BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1778 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 1778 (Quirk) - As Introduced February 3, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Higher Education |Vote:|11 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This requires the governing boards of the community colleges, the California State University (CSU) Trustees, the University of California (UC) Regents, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions, in order to receive state funds for student financial assistance, to conduct annual training of their employees on the employees' obligations in responding to and reporting incidents of sexual assault, AB 1778 Page 2 domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking involving students. FISCAL EFFECT: 1)No additional costs to CSU and UC, as their existing training practices appear to be consistent with the requirements in this bill. 2)This bill conditions receipt of state funds for student financial aid on community college districts providing the required training. If a community college district submits a claim for reimbursement, the Commission on State Mandates could determine activities related the training requirement to be a reimbursable based on practical compulsion - that there is no reasonable alternative but to comply with bill's requirement or that failure to comply with this activity will result in certain and severe penalties. Though several districts already provide the required training, the bill's mandate means that the state could be liable to reimburse all districts for training costs at each of their campuses. Assuming costs averaging $2,000 per campus, ongoing statewide costs for the 113 campuses would be $226,000 (GF-Prop 98). 3)The California Student Aid Commission may require additional auditing resources to verify compliance with the training requirement as a condition on colleges' participation in the Cal Grant and other financial aid programs. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. SB 967 (De Leon), Chapter 748, Statutes of 2014, in part required the higher education segments to provide AB 1778 Page 3 training for campus officials involved in investigating and adjudicating sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking cases. According to the author, "when students experience sexual violence they are likely to report the incident to a trusted coach or resident advisor at their campus, unaware that this person may not be adequately trained to appropriately report and support the victim. The unfortunate truth is that although certain staff is trained to respond to and report student incidents of sexual violence to the appropriate officials, not all college campuses suitably train every staff member who will interact with a student to do this. The lack of all-inclusive, annual training may lead to mismanagement of these incident reports, or worse, may inadvertently discourage students from reporting these incidents." 2)Support, if Amended. The California Federation of Teachers requests amendments to: a) clarify that employees will be compensated for their time in the mandated training; and b) specify that training completed at one campus or district is transferable to another campus or district. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081