Human services.

(1) Existing law, the In-Home Supportive Services Employer-Employee Relations Act, provides the method of resolving disputes regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment, as defined, between the California In-Home Supportive Services Authority (Statewide Authority) for in-home supportive services and recognized employee organizations. Existing law, if an agreement is not reached, authorizes the Statewide Authority to declare an impasse and implement its last, best, and final offer after the applicable mediation procedure has been exhausted, fact finding has been completed and made public, and no resolution has been reached by the parties. This bill would, in those circumstances, authorize the Statewide Authority to implement any or all of its last, best, and final offer after declaring an impasse and would require that any proposal in the Statewide Authority's last, best, and final offer be presented to the Legislature for approval if it would conflict with existing statutes or require the expenditure of funds. (2) The Ralph M. Brown Act and the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act each require, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a local or state body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend. This bill would exempt certain collective bargaining activities, meetings, and investigations involving the Statewide Authority from those public meeting requirements. (3) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, before issuing a license or special permit to any person to operate or manage a community care facility or a day care facility, to secure from an appropriate law enforcement agency a criminal record regarding the applicant and specified other persons, including those who will reside in the facility and employees and volunteers who have contact with the clients or children, as specified. Existing law generally prohibits the Department of Justice or the State Department of Social Services from charging a fee for fingerprinting or obtaining the criminal record of an applicant for a license or special permit to operate a community care facility providing nonmedical board, room, and care for 6 or fewer children, an applicant to operate or manage a day care facility that will serve 6 or fewer children, or an applicant for a family day care license, as specified. Existing law suspends the operation of that prohibition against charging a fee through the 2012–13 fiscal year. This bill would extend through the 2014–15 fiscal year the suspension of the prohibition against charging a fee for fingerprinting or obtaining a criminal record pursuant to the provisions described above, thereby permitting those departments to charge a fee for those services. (4) Existing law provides for the removal of children who are unable to remain in the custody and care of their parent or parents. Existing law provides that when a child under the 6 years of age is not released from the custody of the court, the child may be placed in a community care facility licensed as a group home for children or in a temporary shelter care facility only when the court finds that placement is necessary to secure a complete and adequate evaluation, including placement planning and transition time. Existing law limits this placement period to 60 days, except if the supervisor of the caseworker's supervisor makes certain findings in the child's case plan. This bill would instead require the deputy director or director of the county child welfare department or an assistant chief probation officer or chief probation officer of the county probation department to make findings that would authorize the extension of the 60-day placement limitation. The bill would impose certain requirements relating to placements that extend beyond 120 days. The bill also would enact substantially similar provisions for a dependent child 6 to 12 years of age, inclusive, and would require the State Department of Social Services to adopt regulations to implement these provisions, if the department determines that regulations are necessary. By increasing the duties of county welfare and probation departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would state the Legislature's intent that no child or youth in foster care reside in group care for longer than one year, and would require the State Department of Social Services to provide updates to the Legislature, commencing no later than January 1, 2014, regarding the outcomes of assessments of children and youth who have been in group homes for longer than one year. This bill would make conforming and clarifying changes relating to these provisions. (5) Existing law provides for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. Under existing law, foster care providers licensed as group homes have rates established by classifying each group home program and applying a standardized schedule of rates. Existing law prohibits the establishment of a new group home rate or change to an existing rate under the AFDC-FC program, except for exemptions granted by the department on a case-by-case basis. Existing law also limits, for the 2012–13 fiscal year, exceptions for any program with a rate classification level below 10 to exceptions associated with a program change. This bill would extend that limitation to the 2013–14 fiscal year. (6) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish and administer the California Child and Family Service Review System to review all county child welfare systems, including child protective services, foster care, adoption, family preservation, family support, and independent living. Existing law requires the department to implement a unified, family friendly, and child-centered resource family approval process to replace the existing multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving adoptive families. Existing law implements this program for 3 years, commencing January 1, 2013, in 5 early implementation counties, also referred to as pilot project counties, and then throughout the state. This bill would delete references to pilot project counties in those provisions and would refer instead to early implementation counties. (7) Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires each county to pay 30% of the nonfederal share of costs of administering the CalFresh program. Existing law also requires counties to expend an amount for programs that provide services to needy families that, when combined with the funds expended above for the administration of the CalFresh program, equals or exceeds the amount spent by the county for corresponding activities during the 1996–97 fiscal year. Existing law provides that any county that equals or exceeds the amount spent by the county for corresponding activities during the 1996–97 fiscal year entirely