California Bills

(1) Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified protected characteristics. This bill would require the department to assess whether the local educational agency has provided certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of pupils who may face bias or bullying on the basis of those characteristics. The bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has prominently and conspicuously displayed the policy at each schoolsite and local educational agency office and on the local educational agency's internet website, as provided. (2) Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from refusing to approve or prohibiting the use of any textbook, instructional material, or other curriculum or any book or other resource in a school library on the basis that it includes a study of the role and contributions of culturally and racially diverse groups. This bill would prohibit the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from adopting or approving the use of any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum if its use would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination, as specified. The bill would authorize any person to file a complaint of an alleged violation with the local educational agency using the uniform complaint process or directly with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. If the Superintendent determines that a local educational agency has violated that prohibition and has not taken corrective action within 60 days, the bill would authorize the department to use any means authorized to effect compliance. The bill would require the assessment of a specified financial penalty on a local educational agency found by the Superintendent to have violated the prohibition, as provided. (3) Existing law requires a county board of education, on or before July 1 of each fiscal year, to adopt an annual budget for the budget year and file the budget with the Superintendent, the county board of supervisors, and the county auditor. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the budget and, on or before September 15, approve or disapprove the budget, as specified, and in the event of a disapproval, transmit to the county office of education in writing the Superintendent's recommendations regarding revision of the budget and the reasons for those recommendations. Existing law requires the Superintendent to disapprove a budget if either the Superintendent has not approved a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to the LCAP filed by a county board of education, or if the Superintendent determines that the budget does not include the expenditures necessary to implement the LCAP or annual update to the LCAP. Under existing law, in the event of the disapproval of the budget of a county office of education, the county superintendent of schools and the county board of education are required, on or before October 8, to review and respond to the Superintendent's recommendations, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it complies with the standards and criteria adopted by the State Board of Education for application to final local educational agency budgets and, on or before November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, additionally authorizing the Superintendent to conditionally approve the budget, and in the case of a conditional approval, requiring the Superintendent, county superintendent of schools, and county board of education to comply with the above-described processes related to budget revision recommendations, as provided. To the extent the bill imposes new duties on county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would additionally require the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it allows the county office of education to meet its financial obligations during the fiscal year, satisfies all conditions established by the Superintendent in the case of a conditionally approved budget, and is consistent with a financial plan that will enable the county office of education to satisfy its multiyear financial commitments, and, not later than November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. (4) Existing law appropriates $2,836,660,000 in the 2021–22 fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to administer the California Community Schools Partnership Program and requires those funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2031. This bill would extend the time those funds are available for encumbrance or expenditure by one year, thereby making an appropriation. Existing law requires $2,694,827,000 of those funds to be allocated to establish new, and expand existing, community schools, as provided. Existing law requires up to 70% of that allocation to be available for implementation grants, as provided. Existing law requires at least 20% of that allocation to be available for extending implementation grants from 5 years to 7 years and requires those funds to be allocated beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, through the 2030–31 fiscal year, as provided. This bill, among other things, would delay the allocation for extending implementation grants by one fiscal year. The bill would revise those provisions to instead require up to 72% of the funds to be available for implementation grants and at least 18% to be available for extending implementation grants, as provided. By revising the terms of a required allocation of previously appropriated moneys, the bill would make an appropriation. Existing law requires the Superintendent to reserve adequate funding received for the program to preserve capacity for qualifying entities receiving planning grants to receive implementation grants, as provided. This bill would expressly require those planning grantee applicants to also meet the implementation grant eligibility requirements, and beginning July 1, 2024, would require the Superintendent to prioritize awarding implementation grants to planning grantees, as provided. (5) Existing law requires the Controller to draw warrants on the State Treasury throughout each year in specified amounts for purposes of apportioning funding to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. This bill would require warrants in the amount of $3,570,108,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2023–24 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year and warrants in the amount of $245,604,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided. This bill would extend the deadline to encumber those funds from June 30, 2025, to July 31, 2025, thereby making an appropriation. (6) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits, and, with representatives of other entities, to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide. Existing law establishes the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) to, among other things, review the fiscal and administrative condition of any county office of education, school district, or charter school, as provided. This bill would require the Controller to also consult with representatives from FCMAT to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide. Existing law provides that there is no time limit for the commencement of actions for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault, as specified. This bill would require FCMAT, on or before February 1, 2025, in consultation with appropriate subject matter experts, including, but not limited to, subject matter experts in risk management, public finance, labor, and bond financing, to provide recommendations, as specified, to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature and the Department of Finance on new, existing, or strengthened funding and financing mechanisms to finance judgments or settlements arising from claims of childhood sexual abuse, to be utilized by local agencies, as defined. (7) Existing law requires FCMAT to, among other things, provide fiscal management assistance at the request of any school district, charter school, or county office of education, and requires each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to pay the onsite personnel costs and travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified. This bill would require each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to instead