BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1432
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
Chief Counsel: Gregory Pagan
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Tom Ammiano, Chair
AB 1432 (Gatto) - As Amended: February 11, 2014
As Proposed to be Amended in Committee
SUMMARY : Requires annual training in the identification of,
and reporting of, known or suspected child abuse and neglect by
all school district, county office of education (COE), state
special schools, and diagnostic centers operated by the
California Department of Education (CDE), and charter school
personnel within the first six weeks of each school year, or
within six weeks of employment. Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes the requirement for the State Office of Child Abuse
Prevention to develop and disseminate information to all
school districts and district school personnel in California
regarding the detection of child abuse; deletes the
authorization for the information to be disseminated by the
use of literature, as deemed suitable by CDE, and deletes the
requirement for the CDE to develop 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, and deletes the definition
of "school personnel".
2)Requires CDE, in consultation with the Office of Child Abuse
Prevention in the Department of Social Services, to do all of
the following:
a) Develop and disseminate information to all school
districts, COEs, state special schools and diagnostic
centers operated by CDE, and charter schools, and their
school personnel in California, regarding the detection and
reporting of child abuse;
b) Provide statewide guidelines on the identification and
reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect, and the
responsibilities of mandated reporters in accordance with
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the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA); and,
c) Develop 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, including, but
not limited to, an online training module.
3)Requires school districts, COEs, state special schools and
diagnostic centers operated by CDE, and charter schools to
annually provide training, as appropriate, to their employees
and persons working on their behalf, who are mandated
reporters, on the mandated reporting requirements; requires
mandated reporter training to be provided to school personnel
hired during the course of the school year; and, requires the
training to include information on child abuse and neglect
identification and child abuse and neglect reporting and that
failure to report an incident of known or reasonably suspected
child abuse or neglect, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable
by up to six months confinement in a county jail, or by a fine
of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment
and fine.
4)States that all persons required to receive training, as
specified, shall submit proof of completing the mandated
reporter training required to the applicable governing board
or body of the school district, COE, state special school and
diagnostic center, or charter school within the first six
weeks of each school year or within six weeks of employment.
5)Requires school districts, COEs, state special schools, and
diagnostic centers operated by the CDE, and charter schools to
annually train their employees and persons working on their
behalf in the duties of mandated reporters under the CANRA.
The training shall include, but not necessarily be limited to,
training in child abuse and neglect identification and child
abuse and neglect reporting.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Defines "mandated reporter" under CANRA as any of the
following: a teacher; an instructional aide; a teacher's aide
or teacher's assistant employed by any public or private
school; a classified employee of any public school; an
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administrative officer or supervisor of child welfare and
attendance, or a certificated pupil personnel employee of any
public or private school; an administrator of a public or
private day camp; an administrator or employee of a public or
private youth center, youth recreation program, or youth
organization; an administrator or employee of a public or
private organization whose duties require direct contact and
supervision of children; any employee of a county office of
education or the State Department of Education, whose duties
bring the employee into contact with children on a regular
basis; a licensee, an administrator, or an employee of a
licensed community care or child day care facility; a Head
Start program teacher; a licensing worker or licensing
evaluator employed by a licensing agency as defined; a public
assistance worker; an employee of a child care institution,
including, but not limited to, foster parents, group home
personnel, and personnel of residential care facilities; a
social worker, probation officer, or parole officer; an
employee of a school district police or security department;
any person who is an administrator or presenter of, or a
counselor in, a child abuse prevention program in any public
or private school; a district attorney investigator,
inspector, or local child support agency caseworker unless the
investigator, inspector, or caseworker is working with an
attorney appointed to represent a minor; a peace officer, as
defined, who is not otherwise described in this section; a
firefighter, except for volunteer firefighters; a physician
and surgeon, psychiatrist, psychologist, dentist, resident,
intern, podiatrist, chiropractor, licensed nurse, dental
hygienist, optometrist, marriage and family therapist,
clinical social worker, professional clinical counselor, or
any other person who is currently licensed as a health care
professional as specified; any emergency medical technician I
or II, paramedic, or other person certified to provide
emergency medical services; a registered psychological
assistant; a marriage and family therapist trainee, as
defined; a registered unlicensed marriage and family therapist
intern; a state or county public health employee who treats a
minor for venereal disease or any other condition; a coroner;
a medical examiner, or any other person who performs
autopsies; a commercial film and photographic print processor,
as defined; a child visitation monitor, as defined; an animal
control officer or humane society officer, as defined; a
clergy member, as defined; any custodian of records of a
clergy member, as specified; any employee of any police
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department, county sheriff's department, county probation
department, or county welfare department; an employee or
volunteer of a Court Appointed Special Advocate program, as
defined; any custodial officer, as defined; any person
providing services to a minor child, as specified; an alcohol
and drug counselor, as defined; a clinical counselor trainee,
as defined; and a registered clinical counselor intern. (Pen.
