BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 332 Hearing Date: April 7, 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Block |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |February 23, 2015 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|AA |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Child Abuse Reporting: School District Police
Departments
HISTORY
Source: San Diego Schools Police Officers Association
Prior Legislation:SB 1219 (Presley) - Chapter 1459, Statutes of
1987
Support: Peace Officers Research Association of California
Opposition:None known
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to authorize school district police
departments to receive mandated reports of suspected child abuse
or neglect.
Current law establishes the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting
Act ("CANRA"), which generally is intended to protect children
from abuse and neglect. (Penal Code § 11164.)
SB 332 (Block ) PageB
of?
Current law requires mandated reporters to make reports of
suspected child abuse or neglect, as specified. (Penal Code §
11165.9.)
Current law enumerates 44 categories of mandatory child abuse
reporters. (Penal Code § 11165.7.)
Current law requires the Department of Justice ("DOJ") to
maintain an index of all reports of child abuse and severe
neglect ("CACI") submitted by specified reporting agencies.
CACI is required by statute to be continually updated and not
contain any reports determined to be unfounded. (Penal Code §
11170(a) (1).)
Current law states that the DOJ shall act only as a repository
of the suspected child abuse or neglect reports that are
maintained in CACI, and that the reporting agencies are
responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and retention of
reports. (Penal Code § 11170(a)(2).) Only information from
reports that are reported as substantiated shall be filed, and
all other determinations shall be removed from the central list.
(Penal Code § 11170(a)(3).)
Current law requires that reports of suspected child abuse or
neglect be made "to any police department or sheriff's
department, not including a school district police or security
department, county probation department, if designated by the
county to receive mandated reports, or the county welfare
department. . . . " (Penal Code § 11165.9.)
This bill would provide that these reports may be made to a
school district police department, not including a school
district security department.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the past eight years, this Committee has scrutinized
legislation referred to its jurisdiction for any potential
impact on prison overcrowding. Mindful of the United States
Supreme Court ruling and federal court orders relating to the
state's ability to provide a constitutional level of health care
SB 332 (Block ) PageC
of?
to its inmate population and the related issue of prison
overcrowding, this Committee has applied its "ROCA" policy as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress in reducing prison
overcrowding.
On February 10, 2014, the federal court ordered California to
reduce its in-state adult institution population to 137.5% of
design capacity by February 28, 2016, as follows:
143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
In February of this year the administration reported that as "of
February 11, 2015, 112,993 inmates were housed in the State's 34
adult institutions, which amounts to 136.6% of design bed
capacity, and 8,828 inmates were housed in out-of-state
facilities. This current population is now below the
court-ordered reduction to 137.5% of design bed capacity."(
Defendants' February 2015 Status Report In Response To February
10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge Court, Coleman
v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).
While significant gains have been made in reducing the prison
population, the state now must stabilize these advances and
demonstrate to the federal court that California has in place
the "durable solution" to prison overcrowding "consistently
demanded" by the court. (Opinion Re: Order Granting in Part and
Denying in Part Defendants' Request For Extension of December
31, 2013 Deadline, NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC), 3-Judge Court,
Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (2-10-14). The Committee's
consideration of bills that may impact the prison population
therefore will be informed by the following questions:
Whether a proposal erodes a measure which has contributed
to reducing the prison population;
Whether a proposal addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy;
Whether a proposal addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a proposal corrects a constitutional problem or
SB 332 (Block ) PageD
of?
legislative drafting error; and
Whether a proposal proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
The author states:
Current law states that a mandated reporter is to
report suspected child abuse or neglect to certain
specified departments or agencies. This includes a
police or sheriff department, a county probation
department if designated by the county, and a county
welfare department. Excluded from this list is school
district police.
When this law was written, school districts did not
have their own sworn officers or police departments.
Over time, school districts have had to deal with
increasing violence and threats of violence on their
campuses. As a result, school district police
departments have been formed and are staffed with
sworn peace officers under Penal Code Section 830.32.
Tasked with protecting our students, these school
officers are currently precluded from receiving
reports on instances of child abuse and/or neglect.
These officers interact with students on a daily basis
and many times are the first person that students turn
to when they need to report instances of abuse and/or
neglect. However, due to current law, these police
officers are not identified as authorized persons to
receive such reports. This results in officers
referring students to other agencies to tell their
story all over again, re-victimizing the student.
There is also the possibility that the student does
not report the incident because of not wanting to tell
their story a second time.
SB 332 (Block ) PageE
of?
SB 332 will update current law to reflect the
important role that school district police officers
play in the lives of students.
2.What This Bill Would Do
As explained above, this bill would authorize school police
departments to receive child abuse or neglect reports which
are mandated or authorized. Currently, these reports may
be made to any police department or sheriff's department,
county probation department, if designated by the county to
receive mandated reports, or the county welfare department.
School district police or security departments are
expressly excluded from receiving these reports.
3.What Happens Under Current Law; Variation Between this
Bill and Current Law
Current statute states that agencies authorized to receive
mandated child abuse or neglect reports are required to
forward a written report to DOJ " of every case it
investigates of known or suspected child abuse or severe
neglect that is determined to be substantiated," except as
specified. (Penal Code § 11169(a).) When this occurs,
these agencies generally are required to notify the known
or suspected child abuser, who is entitled to specified due
process rights to challenge his or her listing on the
state's Child Abuse Central Index ("CACI"), which DOJ
maintains. However, since January 1, 2012, police
departments and sheriff's departments no longer forward DOJ
these reports; these reports now are submitted by probation
SB 332 (Block ) PageF
of?
or the county child welfare agency.<1> Adding school
police as agencies authorized to receive these reports
without revising the section concerning their obligation to
forward reports to DOJ may create uncertainty in this
respect.
Members and the author may wish to discuss whether this
bill should be amended to make school police consistent
with police and sheriff's departments.
SHOULD PENAL CODE SECTION 11169 BE AMENDED TO BE CONSISTENT
WITH THIS BILL?
-- END -
---------------------------
<1> Penal Code section 11169 subdivision (b) states: "(b) On
and after January 1, 2012, a police department or sheriff's
department specified in Section 11165.9 shall no longer forward
to the Department of Justice a report in writing of any case it
investigates of known or suspected child abuse or severe
neglect."(See also, DOJ Information Bulletin dated 12/7/11:
"To: All Police Chiefs, Sheriffs, County Welfare, and Probation
Departments
Effective January 1, 2012, Chapter 468, Statutes of 2011, amends
Penal Code sections 11165.12, 11169,
and 11170 of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. The new
law directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to receive and enter
into the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) only substantiated
reports of child abuse or severe neglect submitted by a child
welfare agency or a county probation department. Police and
sheriff departments are no longer required to submit reports of
known or suspected child abuse or severe neglect to the DOJ via
the Child Abuse or Severe Neglect Indexing Form (BCIA 8583). . .
."
(http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/childabuse/bcia11-1
0.pdf.)
SB 332 (Block ) PageG
of?