A California law ties commercial liability coverage to an organization’s child abuse prevention policies, including mandated reporter training. If your organization offers services or activities for minors, here’s what you need to know to protect your insurance coverage:
- CA AB506 ties insurance to child abuse prevention training and policies for youth-serving organizations
- Youth service organizations provide services or activities to minors
- Bill includes for-profit and non-profit youth service organizations
- Mandated reporter training, background checks, and abuse prevention policies are now required
- CA Insurance commissioner backs bill; organizations could lose insurance if not compliant
CA AB506 Ties Insurance to Child Abuse Prevention Training and Policies
The employees and volunteers at youth-serving organizations often work closely with or have supervision over children under the age of 18.
While many youth service organizations required background checks from volunteers, many had no official policies related to child abuse prevention or reporting suspected abuse.
This changed with the introduction of California Assembly Bill 506 (AB506) by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez in 2021.
AB 506 mandates abuse prevention measures for every administrator, employee, and full-time volunteer at a youth service organization.
“We’ve heard horrific stories of abuses against children that went unreported for decades,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said. “As parents, we should have peace of mind that any adult responsible for providing our children a safe environment is qualified and trained to catch incidents of abuse early on.” California Assembly Bill 506 (AB506) became law on September 16, 2021, and went into effect on January 1, 2022.
Youth Service Organizations Provide Services or Activities to Minors
A youth service organization, also known as a youth-serving organization, provides services or activities for minors. Youth service organizations can be non-profit or for-profit businesses. If your organization offers any of the following, you are considered a youth service organization:
- Summer camps
- Afterschool programs
- Field trip programs
- Docent-led educational programs
- Religious youth groups and camps
- Youth clubs
- Teen workplace development programs
- Story-time
- Mommy-and-me activities
- Youth sports lessons, leagues, training, or camps
- College-prep programs
- Kids' entertainment, such as trampoline parks, arcades, and mini-golf
- Kids' parties
Youth service organizations can include religious organizations, museums, science centers, zoos, private lessons, recreational sporting clubs, workplace development programs, school field trips, and businesses that offer kid-focused activities such as trampoline parks, arcades, theme parks, kids' parties and events, and more.
Mandated Reporter Training and Abuse Prevention Policies Now Required
AB506 is designed to help prevent child abuse, including sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is a widespread problem — every 9 minutes, child protective services substantiate a claim of child sexual abuse.
- Child victims of sexual abuse know their perpetrators 93% of the time.
- 34% of perpetrators are family members.
- 59% of perpetrators are non-family members known and trusted by the child.
AB506 Requirements Include
AB506 requires businesses and organizations that offer youth services and organizations, whether for-profit or non-profit, to implement training and abuse prevention policies to help protect children. Administrators, employees, and regular volunteers are required to complete child abuse and neglect reporting training, also known as mandated reporter training.
Administrators, employees, and regular volunteers are required to undergo background checks. Youth services organizations are required to develop and implement child abuse prevention policies and procedures, including protocols that ensure the reporting of suspected incidents of child abuse to entities outside of the organization.
Whenever possible, youth service organizations will require the presence of two mandated reporters whenever administrators, employees, or volunteers are in contact with or supervising children.
Insurance Coverage Tied to Compliance of Commissioner-Backed Bill
When child abuse occurs at the hands of a youth-serving organization, then lawsuits and financial losses follow. AB506 was sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who said:
“AB 506 will protect children & prevent massive insurance liability in youth organizations by requiring background checks & mandated reporter training for volunteers. We must do all we can to ensure these are safe places for our children.”
Youth service organizations must be prepared to present proof of compliance to their insurance carriers, who may require it to issue or renew liability coverage in California. Failing to comply with the requirements of AB506 is gambling insurance coverage for youth-serving organizations.
Who Needs Mandated Reporter Training in Your Youth-Serving Organization?
AB506 clearly defines administrators, employees, and full-time volunteers as people who must meet background checks and mandated reporter training requirements.
Full-time volunteers are any volunteers in your organization who volunteer for
- 16 hours or more per month, or
- 32 hours or more per year
Where to Find Mandated Reporter Training for Your Organization
Mandated Reporter Training was developed in partnership with the California Department of Social Services. It is used by hundreds of thousands of mandated reporters in California and beyond. Mandated Reporter Training is recommended by AB506, which states:
“The training requirement may be met by completing the online mandated reporter training provided by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention in the State Department of Social Services.”
Mandated Reporter Training offers special accounts for organizations that need to track training compliance, such as youth service organizations. It is the trusted source for mandated reporter training for organizations across a wide variety of industries.
If you need to demonstrate to an insurance underwriter that your administrators, employees, and volunteers have completed their training, the administrative dashboard allows you to easily add trainings to your account, assign them to individuals within your organization, and provides reporting functionality.
Find out why Mandated Reporter Training is the #1 training solution for individual mandated reporters and the organizations that employ them — learn more about Mandated Reporter Training for youth-service organizations.