Code, � 11165.7 subd. (a).)
2)Provides that when two or more persons, who are required to
report, jointly have knowledge of a known or suspected
instance of child abuse or neglect, and when there is
agreement among them, the telephone report may be made by a
member of the team selected by mutual agreement and a single
report may be made and signed by the selected member of the
reporting team. Any member who has knowledge that the member
designated to report has failed to do so shall thereafter make
the report. (Pen. Code, � 11166, subd. (h).)
3)Provides that volunteers of public or private organizations,
except a volunteer of a Court Appointed Special Advocate
program, whose duties require direct contact with and
supervision of children are not mandated reporters but are
encouraged to obtain training in the identification and
reporting of child abuse and neglect and are further
encouraged to report known or suspected instances of child
abuse or neglect to a specified agency. (Pen. Code, �
11165.7, subd. (b).)
4)Strongly encourages employers to provide their employees who
are mandated reporters with training in the duties imposed by
CANRA. This training shall include training in child abuse
and neglect identification and training in child abuse and
neglect reporting. Whether or not employers provide their
employees with training in child abuse and neglect
identification and reporting, the employers shall provide
their employees who are mandated reporters with a statement
that informs the employee that he or she is a mandated
reporter and informs the employee of his or her reporting
obligations and of his or her confidentiality rights. (Pen.
Code, � 11165.7, subd. (c).)
5)Encourages public and private organizations to provide their
volunteers whose duties require direct contact with and
supervision of children with training in the identification
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and reporting of child abuse and neglect. (Pen. Code, �
11165.7, subd. (f).)
6)Requires a mandated reporter to make a report to a specified
agency 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 child whom the
mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the
victim of child abuse or neglect. The mandated reporter shall
make an initial report to the agency immediately or as soon as
is practicably possible by telephone and the mandated reporter
shall prepare and send, fax, or electronically transmit a
written follow-up report thereof within 36 hours of receiving
the information concerning the incident. The mandated
reporter may include with the report any nonprivileged
documentary evidence the mandated reporter possesses relating
to the incident. (Pen. Code, � 11166, subd. (a).)
7)Any mandated reporter who fails to report an incident of known
or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect as required by
this section is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to
six months confinement in a county jail or by a fine of one
thousand dollars ($1,000) or by both that imprisonment and
fine. If a mandated reporter intentionally conceals his or
her failure to report an incident known by the mandated
reporter to be abuse or severe neglect under this section, the
failure to report is a continuing offense until a specified
agency discovers the offense. (Pen. Code, � 11166, subd. (c).)
8)Defines "child" under CANRA to mean person under the age of 18
years. (Pen. Code, � 11165.)
9)Defines "child abuse or neglect" under CANRA to include
physical injury or death 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. (Pen. Code, �
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11165.6.)
10)Requires any person who reasonably believes that he or she
has observed the commission of any of the following offenses
where the victim is a child under the age of 14 years shall
notify a peace officer:
a) Murder;
b) Rape; and,
c) Any lewd or lascivious act upon or with the body, or any
part or member thereof, of a child with the intent of
arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions,
or sexual desires of that person or the child by use of
force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and
unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person.
(Pen. Code, � 152.3, subd. (a).)
11)States that the failure to notify as required pursuant to the
provisions above is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine
of not more than $1,500, by imprisonment in a county jail for
not more than six months, or by both that fine and
imprisonment. (Pen. Code, � 152.3, subd. (c).)
