BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session AB 1207 (Lopez) - Mandated child abuse reporting: child day care personnel: training ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: June 10, 2015 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: No | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: AB 1207 would require all providers, administrators, and employees of licensed child day care facilities to complete training in the identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect under the child abuse reporting laws, as specified. Fiscal Impact: One-time costs, potentially in excess of $50,000 (General Fund), for the Department of Social Services (DSS) to develop and adopt regulations within the timeframe required for implementation of the bill's provisions. Minor ongoing workload for the DSS to disseminate information and offer the training course online. Unknown, potential state costs to provide and translate information and instruction materials for those training issue areas that may exceed the requirements for mandated reporters under the CANRA, to the extent those costs are not eligible expenditures under the State's current plan funded by a AB 1207 (Lopez) Page 1 of ? federal grant. Background: Existing law establishes the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), which is intended to protect children from abuse and neglect. Under existing law, a mandated reporter, as defined, is required to make a report to a specified agency whenever the person, 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. (Penal Code (PC) § 11166(a).) Under CANRA, the definition of a "mandated reporter" includes 44 categories of persons, one of which includes all licensees, administrators, and employees of a licensed community care or child day care facility. (PC § 11165.7.) Under recently enacted legislation, AB 1432 (Gatto) Chapter 797/2014, school districts, county offices of education, state special schools, diagnostic centers, and charter schools are required to annually train their employees and persons working on their behalf who are mandated reporters in the duties of mandated reporters under the child reporting laws. (PC § 11165.7(d).) For all other employers, CANRA specifies that employers are strongly encouraged but are not required to provide their employees who are mandated reporters with training in the duties imposed, including training in child abuse and neglect identification and training in child abuse and neglect reporting. (PC § 11165.7(c).) Current law requires any mandated reporter, with the exception of child visitation monitors, prior to commencing his or her employment, to sign a statement affirming that he or she has knowledge of the mandated reporting procedures and will comply with those provisions. Further, current law provides that the statement shall inform the employee that he or she is a mandated reporter and inform the employee of his or her reporting obligations and confidentiality rights. (PC § 11166.5.) Existing law requires that as a condition of licensure, at least one director or teacher at each day care center and family day AB 1207 (Lopez) Page 2 of ? care home licensee who provides care to have at least 15 hours of health and safety training, and if applicable, at least one additional hour of childhood nutrition training as part of the preventative health practices course. While existing law provides that the training may include instruction in the identification and reporting of signs and symptoms of child abuse, it is not required. (Health and Safety Code § 1596.866.) Proposed Law: This bill would impose specified training requirements on all providers, administrators, and employees of licensed child day care facilities, as specified. Specifically, this bill: Requires the Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) and the Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) within the DSS, in consultation, to do all of the following: o Develop and disseminate information to all providers, administrators, and employees of licensed child day care facilities regarding detecting and reporting child abuse and neglect. o Provide statewide instruction on the responsibilities of a mandated reporter who is a provider, administrator, or employee of a licensed child day care facility, as specified. OCAP would be required to "provide the instruction using its free online General Training Module and Child Care Professionals Training Module of the Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Training-California project provided on the DSS website or as otherwise specified by the department. This instruction content is required to include, but is not necessarily limited to, all of the following: § Information on the identification of child abuse and neglect, including behavioral signs or abuse and neglect. § When to call for emergency medical attention to prevent further injury or death. § Reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect, including guidelines on how to make a suspected child abuse report when suspected abuse or neglect takes place outside a child day care facility, or within a child day care facility, and to which enforcement agency or agencies a report is required to be made. § Information that failure to report an incident AB 1207 (Lopez) Page 3 of ? of known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect, as required by PC § 11166, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months confinement in a county jail, or by a fine of $1,000, or by both. § Information on protective factors that may help prevent abuse, including dangers of shaking a child, safe sleep practices, psychological effects of repeated exposure to domestic violence, safe and age-appropriate forms of discipline, how to promote a child's social and emotional health, and how to support positive parent-child relationships. § Information on recognizing risk factors that may lead to abuse, such as stress and social isolation, and available resources to which a family may be referred to help prevent child abuse and neglect. § Information on childhood stages of development in order to help distinguish whether a child's behavior or physical symptoms are within range for his or her age and ability, or are signs of abuse or neglect. § Best practices on how a provider, administrator, or employee of a licensed child day care facility might communicate with a family before and after making a suspected child abuse report." Requires DSS to translate information and instruction materials into non-English languages spoken by a substantial number of child care providers, administrators, and employees of licensed child day care facilities, as specified. Requires that on or before March 30, 2017, a person who, on January 1, 2017, is a provider, administrator, or employee of a licensed child day care facility to complete mandated reporter training and complete renewal mandated reporter training every three years, as specified. Requires that on and after January 1, 2017, a person who becomes an administrator or employee of a licensed child day care facility to complete mandatory reporter training within the first 90 days that he or she is employed at the facility and to complete renewal mandatory reporter training every three years, as specified. Requires that on and after January 1, 2017, a person who applies for a license to be a provider of a child day care facility to complete mandatory reporter training as a AB 1207 (Lopez) Page 4 of ? precondition to licensure and to complete renewal mandatory reporter training every three years, as specified. Requires a provider of a licensed child day care facility to obtain proof from an administrator or employee of the facility that the person has completed mandated reporter training in compliance with the bill's provisions. Requires training to include information that failure to report an incident of known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect, as required by PC § 11166, is 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. Requires a person taking the training to complete the training using the online training module provided by OCAP. Requires DSS to issue a notice of deficiency at the time of a site visit to a provider of a licensed child day care facility who is not in compliance with the training requirements. The provider is required to, at the time the notice is issued, develop a plan of correction to correct the deficiency within 90 days of receiving the notice. Authorizes DSS to revoke the facility's license if the facility fails to correct the deficiency within the 90-day period. Provides that a deficiency under this subdivision is not subject to civil penalties and is not a serious violation, as specified. Provides that a provider, administrator, or employee of a licensed child care facility is exempt from the detecting and reporting child abuse training if he or she has limited English proficiency and training is not made available in his or her primary language. Requires DSS to adopt regulations to implement this section. Provides that the bill's provisions become operative on January 1, 2017. Requires a child care licensee applicant to take training in the duties of mandated reporters under the child abuse reporting laws as a condition of licensure, and a child care administrator or an employee of a licensed child day care facility to take training in the duties of mandated reporters during the first six weeks when he or she is employed by the facility. AB 1207 (Lopez) Page 5 of ? Prior Legislation: AB 1832 (Gatto) Chapter 797/2014 requires local education agencies to annually train employees on their duties regarding the mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect, as specified. Staff Comments: In order to meet the implementation timeframes specified in the bill, the DSS could incur one-time costs potentially in excess of $50,000 to develop and adopt regulations. The ongoing costs to disseminate information and provide the training course online are estimated to be minor and absorbable. At the time of this analysis, it was unclear whether the mandated training components related to information on protective factors that may help prevent abuse (including dangers of shaking a child, safe sleep practices, psychological effects of repeated exposure to domestic violence, safe and age-appropriate forms of discipline, how to promote a child's social and emotional health, and how to support positive parent-child relationships) would be eligible expenditures under the State's existing federal grant currently used to meet the requirements of CANRA, as training on the protective factors that may prevent abuse may exceed the requirements of mandated reporters under the CANRA. To the extent these expenditures are not federally eligible, an alternative funding source would be required. -- END --