BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1778 (Quirk) - Postsecondary education: sexual assault and
sexual violence training
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|Version: May 31, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires beginning January 1, 2018, as a
condition of receiving student financial assistance,
postsecondary institutions to conduct annual training of their
employees on their obligations in responding to and reporting
incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence,
and stalking involving students.
Fiscal
Impact:
Costs to the California Community Colleges (CCC) districts are
unknown as they would vary depending upon current policies,
whether training is in place that complies with the
AB 1778 (Quirk) Page 1 of
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requirements of this bill, or if not, how each district would
deliver the required training. The CCC Chancellor's Office
indicates costs could range from $4,000 to $40,000 per
district depending upon how the training is delivered.
Therefore statewide costs could range from low hundreds of
thousands to low millions to train its staff of roughly
89,000. Costs may be reduced somewhat to the extent a
significant number of staff are employed at multiple districts
and receive training from one campus only. Whether these
costs would be required to be reimbursed by the state would be
determined by the Commission on State Mandates. Otherwise,
these costs would present a cost pressure to the state as
community colleges would be required to comply with these
requirements in which case less discretionary state funds
would be available to meet the existing needs of the colleges.
(Proposition 98)
The University of California (UC) and the California State
University (CSU) indicate no additional costs to implement
this bill as their current policies already comply with the
requirements of this bill.
Background: Existing law requires postsecondary institutions to each
adopt, and implement, a written procedure to ensure, to the
fullest extent possible, that students, faculty, and staff who
are victims of sexual assault committed on grounds maintained by
the institution or affiliated student organizations, receive
treatment and information. The written procedures must contain
specified information, including the college policy regarding
sexual assault on campus and personnel on campus who should be
notified, and procedures for notification, with the consent of
the victim.
Existing law also requires postsecondary institutions to adopt a
policy concerning campus sexual violence, domestic violence,
dating violence, and stalking that includes specified components
and standards in order to receive state funds for student
financial assistance. Institutions must also adopt detailed and
victim-centered policies on these topics, including among
others, a comprehensive, trauma-informed training program for
campus officials involved in investigating and adjudicating
sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking
cases. Institutions must, to the extent feasible, enter into
agreements with existing on-campus and community-based
AB 1778 (Quirk) Page 2 of
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organizations to refer students for assistance and implement
preventive outreach programs. Existing law also requires each
campus of the CCCs and the CSU, and requests each campus of the
UC, to develop policies to encourage students to report any
campus crimes involving sexual violence.
The federal Clery Act requires postsecondary educational
institutions that receive federal financial aid to disclose
information about crimes on and around campuses as well as
establish certain rights for victims of sexual assault. It also
requires postsecondary institutions to offer prevention and
awareness programs to new students and employees regarding rape,
domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
Proposed Law:
This bill requires beginning January 1, 2018, as a condition
of receiving student financial assistance, the governing board
of each community college district, the CSU Trustees, the UC
Regents, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary
institution to conduct annual training of their respective
employees on the employee's obligations in responding to and
reporting incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking involving students.
This bill also specifies that an employee trained must be deemed
to have satisfied the annual training requirement for each
campus or community college district within each segment that
the employee is employed at for that year.
Related
Legislation: AB 1654 (Santiago, 2016) expands existing audit
requirements regarding the reporting of crime statistics by
California postsecondary education institutions by requiring the
State Auditor to include an evaluation of institutions'
compliance with state law governing crime reporting and the
development and implementation of student safety policies and
procedures. AB 1654 is pending in this committee.
AB 2018 (Ridley-Thomas, 2016) requires annual training for each
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employee and administrator of a community college district who
is a mandated reporter regarding the detection and reporting of
child abuse. AB 2018 is pending in this committee.
Staff Comments: This bill conditions receipt of state financial
aid to segments conducting required annual training. The
Commission on State Mandates could determine the training
requirement for the CCC to be a state reimbursable mandate based
on practical compulsion - that there is no reasonable
alternative but to comply. The UC and CSU are ineligible to
submit a claim for reimbursement to the Commission on State
Mandates.
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