If you work in or administer an RCFE, California law makes you a mandated reporter of elder and dependent adult abuse. This page summarizes that duty. It is not a substitute for your facility's required training.
Under California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15630, mandated reporters include administrators, supervisors, and licensed staff of a facility providing care to elders or dependent adults, along with care custodians, health practitioners, and anyone who has assumed responsibility (paid or unpaid) for an elder's care or custody. In practice, this covers essentially everyone working in an RCFE.
You're required to report known or reasonably suspected physical abuse, abandonment, abduction, isolation, financial abuse, or neglect (including self-neglect) of an elder or dependent adult. This duty applies whether you witnessed it directly, were told about it by the resident, or simply have a reasonable basis to suspect it occurred. You don't need certainty to be required to report.
As of 2024, California law (AB 1417) shortened reporting windows for abuse occurring in long-term care facilities. As a general rule, suspected physical abuse involving serious bodily injury must be reported to law enforcement within two hours and to the Long-Term Care Ombudsman within 24 hours; reports involving less serious injury go to both within 24 hours. Other categories of suspected abuse should be reported immediately or as soon as practically possible.
Failing to make a required report, or impeding someone else from reporting, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. If the unreported abuse results in death or great bodily injury, the penalty increases to up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $5,000.
California law shields mandated reporters from civil or criminal liability for making a required report, even if the suspected abuse turns out not to have occurred, as long as the report was made in good faith. Your identity as the reporter is also kept confidential, and no supervisor or administrator is permitted to discourage or block you from reporting.