BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 883
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 14, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 883 (Cooley) - As Amended: January 6, 2014
SUBJECT : Child sexual abuse: prevention and intervention
programs
SUMMARY : Establishes the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes a number of legislative findings regarding the
consequences of child abuse and neglect.
2)Establishes the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program as a
pilot program, in no more than three counties, to provide
child sexual abuse prevention and intervention services, as
specified.
3)Appropriates $50,000 from the state General Fund, on an annual
basis, to each county that conducts a pilot program to reduce
and prevent child sexual abuse.
4)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to select the
three counties that will participate in the pilot program
based on the Department's determination that the counties have
significant incidences of homeless youth, child abuse, child
sexual abuse, sexually exploited minors, minors involved in
prostitution, or human trafficking.
5)Requires the county board of supervisors of a participating
county to allocate the funding provided through the pilot, as
specified, to public, private, and nonprofit agencies that
demonstrate broad community support in addition to evidence
that the proposed services are not duplicated in the community
and that the program is supported by a local public agency.
6)Encourages participating counties to give priority to programs
that have demonstrated effectiveness in serving at-risk
children, as specified, and requires that the funds
appropriated through this pilot not supplant any existing
funding used to serve at-risk children.
AB 883
Page 2
7)Requires the local agency administering the funds to compile
and collect specified data on the efficacy of the pilot
program.
8)Requires each participating county to provide an annual report
to DSS and the Legislature that includes information on the
effectiveness of the pilot program in addressing child sexual
abuse in the county, as well as an accurate accounting of all
funds received and spent through the pilot program.
9)Requires each participating county to propose a multiyear plan
to address child sexual abuse and other needs of at-risk
children, as specified, and authorizes each pilot program to
establish local prevention plans and measure changes in the
community condition and attitudes toward child sexual abuse.
10)Establishes a January 1, 2017 sunset date for the pilot
program.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act, under which state child protective services systems and
child abuse prevention activities are supported. (42 U.S.C.
§5101 et seq.)
2)Establishes the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA),
which establishes definitions for abuse and neglect,
enumerates 40 categories of child abuse mandated reporters,
and requires any person, as specified, who reasonably believes
that he or she has observed the commission of a murder, rape
or forcible molestation against a child to notify a peace
officer. (PC 11164 et seq.)
3)Establishes the Maxine Waters Child Abuse Prevention Training
Act of 1984, under which the Office of Child Abuse Prevention
is established within the State Department of Social Services
(DSS), defines primary prevention programs under the Act as
training and educational programs for children that are
directed toward preventing the occurrence of child abuse,
including physical abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect and
child abductions, and toward reducing the general
vulnerability of children, including training for parents and
school staff. (WIC 18975 et seq.)
AB 883
Page 3
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : This bill creates a pilot program that would provide
state funding to counties for the purpose of establishing new
programs or supplementing funding for existing programs that
provide child sexual abuse prevention and early intervention
services. While most programs serve children who are already
victims of child sexual abuse, this bill seeks to target funding
to programs and efforts that can prevent child sexual abuse
before it occurs.
Child sexual abuse : Child sexual abuse involves any sexual
activity with a child where consent is not given or cannot be
given due to the age of the child. This includes sexual contact
that is accomplished by force or threat of force, regardless of
the age of the children involved or the perpetrators, and it
also includes any sexual contact between an adult and a child,
regardless of whether the child understands the sexual nature of
the activity. In the US Department of Health and Human
Services' 2011 Child Maltreatment Report, there were 4,890 cases
of child sexual abuse reported in California.
Long term effects of child abuse
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), child maltreatment, including physical
abuse, sexual abuse and neglect, among other detrimental
experiences, causes stress that can disrupt early brain
development. When this stress turns into chronic stress, the
development of a child's nervous and immune systems can be
compromised, which results in a higher risk for physical and
mental health problems when the child becomes an adult. The CDC
notes that these problems include alcoholism, depression, drug
abuse, eating disorders, obesity, high-risk sexual behaviors,
smoking, suicide, and certain chronic diseases.
