(a) Each group home, transitional shelter care facility, and short-term residential therapeutic program, as defined in Section 1502, and each temporary shelter care facility as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 1530.8, shall develop protocols that dictate the circumstances under which law enforcement may be contacted in response to the conduct of a child residing at the facility.

(b) The protocols shall, at a minimum, do all of the following:

(1) Employ trauma-informed and evidence-based deescalation and intervention techniques when staff is responding to the behavior of a child residing in the facility.

(2) Require staff to undergo annual training on the facility’s protocols developed pursuant to this section.

(3) Specify that contacting law enforcement shall only be used as a last resort once all other deescalation and intervention techniques have been exhausted, and only upon approval of a staff supervisor.

(4) Address contacting law enforcement in an emergency situation if there is an immediate risk of serious harm to a child or others.

(5) Identify and describe collaborative relationships with community-based service organizations that provide culturally relevant and trauma-informed services to youth served by the facility to prevent, or as an alternative to, arrest, detention, and incarceration for system-impacted youth.

(c) This section does not prohibit a facility or a facility employee from contacting law enforcement in an instance in which the facility or a facility employee is required by law to report an incident, which includes, but is not limited to, mandated reporting of child abuse, or if the child is missing or has run away.

(d) Each group home, transitional shelter care facility, short-term residential therapeutic program, and temporary shelter care facility shall include the protocols developed pursuant to this section in its emergency intervention plan and its plan of operation.

(e)  This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2023, and, as of January 1, 2024, is repealed.

(Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 35, Sec. 6. (AB 1811) Effective June 27, 2018. Inoperative July 1, 2023. Repealed as of January 1, 2024, by its own provisions.)