Certified Access Specialist Inspection Grant Program.

Existing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of various specified personal characteristics, including disability. Existing law establishes standards for making new construction and existing facilities accessible to persons with disabilities and provides for construction-related accessibility claims for violations of those standards. Existing law requires the State Architect to establish and publicize a program for the voluntary certification by the state of any person who meets specified criteria as a certified access specialist (CASp) to inspect, among other things, businesses for compliance with accessibility building standards. Existing law requires the State Architect to publish and regularly update a list CASps and a list of businesses that have been inspected by a CASp. Existing law requires the State Architect to develop a process by which a business may notify the State Architect that a structure or area has had a CASp inspection and to develop a form for businesses to notify the public that the business has obtained a CASp inspection. This bill, until January 1, 2028, would establish the Certified Access Specialist Inspection Grant Program to assist small businesses in obtaining CASp inspections, and would require the State Architect to administer the program. The bill would authorize small businesses, defined to mean a business with fewer than 50 employees, as specified, with a physical property in the state, to apply for a grant for a CASp inspection of the small business's property, in an amount equal to the actual cost of the inspection, not to exceed $3,000 per inspection. The bill would require the State Architect to develop an application and to develop criteria to evaluate and award the grants, as specified, and would require the State Architect to annually submit a report to the Legislature on the results of the program. The bill would appropriate an unspecified amount from the General Fund to the Certified Access Specialist Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for purposes of the program. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to a gift of public funds.