Developmental centers: reporting requirements.

Existing law vests in the State Department of Developmental Services jurisdiction over state hospitals referred to as developmental centers for the provision of residential care to persons with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires a developmental center to immediately report all resident deaths and serious injuries of unknown origin to the appropriate local law enforcement agency. Existing law establishes the Office of Protective Services within the State Department of Developmental Services. This bill would instead require a developmental center to immediately report a death, a sexual assault, an assault with a deadly weapon by a nonresident of the developmental center, an assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, an injury to the genitals when the cause of injury is undetermined, or a broken bone when the cause of the break is undetermined, to the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the city or county in which the developmental center is located, regardless of whether the Office of Protective Services has investigated the facts and circumstances relating to the incident. The bill would require the developmental center to submit a written report of the incident to the local law enforcement agency within 2 working days of any telephone report to that agency. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 4427.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, proposed by SB 1051, to be operative only if SB 1051 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.