12)Excludes from the reporting requirements above the following:
a) A person who is related to either the victim or the
offender, including a husband, wife, parent, child,
brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, or other person
related by consanguinity or affinity;
b) A person who fails to report based on a reasonable
mistake of fact; and,
c) A person who fails to report based on a reasonable fear
for his or her own safety or for the safety of his or her
family. (Pen. Code, � 152.3, subd. (e).)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
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1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "In recent
years, there has been an alarming increase in incidents of
unreported child abuse where one or more additional school
employees were aware of the incident- illustrating gaping
holes in these mandated reporters' knowledge of CANRA's. In
the Redwood City School District, a teacher was arrested in
the abuse of two five-year-old special needs students. In the
wake of this horrible incident, five staff members were fired
for failing to report the abuse despite their knowledge of it.
"In the Brentwood Union School District, eleven employees knew
but failed to tell authorities about an incident in which a
special education teacher, who had already been convicted of
child abuse, kicked an autistic student. The incident resulted
in a $950,000 settlement to the student's family. Although
district documents in the Brentwood case illustrate that
school officials conducted an internal investigation into the
incident, parents ultimately reported the incident to police.
"Despite CANRA's clear reporting requirements, school
districts are merely 'encouraged' rather than required to
provide employees who qualify as mandated reporters with
training on either abuse identification or abuse reporting.
The absence of training is a failure of our system that leaves
millions of students at risk every single day."
2)Prior Legislation:
a) AB 1435 (Dickinson, Chapter 520, Statutes of 2012, added
athletic coaches, athletic administrators, and athletic
directors employed by any public or private school that
provides any combination of instruction for Kindergarten,
or Grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to the list of individuals
who are mandated reporters under CANRA.
b) AB 1713 (Campos), Chapter 517, Statutes of 2012, made
"image processors" mandated reporters under CANRA and
expanded the list of media subject to CANRA provisions.
c) AB 1817 (Atkins), Chapter 521, Statutes of 2012, made
"commercial computer technicians" mandated reporters of
suspected child abuse and neglect for the purpose CANRA.
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d) SB 1264 (Vargas), Chapter 518, Statutes of 2012, added
any athletic coach, including, but not limited to, an
assistant coach or a graduate assistant involved in
coaching, at public or private postsecondary institutions,
to the list of individuals who are mandated reporters under
CANRA.
e) AB 2380 (Lowenthal), Chapter 123, Statutes of 2010,
clarified that a "reasonable suspicion" that a child has
been a victim of child abuse or neglect does not require
certainty that a child has been abused, and may be based on
credible information from other individuals.
f) AB 673 (Hayashi), Chapter 393, Statutes of 2007, added
death by other than accidental means to the definition of
"child abuse and neglect," and clarified that a mandated
reporter not acting in his or her private capacity or in
the course and scope of his or her employment may report
instances of known or suspected child abuse.
g) AB 525 (Chu), Chapter 701, Statutes of 2006, expanded
the definition of "child abuse and neglect" to include
instances in which a child suffers or is at substantial
risk of suffering serious emotional damage.
h) AB 1241 (Rod Pacheco), Chapter 916, Statutes of 2000,
expanded the list of mandated reporters and training
requirements under CANRA, and required that specified
additional information be included in a report of suspected
abuse or neglect.
i) SB 646 (Watson), Chapter 1444, Statutes of 1987,
established CANRA, which requires specified persons who
have knowledge of or observe a child in their professional
capacity or within the scope of their employment, whom the
person knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of
child abuse to report the known or suspected instance of
child abuse to a child protective agency, as defined.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State PTA
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction
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California Teachers Association
Child Abuse Prevention Center
Keenan and Associates
Los Angeles Unified School District
CALICO
California School Employees Association, AFL-CIO
California Federation of Teachers
California Police Chiefs Association
Schools Association for Excess Risk JPA
Statewide Association of Community Colleges
Regional Liability Excess Fund
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
EdVoice
CSAC Excess Insurance Authority
National Association of Social Workers
United Teachers Los Angeles
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared by : Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744