BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1435
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1435 (Dickinson)
As Amended May 25, 2012
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Knight, Cedillo, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Hagman, Mitchell, Skinner | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Ammiano, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Makes athletic coaches, athletic administrators, and
athletic directors employed by a public or private organization
including, but not limited to, schools that provide Kindergarten
or any of Grades 1-12 inclusive, mandated reporters for the
purposes of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Defines "mandated reporter" under CANRA as any of the
following: a teacher; an instructional aide; a teacher's aide
or teacher's assistant employed by any public or private
school; a classified employee of any public school; an
administrative officer or supervisor of child welfare and
attendance, or a certificated pupil personnel employee of any
public or private school; an administrator of a public or
private day camp; an administrator or employee of a public or
private youth center, youth recreation program, or youth
organization; an administrator or employee of a public or
private organization whose duties require direct contact and
supervision of children; any employee of a county office of
education or the State Department of Education, whose duties
bring the employee into contact with children on a regular
basis; a licensee, an administrator, or an employee of a
licensed community care or child day care facility; a Head
Start program teacher; a licensing worker or licensing
evaluator employed by a licensing agency as defined; a public
assistance worker; an employee of a child care institution,
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including, but not limited to, foster parents, group home
personnel, and personnel of residential care facilities; a
social worker, probation officer, or parole officer; an
employee of a school district police or security department;
any person who is an administrator or presenter of, or a
counselor in, a child abuse prevention program in any public
or private school; a district attorney investigator,
inspector, or local child support agency caseworker unless the
investigator, inspector, or caseworker is working with an
attorney appointed to represent a minor; a peace officer, as
defined, who is not otherwise described in this section; a
firefighter, except for volunteer firefighters; a physician
and surgeon, psychiatrist, psychologist, dentist, resident,
intern, podiatrist, chiropractor, licensed nurse, dental
hygienist, optometrist, marriage and family therapist,
clinical social worker, professional clinical counselor, or
any other person who is currently licensed as a health care
professional as specified; any emergency medical technician I
or II, paramedic, or other person certified to provide
emergency medical services; a registered psychological
assistant; a marriage and family therapist trainee, as
defined; a registered unlicensed marriage and family therapist
intern; a state or county public health employee who treats a
minor for venereal disease or any other condition; a coroner;
a medical examiner, or any other person who performs
autopsies; a commercial film and photographic print processor,
as defined; a child visitation monitor, as defined; an animal
control officer or humane society officer, as defined; a
clergy member, as defined; any custodian of records of a
clergy member, as specified; any employee of any police
department, county sheriff's department, county probation
department, or county welfare department; an employee or
volunteer of a Court Appointed Special Advocate program, as
defined; any custodial officer, as defined; any person
providing services to a minor child, as specified; an alcohol
and drug counselor, as defined; a clinical counselor trainee,
as defined; and a registered clinical counselor intern.
2)Provides that volunteers of public or private organizations,
except a volunteer of a Court Appointed Special Advocate
program, whose duties require direct contact with and
supervision of children are not mandated reporters but are
encouraged to obtain training in the identification and
reporting of child abuse and neglect and are further
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encouraged to report known or suspected instances of child
abuse or neglect to a specified agency.
3)Encourages, strongly, employers to provide their employees who
are mandated reporters with training in the duties imposed by
CANRA. This training shall include training in child abuse
and neglect identification and training in child abuse and
neglect reporting. Whether or not employers provide their
employees with training in child abuse and neglect
identification and reporting, the employers shall provide
their employees who are mandated reporters with a statement
that informs the employee that he or she is a mandated
reporter and informs the employee of his or her reporting
obligations and of his or her confidentiality rights.
4)Encourages public and private organizations to provide their
volunteers whose duties require direct contact with and
supervision of children with training in the identification
and reporting of child abuse and neglect.
