BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 135 (Buchanan) - School Employees: Child Abuse Reporting
Amended: May 21, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: June 23, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 135 requires local education agencies (LEAs)
and the California Department of Education (CDE), as specified,
to adopt a policy on the reporting of child abuse and the
responsibilities of mandated reporters and to review that policy
with employees on an annual basis.
Fiscal Impact:
LEAs: Potentially significant reimbursable mandate, in
aggregate, for all schools in the state to adopt local
policies on mandated reporting and to annually review
policies with all employees.
CDE: No additional costs to adopt and annually review the
mandated reporter policy for two schools.
Background: Under the existing Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting
Act (CANRA), all school district teachers and employees are
considered to be "mandated reporters," including instructional
aides, teacher assistants, classified employees, and employees
of a school district police or security department. Mandated
reporters are required to 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.
CANRA also 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
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the CDE the reasons why this training is not provided.
Additionally, current law requires any mandated reporter, with
the exception of child visitation monitors, prior to commencing
his or her employment, to sign a statement affirming that he or
she has knowledge of the mandated reporting procedures and will
comply with those provisions. Further, current 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.)
Existing law also 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.
(Education Code � 44691)
Proposed Law: This bill requires school districts, county
offices of education, and charter schools to adopt a policy on
the reporting of child abuse and the responsibilities of
mandated reports, as specified, in accordance with the
requirements of CANRA. This bill further requires school
districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, at
a minimum, to review the mandated reporting requirements of
school employees with all school personnel within the first six
weeks of each school year, as part of a regularly scheduled
staff meeting.
Staff Comments: This bill creates new required duties for LEAs,
and those mandated activities are likely to be deemed by the
Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable. Under existing
law, certain employees are mandate reporters, and the statutory
requirements for reporting suspected child abuse and/or neglect
fall to those individuals. This bill creates LEA responsibility
for developing and implementing its own policy on mandated
reporting, and the responsibility to annually distribute and
review it with employees, as specified. To the extent that LEAs
do not have a policy in place, staff time and resources for the
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creation and adoption of one would be reimbursable. In
aggregate, for all schools in the state to adopt local policies
on mandated reporting, one-time state reimbursable costs could
reach the low hundreds of thousands of dollars (General Fund).
Ongoing state reimbursable costs for all LEAs to annually review
policies with all employees would like be minor, but could
result in aggregate costs in the tens of thousands of dollars
(General Fund).