BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1435
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Date of Hearing: March 28, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1435 (Dickinson) - As Amended: March 21, 2012
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Adds athletic coaches, athletic administrators, and athletic
directors employed by public or private schools, colleges or
universities, or by a public or private youth center, youth
recreation program, or youth organization, to the existing
list of mandated reporters for purposes of the Child Abuse and
Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), which requires about 40
specified classes of mandated reporter to report suspected
incidents of child abuse to a specified child protection
agency. (Failure to report is a misdemeanor, punishable by up
to six months in county jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.)
2)Requires any public or private school, college or university,
or any public or private youth center, youth recreation
program, or youth organization that employs athletic coaches
or athletic administrators, to provide these individuals with
ongoing and biennial training on recognizing inappropriate
and/or illegal activity and attendant responsibilities. The
mandated training requires two hours of initial "classroom or
other interactive training and education" that is "provided
by persons knowledgeable in the identification of child abuse
and neglect" within six months of employment, and one hour of
similar training every two years.
(Current law encourages training but does not mandate training
for any mandated reporters.)
FISCAL EFFECT
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1)Mandated training . First year state cost pressure to schools
and colleges in the range of $4 million, with ongoing state
cost pressure in the range of $3 million. (The bill is silent
on training implementation issues.)
a) Assuming training would be conducted interactively
online, there would be one-time state costs to public
schools and colleges (primarily GF/98), likely in excess of
$700,000, to develop and produce interactive training
modules, as well as to develop associated policies and
forms, assuming a partially centralized effort to produce
such modules, policies and forms.
b) Significant annual cost pressure on to schools and
colleges for training, potentially in the range of $2
million, assuming interactive training that requires
scoring and compliance measures. (Given the amount of
coaching turnover, it is not likely annual training costs
will fluctuate greatly.)
To the extent the cost of program development and training
could be offset by charging coaches and administrators a
fee, akin to an on-line driver training school fee,
assuming coaches and administrators do not successfully
seek reimbursement from their school employers, these costs
could be reduced.
c) It is not clear whether any or all of these training
costs could constitute a reimbursable state mandate. For
example, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires local
agencies to pay employees for mandated training. Commission
on State Mandate staff indicate schools could pursue claims
for training and the commission would have to conduct
further review.
d) The first-year administrative state and local cost for
initial training, including notification, tracking,
compliance, and issuing and retaining forms for about
60,000 public high school and middle school coaches and
administrators, and more than 8,000 college and university
coaches and administrators, would likely exceed $1.5
million (primarily GF/98), assuming just one hour of
administrative time ($25) for each public school or college
coach or administrator.
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This is in addition to non-state costs for the thousands of
private school coaches and administrators, as well as an
unknown number of local youth coaches and administrators.
2)Expanding the list of mandatory reporters . Ongoing costs
likely less than $150,000.
a) Potentially minor annual GF costs, likely less than
$150,000, for increased state prison commitments to the
extent increasing the number of mandated reporters results
in additional state prison commitments.
b) Potentially minor annual GF costs, likely less than
$150,000, to the extent the state is required to fund
additional social workers to respond to increased workload.
c) Absorbable annual costs to the Department of Justice
(DOJ) to process additional CANRA reports.
d) Unknown minor nonreimbursable local law enforcement
costs for additional reporting and investigation.
e) Unknown, minor nonreimbursable local costs for
prosecution and punishment of mandated reporters who fail
to report, offset to a degree by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author references the 2011 Penn State imbroglio
and related situations as rationale for making youth coaches
mandated reporters and for requiring training.
"Recently, an article in the Sacramento Bee identified at
least a half dozen cases of improper contact and sexual abuse
between coaches and youth who were in their charge, in the
Sacramento region alone, within a six month period. These and
other reports have underscored shortcomings in both the
state's mandated reporter law?coaches are not explicitly
covered, and a lack of training and education of athletic
coaches, administrators and directors, in terms of what is
inappropriate and illegal behavior, and what to do if they
become aware of such behavior."
