BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair A
2011-2012 Regular Session B
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AB 1435 (Dickinson) 5
As Amended May 25, 2012
Hearing date: June 19, 2012
Penal Code
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MANDATORY CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT REPORTING:
ATHLETICS PERSONNEL
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: None
Support: Crime Victims United of California; The Child Abuse
Prevention Center; AFSCME, AFL-CIO; California
Protective Parents Association; California Narcotics Officers'
Association; California Police Chiefs Association; Crime
Victims Action Alliance; California Association of Marriage and
Family Therapists
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 76 - Noes 0
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD AN "ATHLETIC COACH, ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATOR, OR ATHLETIC
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DIRECTOR EMPLOYED BY A PUBLIC OR PRIVATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, SCHOOLS THAT PROVIDE KINDERGARTEN OR ANY OF
GRADES 1 TO 12, INCLUSIVE," BE EXPRESSLY INCLUDED IN THE MANDATED
CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT REPORTER LAWS?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to expressly include an "athletic
coach, athletic administrator, or athletic director employed by
a public or private organization, including, but not limited to,
schools that provide kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12,
inclusive," in the mandated child abuse and neglect reporter
laws.
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.)
Current law requires "mandated reporters" to make reports of
suspected child abuse or neglect, as specified. (Penal Code �
11165.9.)
Under current law the term "child abuse or neglect" for purposes
of CANRA "includes physical injury inflicted by other than
accidental means upon a child by another person, sexual abuse as
defined . . . , neglect as defined . . . , the willful harming
or injuring of a child or the endangering of the person or
health of a child, as defined . . . , and unlawful corporal
punishment or injury as defined . . . . 'Child abuse or
neglect' does not include a mutual affray between minors.
'Child abuse or neglect' does not include an injury caused by
reasonable and necessary force used by a peace officer acting
within the course and scope of his or her employment as a peace
officer." (Penal Code � 11165.6.)
Current law provides that, except as specified, "a mandated
reporter shall make a report . . . whenever the mandated
reporter, in his or her professional capacity or within the
scope of his or her employment, has knowledge of or observes a
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child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects
has been the victim of child abuse or neglect." (Penal Code �
11166(a).)
Current law enumerates 40 categories of persons who are mandated
child abuse and neglect reporters. <1> (Penal Code � 11165.7
(a).) Except as specified, current law provides that
"volunteers of public or private organizations whose duties
require direct contact with and supervision of children are not
mandated reporters . . . ." (Penal Code � 11165.7(b).)
This bill would add an "athletic coach, athletic administrator,
or athletic director employed by a public or private
organization, including, but not limited to, schools that
provide kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive," to
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<1> Mandatory child abuse and neglect reporters under Penal
Code Section 11165.7: (1) A teacher. (2) An instructional
aide. (3) A teacher's aide or teacher's assistant employed by
any public or private school. (4) A classified employee of any
public school. (5) An administrative officer or supervisor of
child welfare and attendance, or a certificated pupil personnel
employee of any public or private school. (6) An administrator
of a public or private day camp. (7) An administrator or
employee of a public or private youth center, youth recreation
program, or youth organization. (8) An administrator or
employee of a public or private organization whose duties
require direct contact and supervision of children. (9) Any
employee of a county office of education or the California
Department of Education, whose duties bring the employee into
contact with children on a regular basis. (10) A licensee, an
administrator, or an employee of a licensed community care or
child day care facility. (11) A Head Start program teacher.
(12) A licensing worker or licensing evaluator employed by a
licensing agency as specified. (13) A public assistance worker.
(14) An employee of a child care institution, including, but
not limited to, foster parents, group home personnel, and
personnel of residential care facilities. (15) A social worker,
probation officer, or parole officer. (16) An employee of a
school district police or security department. (17) Any person
who is an administrator or presenter of, or a counselor in, a
child abuse prevention program in any public or private school.
(18) A district attorney investigator, inspector, or local child
support agency caseworker unless the investigator, inspector, or
caseworker is working with an attorney appointed pursuant to
Section 317 of the Welfare and Institutions Code to represent a
minor. (19) A peace officer, as specified. (20) A firefighter,
except for volunteer firefighters. (21) A physician, surgeon,
psychiatrist, psychologist, dentist, resident, intern,
podiatrist, chiropractor, licensed nurse, dental hygienist,
optometrist, marriage, family and child counselor, clinical
social worker, or any other person who is currently licensed
under Division 2of the Business and Professions Code. (22) Any
emergency medical technician I or II, paramedic, or other person
certified pursuant to Division 2.5 of the Health and Safety
Code. (23) A psychological assistant, as specified. (24) A
marriage, family, and child therapist trainee, as specified.
(25) An unlicensed marriage, family, and child therapist intern,
as specified. (26) A state or county public health employee who
treats a minor for venereal disease or any other condition.
(27) A coroner. (28) A medical examiner, or any other person
who performs autopsies. (29) A commercial film and photographic
print processor, as specified. As used in this article,
"commercial film and photographic print processor" means any
person who develops exposed photographic film into negatives,
slides, or prints, or who makes prints from negatives or slides,
for compensation. The term includes any employee of such a
person; it does not include a person who develops film or makes
prints for a public agency. (30) A child visitation monitor, as
specified. (31) An animal control officer or humane society
officer, as specified. (32) A clergy member, as specified.
