BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1264
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1264 (Vargas)
As Amended April 25, 2012
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :38-0
PUBLIC SAFETY 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Knight, Cedillo, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, |
| |Hagman, Mitchell, Hall | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Fuentes, |
| | | |Hall, Hill, Cedillo, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Makes any athletic coach, including but not limited
to, an assistant coach or graduate assistant involved in
coaching at a public or private postsecondary institution,
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
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evaluator employed by a licensing agency as defined; a public
assistance worker; an employee of a child care institution,
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
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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
encouraged to report known or suspected instances`
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 follow-up 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)Specifies that 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 one thousand dollars ($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
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section, the failure to report is a continuing offense until a
specified agency discovers the offense.
7)Defines "child" under CANRA as a 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.
11)Excludes from the reporting requirements above the following:
a) A person who is related to either the victim or the
offender, including a husband, wife, parent, child,
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brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, or other person
related by consanguinity or affinity; and,
b) A person who fails to report based on a reasonable
mistake of fact.
12)A person who fails to report based on a reasonable fear for
his or her own safety or for the safety of his or her family.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Cost pressure to University of California, California State
University and the California Community Colleges, potentially
in the range of several hundred thousands of dollars total,
for mandated reporter training and administrative costs
(providing employees a statement that they are now mandated
reporters and what the requirements entail). It is important
to note, however, that while statute encourages training, it
does not require it, and there are existing mandated reporter
training materials that would likely make the costs of such
training absorbable.
2)Potentially minor annual General Fund (GF) costs, likely less
than $150,000, for increased state prison commitments to the
extent increasing the number of mandated reporters results in
additional state prison commitments.
3)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.
4)Absorbable annual costs to Department of Justice to process
additional CANRA reports.
5)Unknown minor nonreimbursable local law enforcement costs for
additional reporting and investigation.
6)Unknown, minor nonreimbursable local costs for prosecution and
punishment of mandated reporters who fail to report, offset to
some extent by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "After reading the grand
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jury report, I got sick. I couldn't believe those men, who are
adults and leaders, didn't take the abuse they witnessed and
learned of immediately to the police. Our children's safety
must always come first, and we should hold University coaches of
every level accountable for reporting sexual abuse."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0004980