BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1432
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 14, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1432 (Gatto) - As Amended: May 7, 2014
Policy Committee: EducationVote:5-0
Public Safety 5-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill 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.
AB 1432
Page 2
b) Provide statewide guidelines on the identification and
reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect, and the
responsibilities of mandated reporters in accordance with
the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA).
c) Develop appropriate means of instructing school
personnel in the detection of child abuse and neglect and
the proper action 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 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 reporting, emphasizing that failure to
report an incident of known or reasonably suspected child
abuse or neglect, is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six
months in county jail, and/or a fine of up to one thousand
dollars ($1,000).
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.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time General Fund administrative costs to CDE of
approximately $60,000 to establish statewide guidelines and
information about detecting and reporting child abuse. CDE
would work in consultation with DSS to develop an online
training module. Ongoing costs of approximately $20,000 to
AB 1432
Page 3
update statewide guidelines, training module, and information
on child abuse and neglect.
2)Unknown General Fund/Proposition 98 mandated costs potentially
in the millions, depending on how a district chooses to comply
with the training requirements of the bill. There are 1,016
school districts and COEs and 1,018 charter schools. To the
extent LEAs choose to utilize the CDE online training module,
costs should be minimal. Costs could be substantial if LEAs
choose to develop their own training module. For example, the
Los Angeles Unified School District has developed a child
abuse awareness training video and an annual online
assessment. LAUSD indicates one-time costs of $85,000 to
produce the video and assessment.
Costs could also be incurred to compensate staff for training
time. There are 283,836 teachers as of 2011-12. To the
extent LEAs successfully file mandate claims for staff
training time, costs could be in the low millions of dollars.
The 2012-13 Budget Act created the K-12 Mandate Block Grant
that allows a school district, charter school, or COE to
choose to receive a per-pupil allocation to conduct existing
K-12 mandated activities, including those related to the CANRA
mandate. If the district, charter school, or COE chooses to
receive this allocation it forfeits its ability to claim
mandate reimbursement via the existing state process. If the
requirements of this measure are determined to be a state
mandated program, its requirements and associated costs could
be added to the block grant.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose. In recent years, incidents of unreported child abuse
have highlighted the fact that school personnel are not always
aware of their duty to report incidents of child abuse and
neglect. For example, 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 incident, five staff
members were fired for failing to report the abuse despite
their knowledge of it.
Current law encourages employers (including school districts,
and COEs) to provide their mandated reporter employees with
training in the duties required under the Child Abuse and
AB 1432
Page 4
Neglect Reporting Mandate (CANRA) but does not mandate
training. According to the author, the absence of training is
a failure of our system that leaves millions of students at
risk every single day.
2)Related legislation .
a) AB 135 (Buchanan), pending in the Senate, requires
school districts, COEs and charter schools to adopt a
policy on child abuse reporting and mandated reporter
responsibilities. Requires those entities to, at a
minimum, review the policy with all school personnel
within in the first six weeks of each school year, as
part of a regularly scheduled staff meeting.
b) AB 2560 (Bonilla), pending in the Senate, requires,
upon credential renewal, an applicant to read and sign a
statement that they understand their duties as a mandated
reporter.
1)Prior legislation.
a) AB 1338 (Buchanan), 2013, held on Suspense in this
committee, would have required the governing board of a
school district and county office of education (COE) and
the governing body of a charter school, to adopt a policy
on the reporting of child abuse and the responsibilities
of mandated reporters in accordance with the Child Abuse
and Neglect and Reporting Act (CANRA).
b) AB 1435 (Dickenson), 2012, required training for
school-employed mandated reporters. This requirement was
deleted from the bill in this committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081