BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 737
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 737 (Walters)
As Amended August 22, 2011
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :39-0
HUMAN SERVICES 5-1 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Beall, Jones, Grove, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Hall, Portantino | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio, |
| | | |Wagner |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Ammiano | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Clarifies statutes related to the licensing and
regulation of license-exempt "organized camps" and expands the
operating hours of the Afterschool Education and Safety Program
(ASES). Specifically, this bill :
1)Increases the number of operating hours, from 30 to 60 hours
per week, that participating programs operated by a city,
county, or nonprofit organization in the ASES program may
operate without obtaining a license or special permit
otherwise required under existing law, but limits a child's
total hours in the program to the current 30 hours.
2)Codifies a Department of Public Health regulation regarding
background checks of camp directors or camp counselors.
3)Clarifies that YMCA, as an organized camp, is exempt from day
care licensure and updates the names of existing
license-exempt organized camps.
4)Modifies the definition of the term "organized camp" by
specifying that the programs are for five consecutive days,
that an overnight stay is not required to meet the definition
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of an organized camp, and that short duration programs held on
organized campsites such as conferences do not have to meet
the General and Safety Supervision requirements in
regulations.
5)Adds to code and defines the term "organized day camp" to
bring these programs under specified oversight by Department
of Public Health (DPH) regulations.
6)Requires an organized camp or day camp to develop a written
operating plan and file the plan with the local health
department, as specified. The bill would also require the
health officer to acknowledge receipt of the plan within 30
days, and further that an organized camp and organized day
camp's written plan and acknowledgement shall be posted, with
the acknowledgement letter, in a conspicuous location on camp
premises and on any available Web site.
7)Requires DPH, in promulgating regulations pertaining to day
camps, to obtain input from specified affected organizations,
and recover costs from those organizations, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)General Fund costs in the range of $60,000 per year for
approximately two years for DPH to work with stakeholders and
revise the regulations pertaining to organized camps and
organized day camps.
2)Local health departments have broad authority to charge fees
to organizations requesting reviews of operating plans, and
currently charge organized camps for similar activities.
Thus, while there may be significant local costs to this bill,
it is not a reimbursable state mandate.
COMMENTS : According to the author, she has introduced this bill
primarily to provide uniformity of oversight for organized camps
and organized day camps. As the author states,
Organized Day Camps are being treated in some counties
similarly to the way the statute treats Organized
Camps (overnight programs), while in other counties,
health officers are not applying health and safety
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rules to Organized Day Camps that are being applied to
Organized Camps. SB 737 clarifies that Organized Day
Camps will be regulated in the same way that Organized
Camps are regulated.
This bill adds a new category of an organized camp, called an
organized day camp, to code, defines it, and applies some of the
same regulations that organized camps must comply with to
organized day camps. Separately, this bill expands the
operating hours of the ASES programs to accommodate the half
school day schedules of kindergartners.
ASES
This bill applies only to ASES and expands their hours of
operation. According to the author, the need for the expansion
of hours, from 30 to 60, is to provide flexibility in order to
accommodate a kindergartner's morning and afterschool schedule.
Kindergartners attend school for only a half day.
Current law states that ASES programs are license-exempt up to
30 hours. Although this bill expands a program's operating
hours, the bill provides that a child can only be in care for up
to 30 hours. Maintaining the current 30-hour individual child
maximum ensures that the "duration" of child care at one of
these programs has the appropriate ceiling to ensure that a
child's health and safety are protected.
Organized camps and organized day camps
This bill clarifies and/or modifies statutes related to the
existing organized camps and the newly defined organized day
camp. While similar in purpose, the difference between these
two types of programs is primarily one of siting. Organized
camps are fixed sites that provide activities in a permanent
location for five days or more. In contrast, organized day
camps frequently transport campers to activities that are
off-site such as beaches, parks, and campsites and are only for
less than one day.
While background information provided by the author states that
this bill will regulate these two types of camps in the same
way, technically, the organized day camps will be subject to
just three of the DPH regulations: background checks,
counselor-to-camper ratio, and the definition of a qualified
director. This narrowed set of regulations appears to be
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appropriate considering organized day camps do not have a
permanent site in need of oversight for such things as building
standards, mosquito controls, etc. Bringing organized day camps
under appropriate regulation assures the health and safety of
the campers, just like that of the organized camps, but is
tailored to meet the distinct characteristics of the day camps.
This bill also requires both types of camps to have written
operating plans on file with the local health department.
Because these programs are license-exempt, it is appropriate for
them to have a written operating plan that the health department
can review and have on file for parents to check. The author
also added language to have the plan conveniently posted in a
conspicuous place on the campsite or on the program's Internet
Web site, if one is available. This way, parents can locate
this information with relative ease.
Employee background checks
DPH regulations under 17 California Code of Regulations (CCR)
Section 30751 require that,
The Director and camp counselors shall not have direct
unsupervised contact with campers without first
obtaining a satisfactory criminal history check from
the California Department of Justice, Bureau of
Criminal Identification, or U.S. Department of Justice
National Sex Offender Public Registry, and a voluntary
disclosure statement that contains the same
information as standard HR-4 Staff Screening of the
Accreditation Standards for Camp programs and
Services, American Camp Association (2007 Edition).
According to the sponsor, the California State Alliance of
YMCAs, the current practice of organized camps to comply with
DPH background check regulations is to submit a potential
employee's fingerprint via "LiveScan." According to the
Department of Justice's (DOJ) Web site, Live Scan technology
allows digitally scanned fingerprints and related information to
be submitted electronically to the DOJ within a matter of
minutes and allows criminal background checks to be processed
usually within 72 hours.
The DOJ check includes a 10-year "look-back" at an applicant's
California-only criminal history for felonies, pending arrests,
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and specified misdemeanors. However, if the applicant has a sex
offense on record, the background check can be conducted beyond
the 10 years. In addition, organized camps are allowed to
request a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background check
for offenses committed nationally. Unfortunately, if an offense
was committed in another state, Public Law 92-544 prohibits DOJ
from disseminating the details of that information back to the
organized camp. Therefore, an FBI background check is
essentially of very little value and moreover this check is
permissive and not required. DOJ can only indicate to the
program that there was an offense in another state without any
other details and the program would be left to rely on the
applicant's honesty as to what the offense was. Lastly, the DOJ
background check includes an alert system for subsequent
arrests.
According to the sponsor, there is no known evidence of sexual
abuse or other serious complaints regarding employees of
organized camps or organized day camps. However, it is
important to note that this information is not centrally tracked
because these programs are license-exempt. There exists no
single agency to consult to determine if there are or are not
complaints. The only way to know for sure is to check each
local police jurisdiction. It is also important to note that
supporters of this bill do recognize the importance of child
safety and agree that a more comprehensive background check is
necessary. However, they are concerned that it may be cost
prohibitive.
Recent amendments: The recent amendments, starting with the
July 6th version of the bill, were intended to strengthen
protections for children by requiring that these camps obtain a
criminal background check from the U.S. Department of Justice
National Sex Offender Public Registry. While the overall goal
of protecting children was accomplished, the amendment as
drafted would have, inadvertently, required a criminal check
from the California Justice Department, Bureau of Criminal
Identification as well. The latter was not intended to be a
requirement, and this was corrected by the August 22nd
amendment, however, the author intends to further amend the bill
consistent with the policy issue addressed in the Assembly Human
Services Committee.
SB 737
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Analysis Prepared by : Frances Chacon / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
FN: 0002100