(33) Any custodian of records of a clergy member, as specified.
(34) Any employee of any police department, county sheriff's
department, county probation department, or county welfare
department. (35) An employee or volunteer of a Court Appointed
Special Advocate program, as specified. (36) A custodial
officer, as specified. (37) Any person providing services to a
minor child under Section 12300 or 12300.1 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code. (38) An alcohol and drug counselor, as
specified. (39) A clinical counselor trainee, as specified.
(40) A clinical counselor intern, as specified.
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the mandated child abuse and neglect reporter statute.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
("ROCA")
In response to the unresolved prison capacity crisis, since
early 2007 it has been the policy of the chair of the Senate
Committee on Public Safety and the Senate President pro Tem to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate prison
overcrowding through new or expanded felony prosecutions. Under
the resulting policy known as "ROCA" (which stands for
"Receivership/Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the Committee
has held measures which create a new felony, expand the scope or
penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increase the
application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate the
prison overcrowding crisis by expanding the availability or
length of prison terms (such as extending the statute of
limitations for felonies or constricting statutory parole
standards). In addition, proposed expansions to the
classification of felonies enacted last year by AB 109 (the 2011
Public Safety Realignment) which may be punishable in jail and
not prison (Penal Code section 1170(h)) would be subject to ROCA
because an offender's criminal record could make the offender
ineligible for jail and therefore subject to state prison.
Under these principles, ROCA has been applied as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress towards reducing prison
overcrowding by passing legislation which could increase the
prison population. ROCA will continue until prison overcrowding
is resolved.
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation.
On June 30, 2005, in a class action lawsuit filed four years
earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California established a Receivership to take
control of the delivery of medical services to all California
state prisoners confined by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR"). In December of 2006,
plaintiffs in two federal lawsuits against CDCR sought a
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court-ordered limit on the prison population pursuant to the
federal Prison Litigation Reform Act. On January 12, 2010, a
three-judge federal panel issued an order requiring California
to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of design
capacity -- a reduction at that time of roughly 40,000 inmates
-- within two years. The court stayed implementation of its
ruling pending the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld the
decision of the three-judge panel in its entirety, giving
California two years from the date of its ruling to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, subject
to the right of the state to seek modifications in appropriate
circumstances. Design capacity is the number of inmates a
prison can house based on one inmate per cell, single-level
bunks in dormitories, and no beds in places not designed for
housing. Current design capacity in CDCR's 33 institutions is
79,650.
On January 6, 2012, CDCR announced that California had cut
prison overcrowding by more than 11,000 inmates over the last
six months, a reduction largely accomplished by the passage of
Assembly Bill 109. Under the prisoner-reduction order, the
inmate population in California's 33 prisons must be no more
than the following:
167 percent of design capacity by December 27, 2011
(133,016 inmates);
155 percent by June 27, 2012;
147 percent by December 27, 2012; and
137.5 percent by June 27, 2013.
This bill does not aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis
described above under ROCA.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
The author states:
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Currently, people working in a variety of professions
are required to report instances of child sexual abuse
and neglect. (Sec.11165.7 PC). However, there is a
gap in current law. Athletic coaches, administrators
and directors are not specifically cited in the
current statute. Athletic coaches hold a particularly
high position of trust with the youth they work with,
and there should be no mistake or confusion that
coaches, administrators and athletic directors should
be included as Mandated Reporters.
A number of recent events involving instances of
sexual abuse between athletic coaches and youth whom
coaches instruct, has focused attention as to whether
coaches have the proper training about what
constitutes sexual abuse of minors, and what to do if
they, as coaches, become aware of a youth who is or
has been the subject of abuse. Perhaps the highest
profile event concerned the late Penn State football
coach, Joe Paterno, who claimed in an interview, that
upon receiving a report of another coach who was
abusing youth "I didn't know exactly how to handle
it?" 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.
Amending athletic coaches, administrators and
directors into Section 11165.7 PC will not only make
them mandated reporters, but will hopefully expose
them to some training, as the statute encourages
employers to train their employees who are mandated
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reporters.
2. What This Bill Would Do; Current Mandated Reporter Law
This bill would add an "athletic coach, athletic administrator,
or athletic director employed by a public or private
organization, including, but not limited to, schools that
provide kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive," to
the mandated child abuse and neglect reporter statute. Under
current law, there are 40 enumerated categories of mandated
reporters, including teachers, instructional aides and others
who already may include the athletic coaching staff covered by
this bill. For example, current law makes an administrator or
employee of a public or private youth center, youth recreation
program, or youth organization a mandated child abuse or neglect
reporter. As noted below, as currently drafted this bill
appears to have some cross-over with other bills heard by or now
before this Committee.
