BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1778
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1778 (Quirk) - As Introduced February 3, 2016
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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
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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
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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