Amended in Assembly March 21, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 845

Introduced by Assembly Member Cooley

February 21, 2013

An act to begin delete amend end delete begin insert add and repeal end insert Section begin delete 24522 of end delete begin insert 24523 of end insert the Health and Safety Code, relating to infant safety.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 845, as amended, Cooley. Shaken baby syndrome.

Existing law requires that information and instructional materials regarding shaken baby syndrome be provided free of charge by each health facility to parents or guardians of each newborn, upon discharge from the health facility begin insert and by the State Department of Social Services to child care providers upon licensure end insert .

This bill would begin delete make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions end delete begin insert require the department, in consultation end insert begin insert with the State Department of Public Health, the Department of Justice, the Office of Emergency Services, and First Five California, to develop a process for the selection of counties and to select eligible counties in the state to voluntarily participate in the program, which is designed to provide new parents and other adult caregivers of newborns and young infants with information and education relating to the prevention of shaken baby syndrome end insert .

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The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2020, to evaluate and submit to the Legislature a report on the effectiveness of the program in reducing the number of injuries and infant deaths in the state resulting from shaken baby syndrome, including a review of benchmarks, feedback about the program, and improvement opportunities, as applicable. The bill would provide that the activities required by its provisions shall be funded with available moneys from the Children’s Trust Fund. The bill would also authorize the department to accept and expend other private funds received by the department from donations for the purposes of the program.

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The bill would make its provisions inoperative on July 1, 2020, and repeal them by January 1, 2021.

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Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

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begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

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begin insert Section 24523 is added to the end insert begin insert Health and Safety
Code end insert begin insert , to read: end insert

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begin insert 24523. end insert   

(a) The department, in consultation with the State
Department of Public Health, the Department of Justice, the Office
of Emergency Services, First Five California, and other interested
stakeholders shall, by July 1, 2015, develop and implement the
Shaken Baby Syndrome Education Program. The program is
intended to use delivery approaches and public education materials
for the presentation of information on shaken baby syndrome,
based on current scientific evidence and best practices. The
program shall be in effect for no more than five years.

(b) The department, in consultation with the State Department
of Public Health, the Department of Justice, the Office of
Emergency Services, and First Five California, shall develop a
process for the selection of eligible counties in the state to
voluntarily participate in the program and select the counties that
will participate. A county shall participate at its option.

(c) In designing the Shaken Baby Syndrome Education Program,
using its own experts and drawing on the expertise of stakeholders,
the department shall select the most appropriate evidence-based
approaches to provide new parents and caregivers of newborns
and young infants with information and education relating to
shaken baby syndrome, including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Selecting and developing instructional materials designed
to teach parents and other caregivers of infants about shaken baby
syndrome and its prevention.

(2) Providing information and materials to parents and
caregivers of infants, based on the current best practices for the
delivery of educational and prevention-related information.

(3) Developing an implementation plan that addresses the
phasing in, including the launch, expansion, and bringing to scale
of the core components of the evidence-based program across the
state and that incorporates additional components as appropriate
to raise awareness of shaken baby syndrome.

(d) The department shall, by January 1, 2020, prepare and
submit to the Legislature a report evaluating the effectiveness of
the program in reducing the number of injuries and infant deaths
in the state from shaken baby syndrome, including a review of the
benchmarks, feedback about the program, and improvement
opportunities, as applicable.

(e) The activities required by this section shall be funded with
available moneys from the Children’s Trust Fund, established
pursuant to Section 18969 of the Welfare and Institutions Code,
but shall not be funded from General Fund moneys. The State
Department of Social Services may also accept and expend other
private funds from donations that are received by the department
for the purposes of this section.

(f) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and,
as of January 1, 2021, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2021, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.

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SECTION 1.  

Section 24522 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

24522.  

(a) Information and instructional materials as described
in Section 24521 shall be provided free of charge by each health
facility to parents or guardians of each newborn, upon discharge
from the health facility. In the event of a home birth attended by
a licensed midwife, the midwife shall provide the information and
instructional materials to the parents or guardians of the newborn.

(b) The State Department of Social Services shall provide the
information and instructional materials free of charge to child care
providers upon licensure and at the time of a site visit.

(c) The information and instructional materials provided
pursuant to this section shall focus upon the serious nature of the
risk to infants and young children presented by shaken baby
syndrome.

(d) The requirement that informational and instructional
materials be provided pursuant to this section applies only if those
materials have been supplied to those persons or entities that are
required to provide the materials. The persons or entities required
to provide these materials shall not be subject to any legal cause
of action whatsoever based on the requirements of this section.

(e) For persons or agencies providing these materials pursuant
to this section, this section does not require the provision of
duplicative or redundant informational and instructional materials.

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