5)Requires a mandated reporter to make a report to a specified
agency 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. The mandated reporter shall
make an initial report to the agency immediately or as soon as
is practicably possible by telephone and the mandated reporter
shall prepare and send, fax, or electronically transmit a
written followup report thereof within 36 hours of receiving
the information concerning the incident. The mandated
reporter may include with the report any nonprivileged
documentary evidence the mandated reporter possesses relating
to the incident.
6)Any mandated reporter who fails to report an incident of known
or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect as required by
this section is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to
six months confinement in a county jail or by a fine of $1,000
or by both that imprisonment and fine. If a mandated reporter
intentionally conceals his or her failure to report an
incident known by the mandated reporter to be abuse or severe
neglect under this section, the failure to report is a
continuing offense until a specified agency discovers the
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offense.
7)Defines "child" under CANRA to mean person under the age of 18
years.
8)Defines "child abuse or neglect" under CANRA to include
physical injury or death inflicted by other than accidental
means upon a child by another person, sexual abuse as defined,
neglect as defined, the willful harming or injuring of a child
or the endangering of the person or health of a child as
defined, and unlawful corporal punishment or injury as
defined. "Child abuse or neglect" does not include a mutual
affray between minors. "Child abuse or neglect" does not
include an injury caused by reasonable and necessary force
used by a peace officer acting within the course and scope of
his or her employment as a peace officer.
9)Requires any person who reasonably believes that he or she has
observed the commission of any of the following offenses where
the victim is a child under the age of 14 years shall notify a
peace officer:
a) Murder;
b) Rape; and,
c) Any lewd or lascivious act upon or with the body, or any
part or member thereof, of a child with the intent of
arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions,
or sexual desires of that person or the child by use of
force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and
unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person.
10)States that the failure to notify as required pursuant to the
provisions above is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine
of not more than $1,500, by imprisonment in a county jail for
not more than six months, or by both that fine and
imprisonment.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, expanding the list of mandatory reporters. Ongoing
costs likely less than $150,000.
1)Potentially minor annual General Fund (GF) costs, likely less
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than $150,000, for increased state prison commitments to the
extent increasing the number of mandated reporters results in
additional state prison commitments.
2)Potentially minor annual GF costs, likely less than $150,000,
to the extent the state is required to fund additional social
workers to respond to increased workload.
3)Absorbable annual costs to Department of Justice to process
additional CANRA reports.
4)Unknown, minor nonreimbursable local law enforcement costs for
additional reporting and investigation.
5)Unknown, minor nonreimbursable local costs for prosecution and
punishment of mandated reporters who fail to report, offset to
a degree by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "A number of recent events
involving instances of sexual abuse between athletic coaches and
youth whom coaches instruct, has focused attention as to whether
coaches have the proper training about what constitutes sexual
abuse of minors, and what to do if they, as coaches, become
aware of a youth who is or has been the subject of abuse.
Perhaps the highest profile event concerned the late Penn State
football coach, Joe Paterno, who claimed in an interview, that
upon receiving a report of another coach who was abusing youth
'I didn't know exactly how to handle it . . . ' Recently, an
article in the Sacramento Bee identified at least a half dozen
cases of improper contact and sexual abuse between coaches and
youth who were in their charge, in the Sacramento region alone,
within a six month period. These and other reports have
underscored shortcomings in both the state's mandated reporter
law?coaches are not explicitly covered, and a lack of training
and education of athletic coaches, administrators and directors,
in terms of what is inappropriate and illegal behavior, and what
to do if they become aware of such behavior.
"California has taken the lead in making sure people are safe in
their workplace and that their civil rights are protected. For
example, the state has mandated employers provide sexual
harassment training in organizations that employ 50 or more
workers. It is equally, or even more important that children
are similarly protected and that every precaution be taken to
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ensure that goal, especially when youth are in situations of
trust such as that which exists between a coach and children
they instruct. In that regard, closing the coaching gap in
California's Mandated Reporter law and requiring athletic
coaches, administrators, and directors receive the sexual abuse
and neglect training required by this legislation, takes a big
step forward in achieving that goal."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0003819