12-17-21
Protecting youth is our top priority and we are excited to announce some new layers of protection the State of California will be introducing next year to supplement and enhance our already robust Youth Protection Policies.
Starting next year, California law AB 506 will require all youth-serving organizations to take several steps to protect children from neglect and abuse. Due to our commitment to safety, we are already meeting several of the requirements, including having two leaders at every meeting and clear policies for reporting abuse for all registered adults. However, two new requirements will be added next year to strengthen our Youth Protection efforts in our council and affect many of our volunteers and families.
These new requirements are for everyone regardless of Boy Scout registrations status 18 years of age or older and who has direct contact with, or supervision of, children for more than 16 hours per month or 32 hours per year. They consist of:
- Mandatory Fingerprinting
- Mandated Reporter Training from the State of California (2 hours).
We are still gathering details for our timeline and implementation, but we wanted to share this news with you. True youth protection can be achieved only through the focused commitment of everyone in Scouting, and we thank you for your dedication to keeping all our Scouts safe in Scouting. We will be sharing more details about these new requirements in the coming weeks and months.
California Assembly Bill 506 became law on September 16, 2021. AB 506 requires administrators, employees, and regular volunteers of youth service organizations to:
- Complete training in child abuse and neglect identification and reporting
- Undergo a background check to identify and exclude any persons with a history of child abuse
- Ensure mandatory reporting of suspected incidents of child abuse to persons or entities outside of the organization
- Require two mandatory reporters whenever in contact or in the supervision of children
The BSA’s Youth Protection Training standards required of all registered adults, our two deep leadership policy, and the criminal background check performed with an adult volunteer’s registration appear to meet most of the requirements of this law. The BSA’s routine criminal background check does not meet this standard, thus a background check with finger print scan will be required soon. Fingerprinting is already required in many schools, sports, and other organizations such as the Catholic Churches.
We have previously updated you on our council’s YPT policy, which requires that all registered adults 18 and over maintain YPT yearly training.
The Orange County Council leadership is working with National Service Territory 3 to develop a consistent plan for all California BSA councils to fulfill the law’s requirements. As with all major news and changes to our local policies, look for upcoming news releases and information on our website for more details in the coming weeks.
Click here to view the content of AB 506
Read more about the Boy Scouts of America Youth Protection Training.