by the provisions of this bill. Current 
          statute, however, does not clearly specify higher education 
          employees.
          
          To the extent this bill expands the number of mandated reporters 
          could result in an increased number of incidents reported and 
          prosecuted, resulting in annual state incarceration costs of 
          $50,000 to $150,000 General Fund.

          The Judicial Council may incur increased misdemeanor filings 
          related to a mandated reporter's failure to report an incident 
          of child abuse or neglect, as well as increased felony filings 
          for investigated reports of abuse that could lead to prosecution 
          and incarceration. The annual impact to the Judicial Branch 
          could range from approximately $25,000 to $50,000 for 50 new 
          misdemeanor or 25 felony filings per year.

          Although not mandated, employers are strongly encouraged to 
          provide their employees who are mandated reporters with training 








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          in the duties imposed. Based upon the development of a similar 
          training program instituted at the University of California (UC) 
          on sexual harassment, one-time cost pressure to develop training 
          course content and materials at public postsecondary 
          institutions could be in the range of $200,000 (General Fund). 
          There would likely be annual ongoing cost pressure associated 
          with continued training for staff as well as administrative 
          costs for noticing, tracking, and compliance.

          Local law enforcement could also incur non-reimbursable 
          enforcement costs due to increased reporting and investigations, 
          as well as enforcement costs associated with failure to report, 
          offset to a degree by fine revenue.