Reality check on California AB 506
What’s changed and what’s staying the same?
The good news is churches have gained time to comply; most requirements are common sense protections.
By Max Herr
Church & Ministry Compliance Consulting
I’ve received several inquiries about the content of a recent webinar presented by California Southern Baptists (CSBC) and a compliance organization on “changes” to the compliance requirements of AB 506 (the new law concerning identification and reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect).
A related law, AB 2669, was passed in September 2022 as an “urgency” measure. There was no emergency, but the practical effect of this declaration allowed the law to go into effect as soon as it was signed by the governor. This legislation made only two amendments to AB 506.
Timelines extended
First, it addresses the required Live Scan fingerprinting of employees and regular volunteers. To participate, churches must have an ORI (Originating Request Identifier) number. This number is what authorizes a church to interact with the state’s criminal justice database. In other words, without an ORI number, you can’t comply with the fingerprinting mandate.
The California Department of Justice has been unable to keep up with applications for ORI numbers on a timely basis, and this extension recognizes the state’s limitation. As a result, the fingerprint mandate was pushed back to Jan. 1, 2024.
The law also allows churches that already have ORI numbers to postpone Live Scan background checks until Jan. 1, 2024. However, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Churches should set the standard for compliance rather than dragging their feet.
Counseling clarification
The second change relates to counseling. Organizations involved in one-to-one counseling of children and youth and which have policies and procedures in place:
To ensure comprehensive screening of volunteers
To ensure training of volunteers and parents or guardians
To maintain regular contact with volunteers and parents or guardians
are exempt from a previous requirement of AB 506. That requirement is to have “to the greatest extent possible” two mandated reporters present with children in those one-to-one sessions. This change does not alter the same “two mandated reporters” prescription in all other circumstances.
“Other than the above-mentioned one-to-one settings, churches need to have a minimum of two adults – employees or volunteers – present wherever and whenever children are present. ”
If the adults are not mandated reporters, they need to know how to inform a mandated reporter of a suspected or known incident of child abuse or neglect.
In addition, adults who are not mandated reporters may make the report themselves and inform a mandated reporter that a report was made.
Clarifications
And that brings up some of the questions we have been receiving about the webinar I mentioned in this introduction to this article. A comment was made during the presentation that could lead someone to believe that there is only one acceptable “certificate of completion” in Child Abuse and Neglect training. To clarify, there are several providers offering compliant training and certification. In addition, there is no “syllabus” or “educational objectives” document which details the content of the two-hour or four-hour trainings.
MinistrySafe has been providing training in Child Sexual Abuse Awareness and screening processes for employees and volunteers for more than three decades. Within weeks of the enactment of AB 506, MinistrySafe updated its training program to include the additional required elements of the broader topic of Child Abuse and Neglect. This training fully satisfies the 2-hour requirement under AB 506. But it has the added advantage of focused training on Child Sexual Abuse, which has been of paramount importance to churches for years. Churches which are enrolled in the MinistrySafe program have the ability to assign and monitor training and to maintain proof of completed training.
It was also stated in the webinar that churches will lose their liability insurance policy if they are not compliant with AB 506. While we do not speak for insurance companies, this is not what we are seeing. In fact, we’re seeing just the opposite.
The law states that insurance companies “may request information demonstrating compliance” concerning the policies and procedures a church has in place before it issues or renews a policy. However, major insurance companies that specialize in covering churches (including Church Mutual Insurance Company, GuideOne, Philadelphia, US Fire Insurance, Hartford and Great American), have all indicated they have no plans to non-renew their clients now or in the future. Instead, they will all work with their clients to make sure appropriate policies and procedures are in place. No church is in danger of losing its general liability insurance, but they should all be working toward full compliance with AB 506.
Max Herr is president of Church & Ministry Compliance Consulting. He has more than 25 years of experience in insurance, financial services, compliance and governance, including more than 10 years as a church treasurer. Max served as the church compliance specialist for the California Southern Baptist Convention for six years.
