In-home supportive services.

Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS program either through the employment of individual providers, a contract between the county and an entity for the provision of services, the creation by the county of a public authority, or a contract between the county and a nonprofit consortium. Existing law requires that criminal background checks be conducted for prospective and existing IHSS providers. Under existing law, if an applicant or provider is rejected as a result of information in a criminal background report, the applicant or provider shall receive a copy of the report to review the information for accuracy and completeness. Existing law requires the applicant or provider to be advised of his or her right to submit a formal challenge, as specified, if the applicant or provider finds information in the report to be inaccurate or incomplete. This bill would revise the above provisions, including deleting the individual's right to formally challenge the information in the criminal record report, and to waive specified fees associated with obtain a copy of the report. This bill would specify that an individual's criminal offender record information search response shall not be made available to any other individual, and requiring a public authority or nonprofit consortium to provide thee information in such a manner as to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the individual that is the subject of the information. The bill would require the public authority or nonprofit consortium to retain a copy of each individual's criminal offender record search response, and record the dates that copies of the response were provided to the individual and the department. To the extent that these procedures would impose additional duties on counties administering the IHSS program, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. This bill, with respect to a person who seeks to become an IHSS provider and who is not listed on a registry, would permit 2 or more adjacent or contiguous counties, or public authorities or nonprofit consortia within those counties, to agree to designate one county, public authority, or nonprofit consortium to send fingerprints to the Department of Justice for a criminal background check, to receive responses from the Department of Justice, and to maintain common lists of persons eligible for employment, as prescribed. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.