through expenditures for the administration of the CalFresh program in the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 fiscal years shall receive the full state General Fund allocation for the administration of the CalFresh program without paying the county's share of the nonfederal costs for the amount above the 1996–97 expenditure requirement. This bill would extend counties' eligibility to receive the full allocation for CalFresh administration under the above circumstances to the 2013–14 fiscal year. (8) Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing law imposes limits on the amount of income and personal and real property an individual or family may possess in order to be eligible for public aid, including under the CalWORKs program, including specifying the allowable value of a licensed vehicle retained by an applicant for, or recipient of, that aid. This bill would revise, as of January 1, 2014, provisions relating to the allowable value of a licensed vehicle by, among other things, requiring that for each licensed vehicle with an equity value of more than $9,500, the equity value that exceeds $9,500 be attributed toward the family's resource level. Under existing law, the county is required to annually redetermine eligibility for CalWORKs benefits. Existing law additionally requires the county to redetermine recipient eligibility and grant amounts on a semiannual basis, using prospective budgeting, and to prospectively determine the grant amount that a recipient is entitled to receive for each month of the semiannual reporting period. Under existing law, the CalWORKs semiannual reporting system is also implemented by the State Department of Social Services in administering CalFresh. This bill would revise the timeframes for mailing out and receipt of the certificate of eligibility required for the annual redetermination, as specified. The bill would require counties to use information reported on the semiannual report form or the annual certificate of eligibility to prospectively determine eligibility and the grant amount for each semiannual reporting period. The bill would make various related conforming changes, including revising provisions relating to the semiannual redetermination of eligibility and grant amounts. The bill would authorize counties to adopt staggered semiannual reporting requirements, as specified. (9) Under existing law, with certain exceptions, every individual, as a condition of eligibility for aid under the CalWORKs program, is required to participate in welfare-to-work activities. Existing law requires recipients who are not exempt to participate in job search and job club. This bill, commencing January 1, 2014, would revise the procedures relating to an applicant's job search participation by requiring an applicant, after receiving an orientation and appraisal, to participate in job search and job club, family stabilization pursuant to specified procedures as established by the bill, or substance abuse, mental health, or domestic violence services, unless the county determines that the participant should first receive a specified assessment. With respect to the family services component, the bill would authorize a recipient to participate if the county determines that his or her family is experiencing an identified situation or crisis that is destabilizing the family and would interfere with participation in welfare-to-work activities and services. Existing law authorizes counties to implement a welfare-to-work plan that includes subsidized private sector and public sector employment. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California, to develop an allocation methodology to distribute additional funding for expanded subsidized employment programs for CalWORKs recipients. The bill would require counties that accept additional funding pursuant to these provisions to continue to expend no less than the aggregate amount of county funds that the county expended for public and private sector subsidized employment in the 2012–13 fiscal year. (10) Existing law requires the Department of Community Services and Development to receive and administer the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant. Under existing law, to the extent permitted by federal law, the State Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the Department of Community Services and Development, is required to design, implement, and maintain a utility assistance initiative to provide applicants and recipients of CalFresh benefits a nominal LIHEAP service benefit, as specified, out of the federal LIHEAP block grant. Existing law provides that, to the extent permitted by federal law, a CalFresh household receiving or anticipating receipt of a nominal LIHEAP service benefit is entitled to use the full standard utility allowance (SUA) for purposes of calculating CalFresh benefits. This bill would, if the demand for the nominal LIHEAP service benefit exceeds allocated funding, require both departments to report that information to the Legislature and develop a plan to maintain the program as intended. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to ensure that the receipt of the nominal LIHEAP service benefit does not adversely affect a CalFresh household's eligibility or reduce the household's CalFresh benefits. The bill would provide that if use of the full SUA, rather than the homeless shelter deduction, results in a lower amount of CalFresh benefits for a homeless household, the homeless household would be entitled to use the homeless shelter deduction. To the extent that the bill would expand eligibility for CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, it would impose a state-mandated local program. (11) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with designated stakeholders in the In-Home Supportive Services Program, to develop a new ratesetting methodology for public authority administrative costs, to go into effect commencing with the 2013–14 fiscal year. This bill would delete the requirement that this new ratesetting methodology take effect in the 2013–14 fiscal year. This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to implement certain of its provisions by all-county letters or similar instructions, pending the adoption of emergency regulations by July 1, 2015. (12) 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. (13) The Budget Acts of 2011 and 2012 make various appropriations to the State Department of Social Services. This bill would reappropriate the balance of specified appropriations made in those prior Budget Acts to the State Department of Social Services for the purposes provided for in those appropriations, to be available for encumbrance and expenditure until June 30, 2014, thereby making an appropriation. (14) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.