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
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|Version: June 10, 2015 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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