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,  








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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