SB1106 amends Arizona’s public entity liability statute to create a narrower exception to governmental immunity for certain sexual offenses committed by public employees. Under current law, public entities are generally not liable for losses caused by a public employee’s felony unless the entity knew of the employee’s propensity for the conduct. This bill preserves that general rule, but removes immunity for sexual offenses involving a minor or a child with a disability when the public entity either violated a statutory duty to obtain employee background information or failed to comply with a statutory duty to report the conduct.
The bill is titled “Ava’s Law” and applies prospectively to sexual offenses committed on or after the effective date. It also includes a separate delayed effective date for the amended statute as a whole, with one provision effective immediately for the new sexual-offense exception and another effective December 31, 2027. The measure does not change the existing immunity for motor vehicle incidents or for good-faith emergency care by public officers, and it leaves the broader structure of Arizona’s tort immunity laws intact.
Impact
SB1106 modifies A.R.S. § 12-820.05, the statute governing certain immunities for public entities and public officers, by carving out liability protection in specified child sexual offense cases. The practical effect is to expose public entities to potential civil liability where a public employee commits a qualifying sexual offense against a minor or child with a disability and the entity failed to meet background-check or mandatory-reporting duties. It may affect school districts, government agencies, and other public employers that have statutory screening or reporting obligations, while preserving immunity in other felony, motor vehicle, and emergency-care contexts.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have had strong bipartisan support and moved through both chambers without recorded opposition in the provided votes. Committee and floor actions were unanimous or near-unanimous, suggesting broad agreement with the policy goal of increasing accountability for public entities in cases involving child sexual abuse and failures in screening or reporting. The short title and the bill’s framing as “Ava’s Law” also indicate a sympathetic, victim-focused rationale that likely contributed to the positive reception.
Contention
The main policy issue is the scope of governmental liability: supporters likely favored creating a targeted exception to immunity to address failures in background checks and mandatory reporting, while any potential concerns would center on exposing public entities to lawsuits and damages for employee misconduct. The bill narrows the exception to sexual offenses against minors and children with disabilities and ties liability to specific statutory-duty failures, which suggests an effort to balance victim compensation and accountability against preserving general public-entity immunity. No recorded committee transcript objections are provided, and the unanimous votes indicate little visible contention in the legislative process.