3. Related Measures
Earlier this year this Committee passed SB 1264 (Vargas), which
like this bill specifically addresses athletic personnel:
AB 1435 (Dickinson):
"An athletic coach, athletic administrator, or athletic director
employed by a public or private organization, including, but not
limited to, schools that provide kindergarten or any of grades 1
to 12, inclusive."
SB 1264 (Vargas):
"Any athletic coach, including, but not limited to, an assistant
coach or a graduate assistant involved in coaching, at public or
private postsecondary institutions."
The differences between these bills appear to be:
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| Bill | Persons Made | Entities |Volunteers/Non|
| | Mandatory | Under Which | -paid |
| | Reporters | The | Persons? |
| | | Reporters | |
| | | Function | |
|---------+----------------+-------------+--------------|
|AB 1435 |an athletic |a public or |No; employees |
|(Dickinso|coach, athletic |private |only |
|n) |administrator |organization,| |
| |or athletic | including | |
| |director |but not | |
| | |limited to | |
| | |K-12 schools | |
|---------+----------------+-------------+--------------|
|SB 1264 |any athletic |public or |Yes; does not |
|(Vargas) |coach, |private |specify |
| |including but |postsecondary|employees |
| |not limited to | |only |
| |an assistant |institutions | |
| |coach or | | |
| |graduate | | |
| |assistant | | |
| |involved in | | |
| |coaching | | |
-------------------------------------------------------
To the extent a "public or private organization," as set forth
in AB 1435, includes postsecondary institutions, these bills
could be confusing if both were to be enacted. Some
postsecondary institutions may interpret the Vargas bill to be
the provision applying solely to their athletic personnel, while
others may interpret this bill, because of its inclusion of a
"public or private organization," to include them as well. The
author may wish to consider amending this bill to narrow its
application to public or private organizations serving minors
under the age of 18 to avoid any confusion about its scope or
application. However, it should be noted that current law makes
an administrator or employee of a public or private youth
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center, youth recreation program, or youth organization a
mandated child abuse or neglect reporter (Penal Code �
11165.7(a)(7).). To avoid confusion and redundancy in the
statute, members of the Committee and the author instead may
wish to amend this bill to expressly revise paragraph (7) to
state, "including but not limited to an athletic coach, athletic
administrator or athletic director."
SHOULD THIS AMENDMENT BE MADE?
Several bills have been introduced this session which propose to
expand the obligation to report suspected child abuse or
neglect:
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| Bill | What the Bill Does | Status |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1435 (Dickinson) |Makes an "athletic |Before this |
| |coach, athletic |Committee (this |
| |administrator, or |bill) |
| |athletic director | |
| |employed by a public | |
| |or private | |
| |organization, | |
| |including, but not | |
| |limited to, schools | |
| |that provide | |
| |kindergarten or any | |
| |of grades 1 to 12, | |
| |inclusive," a | |
| |mandated reporter. | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1434 (Feuer) | Makes an "employee |Before this |
| |of a public or |Committee |
| |private institution | |
| |of higher education, | |
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| |as to child abuse or | |
| |neglect occurring on | |
| |that institution's | |
| |premises or at an | |
| |official activity | |
| |of, or program | |
| |conducted by, the | |
| |institution," a | |
| |mandated reporter. | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1438 (Bradford) |Expands the existing |Before this |
| |crime for failing to |Committee |
| |notify a peace | |
| |officer of a | |
| |specified violent | |
| |crime against a | |
| |child under 14 to | |
| |include non-forcible | |
| |child molestation | |
| |(PC 152.3) | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1713 (Campos) |Expands existing |Before this |
| |definition of |Committee |
| |commercial film and | |
| |photographic print | |
| |processers who are | |
| |mandated reporters | |
| |to include several | |
| |enumerated types of | |
| |computer-related | |
| |data and imagery. | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1817 (Atkins) |Makes "commercial |Before this |
| |computer |Committee |
| |technicians," as | |
| |specified, mandated | |
| |reporters. | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|SB 1264 (Vargas) |Makes any "athletic |Passed this |
| |coach, including, |Committee 4/17/12 |
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| |but not limited to, |(7-0); pending in |
| |an assistant coach |the Assembly |
| |or a graduate | |
| |assistant involved | |
| |in coaching, at | |
| |public or private | |
| |postsecondary | |
| |institutions," a | |
| |mandated reporter. | |
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| Bill | What the Bill Does | Status |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|SB 1551 (Vargas) |Requires a |Pulled by author |
| |"competent adult who |after hearing in |
| |becomes aware of |this Committee |
| |information or |4/17/12 (ROCA bill) |
| |evidence that would | |
| |cause a reasonable | |
| |suspicion of child | |
| |sexual | |
| |abuse is required to | |
| |report that | |
| |information to state | |
| |or local law | |
| |enforcement or to | |
| |county child | |
| |protective services | |
| |within 72 hours," | |
| |with specified | |
| |criminal penalties. | |
|---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|AB 1564 (Lara) |Makes "volunteers of |Assembly Public |
| |public or private |Safety |
| |organizations, | |
| |including nonprofit | |
| |organizations, whose | |
| |duties require | |
| |direct contact with | |
| |and supervision of | |
| |children," mandated | |
| |reporters. | |
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