A new bill in the California Legislature seeks to clarify just when mandated reporters need to alert child welfare authorities.

Witnessing a domestic violence incident alone doesn’t necessarily need to trigger a report to authorities, it says.

That’s not to say a mandated reporter can’t still alert child welfare authorities if they believe the child is neglected or abused; it just says witnessing a potential domestic violence incident alone does not need to trigger a report.

Sacramento Snapshot

Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.

The goal, proponents of SB 1126 say, is to keep children with their parents, particularly with those who protect them.

“Oftentimes, domestic violence situations can be messy, and what often happens — particularly in minority communities and Black and Brown communities — is the survivor, the victim of domestic violence, is the one who loses custody because the child has been present in the instance of domestic violence,” said Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, the bill’s sponsor.

“By making it explicit and clear that mandated reporters don’t need to report just on the basis of being present in domestic violence, this allows for more discretion and hopefully will prevent families from being taken apart,” Min added.

With looming threats that they could lose their child, even temporarily, or be charged with child neglect, oftentimes domestic violence victims opt against reporting abuse, said Chris Negri, the associate director of public policy strategies at the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. (The coalition has signed on to support the bill.)

And abusers can use that threat — the fear that their children will be taken away — to coerce victims from reporting abuse, he said.

“The current system is really counterproductive. It punishes survivors, and it encases them in this Catch-22,” said Negri. “We’re saying you have to leave, you have to get out of this situation so your child doesn’t witness a domestic violence situation, but if you do, your child might be taken away from you.”

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” he said.

Long Beach attorney Kyle Puro, who practices family law with experience in child abuse cases, says he has worked with and represented police officers about this very issue.

“They say, ‘We don’t have any discretion not to call it in. If we get a domestic violence call, and we see a child is present, then we are required to call in a child abuse referral because it’s our necks on the line,’” Puro said.

Under California law, mandated reporters — these can be first responders, teachers, physicians, counselors or clergy, to name a few — must immediately report suspected child abuse or neglect to a child protective agency.

And studies have shown that Black, Latino and Native American families are more likely to be investigated for child abuse or neglect once a report is made and the children are subsequently placed in foster care.

A 2022 report from child advocacy organization Safe & Sound said one-third of U.S. children are the subject of child abuse investigations by the time they reach 18 years old, with 53% of those being Black children.

“From my experience, and what data shows, there’s no safety for indigenous and Black families experiencing domestic violence because of the bias experienced by investigators, mandated reporters and courts,” said Tina Rios, a leader with the Reimagine Child Safety coalition.

“It’s inhuman to separate a child from a mother who is a victim of domestic violence just because they may or may not have witnessed a domestic violence incident,” Rios said, noting that not every domestic violence report is substantiated.

Still, it’s a delicate situation, Puro notes: On the one hand, if there is prevalent domestic violence in a home and a child is witness to it, that could be detrimental to their development. “But when you mess with a kid’s stability (by taking them away from the home), you’re actually doing more harm than the risk of them seeing their parents have an argument or situational domestic violence,” he said.

“Kids have an interest in stability, but when you place children outside the home of their parents because of the potential risk of ongoing domestic violence, you’re doing more harm than good,” he said.

The bill is set for a hearing in the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 9.

Other supporters include the UC Irvine Domestic Violence Law Clinic and the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. There is no opposition on file as of yet.

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The legislators have said the LOSSAN corridor struggles to retain and attract passengers, while dealing with constant service disruptions and track closures, among other issues.

CalSTA, Omishakin said, “is committed to taking on a greater leadership role in addressing short-term and long-term priorities in the corridor.” The agency is even considering a formal plan to ensure its leadership in the LOSSAN corridor, he said.

“Our partners in the corridor have made clear their desire for CalSTA’s leadership on streamlining project implementation and fostering better coordination with regulatory and permitting agencies,” Omishakin said in a letter. “I have committed my team to work with the California Natural Resources Agency to better align and coordinate efforts along the corridor with our state regulatory and permitting agencies.”

• Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, is taking over the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, and she met with Secretary of State Shirley Weber last week in preparation for the role.

Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach, is the vice chair of the committee.