Child sexual abuse prevention efforts across the country : While
the rate of reported child sexual abuse varies widely from state
to state, there have been a number of measures signed into law
in other states over the past few years that focus on sexual
abuse prevention and education programs. Many of the laws have
been based on "Erin's Law", which was originally signed in
Illinois in response to the sexual abuse a young woman named
Erin Merryn suffered at the hands of a neighbor and a cousin
when she was a young child. In California, SCR 73 (Yee) Chapter
87, 2012, encouraged school districts to include age-appropriate
AB 883
Page 4
instruction related to child sexual abuse in school curricula,
which was also aimed at prevention. The number of legislative
bills that seek to address and prevent child sexual abuse across
the states is indicative of changes in public perception. The
actions various Legislatures have taken, along with related
advocacy at the local level, offer opportunities for more
victims to speak out about their own sexual abuse and provide
information to whole communities about how they can play a role
in child sexual abuse prevention and intervention.
Need for the bill : Noting the high prevalence of sexual abuse
experienced by children, the author states, "Although the state
aggressively prosecutes child sexual predators and requires
mandated reporting for suspected abuse, there is a lack of focus
on preventing the abuse before it occurs. Funding and training
are needed to teach adults about warning signs. By building up
community collaboration, this measure strengthens the
prioritization of stopping child sexual abuse."
In support, the California Catholic Conference also writes,
"Child sexual abuse is a significant problem in every community,
and sadly is found in every region, race, creed, socio-economic
status or gender; it crosses all boundaries and drastically
impacts too many lives?Prevention begins simply by heightening
awareness and breaking the silence by starting a conversation
with parents, caregivers, educators and lawmakers about the
topic."
Staff comments : While the author has addressed many of the
concerns expressed by committee staff in response to the
introduced version of the bill, the current version of the bill
includes a number of provisions that the Committee may wish to
have the author address as the bill moves through the
legislative process.
1) Scope of the pilot program : The author intends to
ensure funds are available for county-level child sexual
abuse prevention and not just for intervention after an
incident occurs. However, this bill mentions a number of
other problems children face, which, while worthy of
addressing, may undermine the goals of the pilot project by
adding to the requirements to be fulfilled with a limited
amount of funding. The author may wish to consider
amending the bill to explicitly limit the pilot program to
prevention of child sexual abuse in order to ensure the
AB 883
Page 5
amount of funding provided is sufficient to achieve the
core goals of the program.
2) Reporting requirements : Given the amount of funding
that will be provided to each participating county under
the pilot program, the reporting requirements may exhaust
all of the funding available for the pilot program. The
author may wish to amend the provisions related to the
reporting requirements to include an accurate and complete
accounting of all funds received and spent by the program,
as well as information regarding whether the program
fulfilled its stated goals, while making all other
requirements that are currently included optional.
3) County selection process : Current language in the bill
requires DSS to select the three participating counties,
but it does not clearly state that a county would have to
agree to participate in the pilot. Additionally, there is
no real mechanism through which DSS can evaluate the
counties for selection, nor is there a requirement that
counties provide DSS with a targeted use for the funding
(e.g., a specific solution to child sexual abuse that the
county intends to test). The author may wish to include
language that explicitly makes participation optional for
counties, in addition to language that establishes more
specific criteria DSS will use to select counties for
participation.
4) Other requirements : The multiyear county plan
requirement may exceed the sunset date for the pilot, and
the requirement for pilot programs to enhance the capacity
of schools and youth-serving organizations to prevent child
sexual abuse may exceed feasibility based on the funding
provided. The author may wish to ensure the multiyear
county plan adheres to the sunset date for the pilot
program and strike language related to enhancing the
capacity of schools and youth-serving organizations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Catholic Conference
California Council of Nonprofit Organizations, Inc.
Child Abuse Prevention Center (CAP Center)
AB 883
Page 6
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089