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Regarding mandated training, the author states, "While current
law encourages organizations to train employees who are listed
as Mandated Reporters, there is no requirement to do so. In
light of recent events involving athletic coaches and their
supervisors failing to make timely reports of instances of
child abuse and neglect, it is imperative that training in the
identification and reporting of child abuse be required, not
just encouraged, as well as training and education about what
constitutes inappropriate and illegal contact between an
athletic coach, administrator or director, and a youth."
2)Current law regarding mandated reporters specifies a long list
of a mandated reporters, including teachers, specified school
employees, day camp administrators, social workers,
firefighters, physicians, coroners, clergy, and alcohol and
drug counselors, who if they have knowledge of a child in his
or her professional capacity or within the scope of his or her
employment, being abused or neglected, must report the
incident to law enforcement or child protection authorities as
soon as possible, with a written report within 36 hours. The
authorities who receive the reports are in turn required to
provide this information, once substantiated, to the DOJ,
which serves as a repository of the information in the Child
Abuse Central Index (CACI).
3)Current law regarding mandated reporter training is
permissive, specifying that employers are "strongly
encouraged" to provide employees who are mandated reporters
with CANRA training.
4)Arbitrary training requirement ? The reason for requiring
mandated reporter training for athletic coaches and
administrators, but not the other 40 categories of mandated
reporters, is not clear, and seems to create an arbitrary
standard.
5)It is not clear how the training provisions of this bill would
work . The bill requires training be provided "by persons
knowledgeable in the identification of child abuse and
neglect, inappropriate and illegal contact between a youth and
an adult, and statutory reporting requirements" and that
training be provided in a classroom or other interactive
setting. Creating a training program for tens of thousands of
individuals from such disparate entities as public and private
colleges, high schools and middle schools, and local
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recreational youth leagues poses a number of practical
problems.
How would training be provided and how would compliance be
monitored? Would coaches be charged for online tutorials?
Would public schools and colleges face pressure to reimburse
employees? Would private entities create such training
programs on speculation? What state, private school,
local/private entity would administer these efforts? Should
there be a penalty for noncompliance, and what should that
penalty be?
6)Current law already makes failure to report observance of a
forcible sexual offense involving a person under 14 a
misdemeanor . In the case of the Penn State scandal, it appears
this type of situation could have been charged under Penal
Code 152.3 in California, as many courts and juries would not
likely find that a sexual act between an adult male and a
10-year-old boy was non-forcible or consensual.
7)Prevalence of coach-related abuse incidents. There does not
appear to be a body of research relating to sexual abuse by
coaches. In general research indicates that most sexual abuse
- estimates run up to 90% - is committed by a person a child
knows and trusts, generally by family members, but friends and
others with ready and repeated access to children, including
coaches and religious and youth leaders, are also cited in
research. Most studies indicate that as many as 90% of
offenders are male, and that up to 50% are minors themselves.
8)Related Pending Legislation .
a) AB 1434 (Feuer) adds college employees to the list of
mandated reporters. AB 1434 is before this committee today.
b) AB 1438 (Bradford) makes it a misdemeanor to fail to
report to a peace officer an instance of known or suspected
child sexual abuse. AB 1438 is before this committee today.
c) AB 1564 (Lara) makes volunteers of public and private
organizations mandated reporters, and revokes tax exempt
status if an employee or volunteer fails to report known or
suspected child abuse. AB 1564 is pending in Assembly
Public Safety.
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d) AB 1713 (Campos) expands the list of mandated reporters
to include commercial-film and photographic-print or image
processors. AB 1713 is pending in Assembly Public Safety.
e) AB 1817 (Atkins) expands the list of mandated reporters
to include commercial computer technicians. AB 1817 is
pending in Assembly Public Safety.
f) SB 1264 (Vargas) expands the list of mandated reporters
to include athletic coaches at public or private
postsecondary institutions, and increases the penalties for
failure to report an incident. SB 1264 is pending referral
in the Senate.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081