BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2621|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2621
Author: Gomez (D) and Bloom (D), et al.
Amended: 5/31/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/8/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 5/16/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Employee Codes of Conduct
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires a local educational agency (LEA) or
an entity providing private school instruction that maintains an
employee code of conduct to provide a written copy of that
document to the parent or guardian of each enrolled student at
the beginning of each school year and also post it on their Web
site.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Provides that under the existing Child Abuse and Neglect
Reporting Act, all school district teachers and employees are
considered to be "mandated reporters," including
AB 2621
Page 2
instructional aides, teacher assistants, classified
employees, and employees of a school district police or
security department. Requires mandated reporters 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.
2) 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. School districts that do not train their
employees in the duties of mandated reporters are required to
report to the California Department of Education (CDE) the
reasons why this training is not provided.
3) 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
employer) to the effect that he or she has knowledge of the
mandated reporting procedures and will comply with those
provisions. Further, existing 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.)
4) Requires each school district and county office of education
to be responsible for the overall development of all
comprehensive school safety plans for its schools. The
schoolsite council is required to write and develop a
comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and
resources of that particular school. (Education Code §
32281)
5) Requires the comprehensive school safety plan to include (a)
an assessment of the current status of school crime committed
AB 2621
Page 3
on school campuses and at school-related functions and (b)
identification of appropriate strategies and programs that
will provide or maintain a high level of school safety and
detail procedures for complying with existing laws; disaster
procedures; policies regarding suspension or expulsion; a
discrimination and harassment policy; and, a safe and orderly
environment conducive to learning. (EC § 32282)
6) Requires the comprehensive school safety plan to be
evaluated at least once a year. (EC § 32282)
7) Requires the schoolsite council or school safety planning
committee to hold a public meeting to allow public comment,
and requires the notification of specified people and
entities prior to this meeting. Existing law requires each
school to submit its school safety plan to the school
district or county office of education for approval and
requires a school district or county office of education to
notify the CDE by October 15 of every year of any school that
is not in compliance. (EC § 32288)
8) Requires each school to include a description of key
elements of the school safety plan in the annual school
accountability report card. (EC § 32286)
9) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, if the
Superintendent determines that there has been a willful
failure to make any report required in school safety plan
statutes, to do both of the following:
a) Notify the school district or county office of
education in which the willful failure has occurred.
b) Make an assessment of up to $2,000 against that school
or county office, which may be done by deducting funding
from the district's or county office's future
apportionment. (EC § 32287)
AB 2621
Page 4
10)Requires the State Office of Child Abuse Prevention to
develop and disseminate information to all school districts
and district school personnel regarding the detection of
child abuse. The information may be disseminated by the use
of literature, as deemed suitable by the CDE. Staff
development seminars and any other appropriate means of
instructing school personnel in the detection of child abuse
and neglect and the proper action that school personnel
should take in suspected cases of child abuse and neglect
shall be developed by the CDE.
11)Encourages LEAs to participate in training on the prevention
of abuse, including sexual abuse, of children on school
grounds, by school personnel, or in school-sponsored
programs, and are also encouraged to provide all school
employees with that training at least once every three years.
(EC § 44691)
This bill:
1) Requires an LEA, or a person, firm, association,
partnership, or corporation offering or conducting private
school instruction at the elementary or high school level,
that maintains an employee code of conduct with pupils, to
provide a written copy of that document to the parent or
guardian of each enrolled pupil at the beginning of each
school year.
2) Requires the LEA or entity offering or conducting private
school instruction to post the employee code of conduct on
each of its school's Web sites or, if a school within the LEA
does not have its own Web site, to post it on the LEA's Web
site in a manner that is accessible to the public without a
password.
3) Provides that an LEA may satisfy the requirement to provide
a written copy to the parent or guardian by including the
document in the existing parental notification required
AB 2621
Page 5
pursuant to Education Code Section 48980.
4) Defines an LEA as a school district, county office of
education, or charter school.
5) Specifies that the bill's provisions shall not be construed
to require an LEA, a school, or a private school to create a
Web site if it does not have one.
6) Provides that the bill's provisions do not apply to a
private school composed of parents or legal guardians working
exclusively with their own children.
Comments
Need for the bill. The author's office indicates that "parents
and students are not always aware of the many codes of conduct
that apply to teachers. Schools across California have
different forms of the code of conduct with students. School
employees may be engaging in seemingly ordinary events with
students that the parent is aware of and it could be violating
the code of conduct. Events like meeting off campus for coffee
to discuss a term paper, being friends on social media, or even
providing a pupil a ride home from school can appear innocent,
but could easily provide a venue for traumatic incidents such as
sexual assault."
Purpose of the documents. According to information provided by
the author's office, this bill is intended to address an
incident that occurred at a private school in which a teacher
"had a series of incidents where he was slowly going beyond an
understood but undocumented code of conduct with students. The
teacher gradually escalated his inappropriate conduct and in a
few circumstances would engage in a sexual relationship with his
students." The author's office indicates that requiring schools
to distribute their codes of conduct, if they have one, may help
reduce the incidents of inappropriate behavior and thereby
protect students and other teachers or school employees.
AB 2621
Page 6
Existing training. While it is unclear how widespread the
availability of child abuse prevention materials may be, there
are some online training programs currently available. These
training materials focus on training teachers on what types of
behavior may cross the line in terms of appropriateness and
provide examples of behavior that could protect the teacher from
false child abuse claims. Examples include not sending personal
emails and texts to students, not giving students rides in cars,
and not being alone in a classroom with a student without the
door open. Schools may already incorporate any of this child
abuse prevention training into existing mandated reporter
training activities.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/9/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/9/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 5/16/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas,
AB 2621
Page 7
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Travis Allen, Dababneh, Gray, Grove, Nazarian
Prepared by:Lenin DelCastillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
6/10/16 13:23:09
**** END ****