Protect your congregation and your ministry.

Clergy are mandated reporters in California

Penal Code section 11165.7 lists clergy members as mandated reporters of suspected child abuse and neglect: a priest, minister, rabbi, religious practitioner, or similar functionary of a church, temple, or recognized denomination or organization.

Under section 11166, a mandated reporter must make an initial report by telephone to an agency immediately or as soon as is practicably possible, then send a written followup report within 36 hours of receiving the information. Under section 11165.9, the report goes to a police or sheriff's department (not school district police), a county probation department designated to receive reports, or the county welfare department, and those agencies may not refuse it.

• Telling the pastor is not reporting. Under 11166(i), no supervisor may impede or inhibit the duty, and telling a supervisor or coworker does not substitute for the agency report.
• Confession has a narrow carve-out. Under 11166(d), knowledge gained during a penitential communication, such as a confidential confession, is exempt. The exemption does not apply when the clergy member is acting in some other capacity that would make them a mandated reporter.
• Failure to report is a misdemeanor that can carry county jail time, a fine, or both.
• Most church volunteers are not mandated reporters. Section 11165.7(b) encourages volunteers who supervise children to get training and to report, but does not require it. Volunteers at a public or private school are an exception, so a church-run school changes the answer.

Put these steps in your child safety policy, post the county numbers for youth staff, and have it written down before you apply for abuse and molestation coverage. Other states set their own lists and deadlines.

Screening volunteers who work with children

Penal Code section 11105.3 covers a "qualified entity," an organization that provides care, such as education, supervision, or recreation, to children. It may require a covered individual, meaning a current or prospective volunteer or employee who has or may have access to the people it serves, to undergo a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history background check. It is allowed, not required.

• Register first with the Department of Justice and sign its agreement.
• Keep a signed waiver from each person allowing release of the state and federal criminal history information to the church.
• Request subsequent notification service from the DOJ, which the statute requires of a qualified entity.
• Give written notice of the person's right to a copy of the report, to challenge the accuracy and completeness of anything in it, and to a decision on that challenge before the church makes a final determination.

On the DOJ's Live Scan process, the church, as applicant agency, gives the applicant form BCIA 8016, Request for Live Scan Service, with its DOJ-assigned ORI and five-digit mail code. The applicant takes the completed form and appropriate identification to a Live Scan operator; a certified fingerprint roller or qualified law enforcement personnel must take the prints. A wrong mail code sends results to the wrong agency.

An on-site daycare follows its own state rules, and other states run their own processes.

Security planning with CISA and FEMA tools

CISA's houses of worship page lists the Houses of Worship Security Self-Assessment, a paper-based version, and Physical Security Performance Goals for Faith-Based Communities. CISA also lists Protective Security Advisors and the Faith-Based Information Sharing and Analysis Organization, which shares threat and hazard information.

CISA's fact sheet, Protecting Places of Worship: Six Steps to Enhance Security Against Targeted Violence, names six steps, as the U.S. Fire Administration lists them:

1. Understand the risk
2. Understand your space
3. Develop and practice a plan
4. Inform and educate greeters
5. Pursue grants
6. Report hate crimes and other incidents

The USFA page also links CISA's emergency action plan template for an active shooter event.

FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds target hardening and other physical security enhancements for nonprofit organizations at high risk of terrorist attack, including places of worship. CISA says these grants are managed in partnership through each state's Homeland Security Advisor's office, and FEMA posts an investment justification checklist for applicants.

Keep the self-assessment, the written plan, and drill dates in one folder. When a carrier asks about security for a special event or a renewal, that folder answers it.

Official sources

• California Penal Code 11165.7 (mandated reporters)
• California Penal Code 11166 (reporting duty and timeline)
• California Penal Code 11165.9 (agencies that receive reports)
• California Code of Civil Procedure 340.1 (childhood sexual assault actions)
• California Penal Code 11105.3 (background checks for care providers)
• California DOJ, Fingerprint Background Checks (Live Scan)
• 42 U.S.C. 14503, Volunteer Protection Act limitation on liability
• CISA, Protecting Houses of Worship
• U.S. Fire Administration, Protecting houses of worship from targeted violence
• FEMA, Nonprofit Security Grant Program