BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1432
AUTHOR: Gatto
AMENDED: May 23, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo
NOTE : This bill has been referred to the Committees on
Education and
Public Safety. A "do pass" motion should include referral to
the Committee
on Public Safety.
SUBJECT : School employees: training on child abuse
reporting.
SUMMARY
This bill requires local education agencies to annually train
employees on their duties regarding the mandated reporting of
child abuse and neglect.
BACKGROUND
Under the existing Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, 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.
The Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act 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
AB 1432
Page 2
employees in the duties of mandated reporters are required to
report to the State Department of Education 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 on a
form (provided by the employer) to the effect 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.)
Current law requires school districts and county offices of
education to create comprehensive school safety plans for
their schools and requires the school safety plans to include
child abuse reporting procedures, as specified.
(Education Code � 32282)
Current 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 State Department of Education (SDE). 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 SDE. (Education Code � 44691)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Deletes the requirement in current law for the State
Office of Child Abuse Prevention to develop and
disseminate information to all school districts and
school personnel in California regarding the detection
of child abuse; deletes the authorization for the
information to be disseminated by the use of literature;
and deletes the requirement for the SDE to develop staff
development seminars and any other appropriate means of
AB 1432
Page 3
instructing school personnel in the detection of child
abuse and neglect and the proper action that school
personnel should take in suspected cases.
2) Requires the SDE, in consultation with the Office of
Child Abuse Prevention to do all of the following:
a) Develop and disseminate information to all
school districts, county offices of education,
state special schools and diagnostic centers, and
charter schools, and their school personnel in
California, regarding the detection and reporting
of child abuse.
b) Provide statewide guidelines on the
responsibilities of mandated reporters in
accordance with the Child Abuse and Neglect
Reporting Act. The guidelines shall include, but
not be limited to, the identification of child
abuse and neglect and reporting requirements for
child abuse and neglect.
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.
1) Requires all school districts, county offices of
education, state special schools and diagnostic centers,
and charter schools to do the following:
a) Provide annual training, as specified, to
their employees and persons working on their behalf
who are mandated reporters, as defined, on the
mandated reporting requirements; provides that
mandated reporter training shall be provided to
school personnel hired during the course of the
year; and requires the training to include
information 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
AB 1432
Page 4
imprisonment and fine.
b) Develop a process for all persons required
to receive training to provide proof of completing
the training within the first six weeks of each
school year or within the first six weeks of that
person's employment. This process may include, but
not necessarily be limited to, the use of a sign-in
sheet or the submission of a certificate of
completion to the applicable governing board or
body of the school district, county office of
education, state special school and diagnostic
center, or charter school.
c) Requires a school district, county office
of education, state special school and diagnostic
center, and charter school that does not use the
online training module provided by the State
Department of Education to report the training
being used in its place to the SDE.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . Currently, all teachers, aides,
classified and administrative employees have a duty to
report under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.
Failure to make a report can result in jail time and/or
a $1,000 fine. According to the author's office, "In
recent years, there has been an alarming increase in
incidents of unreported child abuse where one or more
additional schools employees were aware of the
incident-illustrating gaping holes in these mandated
reporters' knowledge of the Child Abuse and Neglect
Reporting Act. Despite the Child Abuse and Neglect
Reporting Act'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) Duties as a mandated reporter ? Proponents of the bill
argue that school employees are not always aware of
their duty to report incidents of child abuse and
AB 1432
Page 5
neglect or are unsure of the proper procedures for
making reports. Additionally, recent incidents have
highlighted the lack of training of educators in their
role as a mandated reporter. In either case, this could
lead to incidents of unreported child abuse by school
employees. To address these issues, several pieces of
legislation have recently been introduced to take extra
steps deemed necessary to ensure that children are
better protected.
3) Similar measures . AB 1432 and AB 135 (Buchanan) each
seek to accomplish similar objectives to strengthen the
Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and ultimately
increase student safety in schools. Specifically, AB
135 requires local education agencies (LEAs) to adopt
policies and provide employees with regular reminders of
their responsibilities as mandated reporters. This
measure takes a more expansive approach by requiring
LEAs to annually train their employees, which they are
already strongly encouraged to do so under the Child
Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. The two measures (as
currently drafted) would not have chaptering issues if
both were signed into law. However, it is not clear
that both measures are necessary due to the similarities
of the objectives they are seeking to achieve. AB 135
is currently pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
There is another pending measure that proposes statutory
changes regarding the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting
Act-AB 2560 (Bonilla). This measure would require a
teacher credentialing applicant to read and sign a
statement regarding his or her role as a mandated
reporter, and is pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
SUPPORT
California Catholic Conference, Inc.
California Federation of Teachers
California Police Chiefs Association
California School Employees Association
California State PTA
California Teachers Association
Child Abuse Listening, Interviewing & Coordination Center
AB 1432
Page 6
Child Abuse Prevention Center
Crime Victims United of California
EdVoice
Hillsides
Keenan & Associates
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Los Angeles Unified School District
National Association of Social Workers
Northern California Regional Liability Excess Fund
Schools Association For Excess Risk JPA
Southern California Regional Liability Excess Fund
Statewide Association of Community Colleges
Superintendent of Public Instruction
StudentsFirst
United Teachers Los Angeles
OPPOSITION
None on file.