BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2018 (Ridley-Thomas) - Mandated Child Abuse Reporting
Employee Training Act of 2016
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|Version: June 21, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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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 annual training for each employee
and administrator of a community college district who is a
mandated reporter regarding the detection and reporting of child
abuse.
Fiscal
Impact:
Mandate: State reimbursable mandate costs in the low millions
for staff time related to mandated reporters training. Actual
costs will depend upon the number of employees who come into
contact with children on a "regular basis" as determined by
the CCC district, which must be trained. Additional costs,
potentially in the hundreds of thousands, will be incurred by
CCC districts to develop a process to identify minors enrolled
AB 2018 (Ridley-Thomas) Page 1 of
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in classes and to ensure compliance with the training
requirement. See staff comments. (Proposition 98)
Background: Existing law:
1. Provides that under the Child Abuse and Neglect
Reporting Act (CANRA), all school district teachers and
employees are considered to be "mandated reporters,"
including instructional aides, teacher assistants,
classified employees, and employees of a school district
police or security department.
2. Defines the following as mandated reporters: a) An
employee or administrator of a public or private
postsecondary educational institution, whose duties bring
the administrator or employee into contact with children on
a regular basis, or who supervises those whose duties bring
the administrator or employee into contact with children on
a regular basis; and b) Any athletic coach, including, but
not limited to, an assistant coach or graduate assistant
involved in coaching, at public or private postsecondary
educational institutions.
3. Requires mandated reporters to report to any law
enforcement department knowledge or observations they may
have of a child they know or reasonably suspect to have
been the subject of child abuse or neglect. The individual
report must be made by telephone immediately or as soon as
practicable with a written or electronic follow up within
36 hours.
4. Specifies that employers are strongly encouraged to
provide their employees who are mandated reporters with
training in the duties imposed, including training in child
abuse and neglect identification and training in child
abuse and neglect reporting.
5. Requires any mandated reporter, with the exception of
child visitation monitors, prior to commencing his or her
employment, to sign a statement on a form (provided by the
AB 2018 (Ridley-Thomas) Page 2 of
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employer) to the effect that he or she has knowledge of the
mandated reporting procedures and will comply with those
provisions. Further, current law provides that the
statement shall inform the employee that he or she is a
mandated reporter and inform the employee of his or her
reporting obligations and confidentiality rights. (Penal
Code § 11164, et seq.)
6. Requires school districts to annually train employees on
their duties regarding mandated reporting when child abuse
and neglect is suspected.
Proposed Law:
This bill requires annual training for each employee and
administrator of a community college district who is a mandated
reporter regarding the detection and reporting of child abuse.
The governing board of each community college district is
required to do the following:
1. Provide annual training, using the online training
module developed by the California Department of Education
(CDE), in consultation with the State Department of Social
Services (DSS) on the detection and reporting of child
abuse or another resource. The training must include,
among other things, information that failure to report an
incident of child abuse or neglect is a misdemeanor
punishable by up to six months confinement in a county
jail, or by a fine of $1,000, or both.
2. Develop a process to provide proof of having trained
mandated reporters within the first six weeks of each
academic year, or within the first six weeks of a person's
employment. This bill provides that a person employed by
more than one community college district or by more than
one college in a single community college district must
only be required to receive the required training one time
in each academic year.
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3. Develop a process to identify the students who are
minors enrolled in classes at the community college
district and provide that information only to faculty
members and other employees who are mandated reporters.
Related
Legislation: AB 1778 (Quirk, 2016) requires 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.
Staff
Comments: Training and notification of reporting requirements
to all mandated reporters of the 113 community colleges varies.
According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's
Office, the colleges provide training but it is unclear to what
extent. In some cases, the training may be limited to only
providing an employee with a copy of the statement regarding his
or her duties as a mandated reporter. However, regardless of
whether a CCC district is providing training, this bill could
create a reimbursable state mandate in which all districts would
be eligible to claim reimbursement for activities required in
this bill.
Existing law defines a mandated reporter, in part, as an
employee of a public or private postsecondary educational
institution whose duties bring him or her into contact with
children on a "regular basis." This bill requires a process to
be established to identify minors enrolled in classes in which
that information would be provided only to faculty members and
other employees who are mandated reporters. Setting up this
process could result in one-time costs in the hundreds of
thousands and subsequent reduced costs to continue to track
minors and associated mandated reporters. CCC districts would
also incur additional state reimbursable costs related to
ensuring compliance with the training requirement.
The identification process included in this bill would likely be
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effective in reducing the scope of training required as not all
employees likely come into contact with minors on a regular
basis. According to the Mandated Reporter Educators Training
Module funded by the CDE and DSS, as referenced in this bill,
the training is estimated to take 1.5 to 3 hours. Assuming an
average hourly rate of $40 including benefits, training all
89,000 of the CCC staff would range from about $5 million to $11
million. However, because CCC districts would identify the
minors and the applicable mandated reporter staff, it is
unlikely that all staff will be required to be trained. In
addition, costs may be somewhat mitigated to the extent a
significant number of mandated reporters are employed in more
than one district, as these employees are only required to be
trained once, not in every district they serve.
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