BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1778
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1778 (Quirk)
As Introduced May 31, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Higher |11-0 |Medina, Baker, Bloom, | |
|Education | |Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, | |
| | |Levine, Linder, Low, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, | |
| | |Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |19-1 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, |Gallagher |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Obernolte, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Wagner, | |
AB 1778
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| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires, commencing January 1, 2018, in order to
receive state funds for student financial assistance, 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 to conduct annual training of their employees on
the employee's obligations in responding to and reporting
incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence,
and stalking involving students, and provides that this training
shall satisfy the annual training requirement for the employee.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
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.
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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 (General Fund-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: Purpose of this bill. 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."
Background. In June 2014, the California State Auditor's
2013-124 report, entitled, Sexual Harassment and Sexual
Violence: California Universities Must Better Protect Students
by Doing More to Prevent, Respond to, and Resolve Incidents,
concluded that California's educational institutions were not
properly educating students and training faculty and staff
sufficiently on response and reporting of incidents on campus as
mandated by Title IX and the Clery Act. The auditor made a
series of recommendations to include the expansion of staff
training, the improvement of access and content for student
education, the enhancement of communication with students, and
the evaluation of summary data collected in order to better
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identify trends and inform strategies to address incidents on
campus.
California's postsecondary education institutions report that
they have taken steps to address the concerns raised in the
audit reports and to respond to statutory changes and regulatory
guidance by improving processes and outcomes on their campuses.
Both the UC and CSU have updated their sexual harassment and
assault policies, initiated mandatory prevention and response
trainings for all students and employees, and established
confidential victim advocate offices on every campus. The CSU
and UC have appointed systemwide officers charged with ensuring
Title IX compliance.
UC policy appears consistent with this bill. The UC Policy on
Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment issued on January 1, 2016,
requires, among other provisions, for each campus to conduct
"mandatory annual training and education, about Prohibited
Conduct and how conduct can be reported, to all students,
faculty, and other academic appointees, and staff in accordance
with applicable State and federal law, and University policies."
CSU policy appears consistent with this bill. CSU Executive
Order 1096, revised June 23, 2015, requires, among other
provisions, mandatory annual training for all employees that
includes the rights and responsibilities of each employee
relating to the CSU policy and the employee's duty to report.
CCC and independent college policies may differ among campuses.
Committee staff was unable to verify whether this bill is
consistent with existing community college or independent
university policies. The CCC Chancellor's Office convened a
Task Force on sexual assault in the spring of 2014, and in May
of 2015 the Task Force reported to the Board of Governors (BOG)
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regarding the findings of a survey of CCC policies and
practices. According to the information presented at the CCC
BOG meeting, of 46 responses from colleges and districts, 56%
reported that they provide ongoing sexual assault prevention and
awareness programs for employees.
Analysis Prepared by:
Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN:
0003135