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SAFE-120Applied foundation34 min

Report the right concern through the right channel

Separate immediate safety, suspected abuse, licensing reports, ALW incidents, workplace injuries and privacy incidents before deadlines and recipients blur together.

Build the habit that prevents a familiar mistake: making one report and assuming every duty is finished.

Begin courseReview sources

Before you begin

What you should be able to do

  • Identify immediate safety action before administrative reporting.
  • Distinguish major reporting systems without collapsing them into one workflow.
  • Record observations and actions without delaying a mandated report to investigate.
  • Use the current setting-specific decision aid and escalate uncertainty promptly.
Lesson 16 minutes

Safety first, classification second

A perfect form filed while danger continues is not a good outcome.

  • Address immediate danger or urgent medical need using the site's emergency process; call 911 when appropriate.
  • Protect the person without conducting an investigation outside your role.
  • Preserve simple facts: what you observed, heard or received; when; where; who was present; and what immediate action occurred.
  • Do not wait for certainty, a supervisor's agreement or complete documentation when the applicable law requires a report based on suspicion or knowledge.
Evidence for this lesson
Knowledge checkA resident appears to be in immediate danger. What comes first?

Choose an answer to reveal the rationale. A correct answer completes this lesson.

Lesson 28 minutes

Name the reporting branch

“Incident report” is not a destination. It is a signal to identify the governing branch, or several branches.

  • Mandated-reporting law addresses suspected elder or dependent-adult abuse and neglect and contains setting- and fact-specific branches.
  • Community Care Licensing reporting addresses events and conditions within licensed-facility oversight.
  • ALW incident reporting serves the waiver program and uses DHCS guidance and forms.
  • Workplace injury or exposure reporting belongs to the employer's safety and occupational-health process.
  • A privacy or security incident follows the organization's approved privacy/security response process.
  • Employer notification may be required, but it does not automatically replace a direct external report required by law.

Try the decision

One event, more than one branch

A medication discrepancy is discovered after a resident has a serious change and protected information was texted to the wrong number. Identify the safety, clinical/escalation, facility, program and privacy questions without deciding facts you do not have.

Pocket sequence

  1. Immediate safety
  2. Mandated abuse/neglect report
  3. Licensing report
  4. ALW program incident
  5. Workplace safety
  6. Privacy/security
  7. Employer escalation and follow-through
Evidence for this lesson
Knowledge checkA staff member completed the employer's internal incident form. What can be concluded?

Choose an answer to reveal the rationale. A correct answer completes this lesson.

Lesson 37 minutes

Report observations; do not become the detective

Your job is to preserve and report the signal, not interrogate it until the deadline expires.

  • Use the person's words when relevant and distinguish them from your observations.
  • Avoid leading questions, promises of secrecy and conclusions about motive or guilt.
  • Record dates, times, visible conditions, direct statements, immediate actions and contacts.
  • Correct errors transparently; do not erase, backdate or rewrite the history to look cleaner.
  • Share only through authorized channels with the people or agencies entitled to receive it.

Try the decision

Fact or conclusion?

Compare “The caregiver stole her money” with “The resident said, ‘My card is missing,’ and I observed three unfamiliar withdrawals on the statement she showed me.” The second preserves the source and observation without deciding the allegation.

Evidence for this lesson
Knowledge checkWhich note best preserves a reportable concern?

Choose an answer to reveal the rationale. A correct answer completes this lesson.

Lesson 47 minutes

Use the current decision aid

Reporting rules are a bad place for remembered screenshots and a worse place for folklore.

  • Confirm the setting: long-term-care facility, other care setting, community, workplace or information system.
  • Confirm the concern type and whether serious bodily injury, immediate danger or another urgency factor changes the branch.
  • Use the current statute, official regulator guidance and the employer's reviewed decision aid.
  • Check each required recipient, method, timing and form separately.
  • PIN 26-05-ASC aligned California adult/senior-care regulations with the reporting statute effective July 14, 2026; CDSS said the alignment did not create new reporting requirements.
Evidence for this lesson
Knowledge checkWhat did PIN 26-05-ASC say about the 2026 regulation alignment?

Choose an answer to reveal the rationale. A correct answer completes this lesson.

Lesson 56 minutes

Close the loop without disclosing too much

“I told someone” is not a reliable status. A closed loop records the recipient, time, method, next action and unresolved risk.

  • Record what was sent, through which approved channel, to whom and when.
  • Keep evidence of successful transmission when the process provides it.
  • Escalate a failed fax, rejected portal submission, unavailable supervisor or uncertain destination without abandoning the duty.
  • Limit follow-up disclosure to the minimum information needed by an authorized recipient.
  • Continue safety monitoring and operational follow-through without interfering with an authorized investigation.
Evidence for this lesson
Knowledge checkA required portal submission fails. What is the safest response?

Choose an answer to reveal the rationale. A correct answer completes this lesson.

Completion

Complete every knowledge check to unlock the record.

5 lessons remain. Use the lesson links to return to unfinished checks.

Evidence shelf

Sources behind this course

These links are the current authority shelf for this pilot. Each lesson names the source IDs it uses. Open the original for the exact rule, form or instruction that applies to real work.

WIC-15630 · California Legislative Counsel

Welfare and Institutions Code section 15630

Current statutory mandated-reporting branches

Locator: Subdivisions addressing long-term-care facilities, serious bodily injury, timing and reporting destinations

Open source →
CDSS-PIN-26-05 · California CDSS

PIN 26-05-ASC

2026 alignment of adult/senior-care reporting regulations with statute

Locator: Summary and regulation-alignment explanation effective July 14, 2026

Open source →
DOJ-YOUR-LEGAL-DUTY · California Department of Justice

Your Legal Duty

State curriculum and trainer resources for elder/dependent-adult mandated reporters

Locator: Mandated reporter video and curriculum links

Open source →
DHCS-PROVIDER-RESOURCES · California DHCS

ALW Provider Resources

ALW incident-reporting process, checklist and priority materials

Locator: Incident Reporting Priority Levels, Process and Checklist links

Open source →
CDSS-RESIDENTIAL-REGULATIONS · California CDSS

Residential-care regulations

Facility-type licensing and reporting framework

Locator: Applicable RCFE or ARF chapter and current revision

Open source →
CDSS-FORMS · California CDSS

Community Care Licensing forms

Current incident, emergency-plan, rights and related facility forms

Locator: Applicable LIC form and its printed revision date

Open source →
CALOSHA-WPV · California DIR / Cal/OSHA

Workplace Violence Prevention

General-industry and healthcare workplace-violence pathways

Locator: Applicability, plan, training and reporting resources

Open source →
HHS-SECURITY-GUIDANCE · HHS Office for Civil Rights

HIPAA Security guidance

Security incident, risk and safeguard guidance for applicable covered entities and business associates

Locator: Security guidance and risk-management resources; entity applicability must be established

Open source →