republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-1963.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Child abuse or neglect: mandated reporters."
description: "Existing law, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, requires a mandated reporter, as defined, to report whenever they, in their professional capacity or within the scope of their employment, have knowledge of or observed a child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. Failure by a mandated reporter to report an incident of known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months of confinement in a county jail, by a fine of $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine. Under existing law, employers are strongly encouraged to provide their employees who are mandated reporters with training in these duties, including training in identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 1963"
citation: "California AB 1963 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Child abuse or neglect: mandated reporters."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chu"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2020-01-21"
last_action: "2020-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4c61ad57-5ed6-4199-a8e2-7039bb6ef26e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963"
source_hash: "b69d3160e0c5127eabb88b5981ff55e2d9f7f32bc439ea451d8c2ac301d63505"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1963 (20192020) — Child abuse or neglect: mandated reporters.

Existing law, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, requires a mandated reporter, as defined, to report whenever they, in their professional capacity or within the scope of their employment, have knowledge of or observed a child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. Failure by a mandated reporter to report an incident of known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months of confinement in a county jail, by a fine of $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine. Under existing law, employers are strongly encouraged to provide their employees who are mandated reporters with training in these duties, including training in identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **01/21/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963&version=20190AB196399INT)
2. **05/04/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963&version=20190AB196398AMD)
3. **06/25/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963&version=20190AB196397AMD)
4. **09/29/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963&version=20190AB196395CHP)
5. **AB1963** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963)
6. **09/01/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1963&version=20190AB196396ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1963 Chu Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1963 Chu Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Special Consent AB1963 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chu — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-21** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2020-01-22** From printer. May be heard in committee February 21.
- **2020-01-30** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (March 10). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-04** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-05-05** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-02** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (June 2). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-03** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 4724.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-09** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2020-06-23** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-08-01** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 31). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-08-13** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 20). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-08-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-25** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2020-08-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 4381.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-28** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2020-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 5352.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2:30 p.m.
- **2020-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 243, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4c61ad57-5ed6-4199-a8e2-7039bb6ef26e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).