Teacher credentialing: applications: child abuse reporting.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards and procedures for the initial issuance and renewal of teaching credentials. Existing law, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, requires a mandated reporter, as defined to include a teacher, to report whenever he or she, in his or her professional capacity or within the scope of his or her employment, has knowledge of or observes a child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. This bill would require the commission, as part of its standards and procedures for the issuance or renewal of teaching or services credentials, to require an initial or renewal applicant who submits an initial or renewal application for his or her credential online, or an initial applicant who submits an application in paper form, to read and attest by signature a statement that is substantially in a specified form that the applicant understands the duties imposed on a holder of a teaching credential or a services credential by the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, as provided. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes.