New Child Safety Laws for Private K-12 Schools

10.20.2025

SB 848, known as the School Employee Misconduct: Child Abuse Prevention Act, was signed into law on October 7, 2025, creating new obligations for California private schools. In general, SB 848 creates new child safety and compliance obligations for California private schools, in order to bring them more closely in line with standards already applicable to California public schools. For the first time, all private schools will be integrated into California’s public school child abuse prevention framework.

SB 848’s Effect on Private School Employers

This bill will first extend existing law prohibiting persons convicted of a violent or serious felony from being hired in education positions requiring certification qualifications or who supervise certified positions at private schools. It will also prohibit private schools from retaining in employment a current certified employee who has been convicted of a violent or serious felony. In addition, private schools, considering prospective applicants, will have to inquire into whether an applicant for employment was the subject of any credible complaints of, substantiated investigations of, or discipline for “egregious misconduct” (as defined in Education Code section 44932(a)(1)). The bill, contingent upon funding for these purposes, requires the creation of a statewide data system that will include information related to investigations of egregious misconduct for individuals serving in noncertified positions in both public and private schools. This bill will require private school employers to submit notices of an investigation of egregious misconduct to the statewide data system.

SB 848 will further require each private school in California to adopt written policies that promote safe environments for learning and engagement. Private schools must also adopt written policies, plans, or specifications regarding school facilities that address easy supervision of classroom and non-classroom spaces to promote safe environments for learning and engagement.

Employees, governing board or body members, certain volunteers, and contractors of a private school whose duties require contact or supervision of students are designated as mandated reporters under this bill. This requires such individuals to report known or reasonably suspected child abuse/neglect to a local law enforcement agency or a county welfare department.

Like the existing legal requirements for training of public-school employees, private schools will be required to provide annual training to their employees on the mandated reporting requirements regarding child abuse/neglect, including the prevention of abuse, inclusive of sexual abuse. Such training must occur within the first six weeks of each school year or within the first six weeks of the person’s employment and private schools will be required to develop a process for employees to provide proof the training has been completed

Employer Takeaways

The following takeaways are important for private school employers to consider regarding SB 848’s deadlines.

By July 1, 2026, private schools must:

Adopt written safety and professional boundaries policies
Implement annual mandated reporting and abuse-prevention training for all employees, governing board members, certain volunteers, and contractors.

By July 1, 2027, private schools must update their hiring and vetting procedures to include:

Expanded employment history and background checks
Disclosure of substantiated misconduct
Participation in the statewide Commission on Teacher Credentialing misconduct database that tracks findings of egregious misconduct.

If you have any questions about these new requirements, feel free to reach out to the AALRR attorney with whom you currently work or the authors of this Alert.

Special thanks to our law clerk, Dennis Kanevskiy , for his assistance with this article.