pay the personnel costs, regardless of whether they are onsite, and the travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified. (8) Existing law requires each school district and county office of education to develop a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires that the plan assess the current status of school crime and identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety, as specified. This bill would additionally require the comprehensive school safety plan of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to include, beginning July 1, 2025, an instructional continuity plan to establish communication with pupils and their families and provide instruction to pupils when in-person instruction is disrupted due to an emergency, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent to develop and post on the department's website instructional continuity plan guidance on or before March 1, 2025. (9) Existing law creates the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of receiving appropriations for school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and community college districts related to the state of emergency declared by the Governor on March 4, 2020, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing law appropriates $6,345,405,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for transfer to the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund. Existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate these appropriated funds to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, for, among other things, specified actions and pupil and learning supports, and to accelerate progress to close learning gaps through the implementation, expansion, or enhancement of learning supports, as provided. Under existing law, these allocations are known as Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grants. Existing law requires local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of these funds on or before December 15, 2029, to forfeit those apportioned funds. This bill would, among other things, specify that local educational agencies are required to use Learning Recovery Emergency Funds for evidence-based supports and actions, as provided, and would expressly specify that these funds may be used to provide professional development and coaching on specified curriculum frameworks. The bill would also require a local educational agency that has received or will receive a Learning Recovery Emergency Fund Block Grant to develop a needs assessment regarding the use and expenditure of grant funds for the 2025–26, 2026–27, and 2027–28 school years, as provided. The bill would require the department to provide written technical assistance for schools and local educational agencies related to these needs assessments, as provided. The bill would delete the requirement that local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of apportioned funds forfeit those funds. (10) Existing law establishes the State Board of Education consisting of 11 members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of 23 of the Senate, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to adopt policies and establish rules and regulations to govern the public elementary and secondary schools of the state. This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint a total of 6 deputies to the executive director of the state board. (11) For the 1990–91 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, existing law requires that moneys to be applied by the state for the support of school districts, community college districts, and direct elementary and secondary level instructional services provided by the state be distributed in accordance with certain calculations governing the proration of those moneys among the 3 segments of public education. Existing law makes that provision inapplicable to the 1992–93 to 2023–24 fiscal years, inclusive. This bill would also make that provision inapplicable to the 2024–25 fiscal year. (12) The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, set forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of revenues that the state is required to apply for the support of school districts and community college districts based on one of 3 tests in any given fiscal year. If the Director of Finance determines pursuant to the certification process for the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts that the state has applied moneys in an amount that exceeds the minimum funding obligation for the fiscal year being certified, existing law requires the excess moneys to be credited to the fiscal year being certified. This bill would provide that $5,442,143,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to school districts and charter schools, and $770,786,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to community college districts, are excess moneys credited to the 2022–23 fiscal year only for the purposes of determining the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 fiscal years. The bill would require 10 proportional shares of those amounts to be recognized annually, from the 2026–27 fiscal year through the 2035–36 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, but would prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. The bill, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year and in each fiscal year thereafter, would also require the Director of Finance, if California personal and corporate income tax filing deadlines are extended, as provided, to calculate the difference between the total appropriations made to meet the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year and the minimum funding obligation calculated with actual tax revenue data for that fiscal year. The bill would provide that, if the amount calculated by the Department of Finance is negative, the amount of the difference is not an allocation provided in satisfaction of the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year or excess moneys credited to the impacted fiscal year. The bill would require 10 proportional shares of those amounts to be recognized annually, for 10 consecutive fiscal years beginning with the 3rd fiscal year after the impacted fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the impacted fiscal year, but would prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. (13) Existing law requires the Director of Finance to certify the amount of the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts for each fiscal year, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of Finance to calculate the minimum funding obligation for the prior fiscal year and publish those calculations by May 14 following the end of the prior fiscal year. Existing law requires interested parties to submit any comments on those calculations by June 6. This bill would extend those deadlines for the certification of the minimum funding obligation for the 2022–23 fiscal year, as provided. (14) Existing law appropriates $547,513,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for purposes of the A–G Completion Improvement Grant Program to provide additional supports to local educational agencies to help increase the number of California high school pupils, particularly unduplicated pupils, who graduate high school meeting the A–G subject matter requirements for admission to the University of California and the California State University. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $300,000,000 as A–G Access Grants, and $100,000,000 as A–G Success Grants, to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools meeting certain requirements to be used for activities that directly support pupil access to, and successful completion of, the A–G course requirements, as prescribed. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $147,513,000 as A–G Learning Loss Mitigation Grants to be used to allow pupils who receive a grade of "D," "F," or "Fail" in an A–G approved course in the spring semester of 2020 or the 2020–21 school year to retake those A–G courses or to offer credit recovery opportunities to all pupils to ensure pupils are able to graduate high school on time, as prescribed. This bill would, for each of those specific grants, require each local educational agency receiving a grant to report its final expenditure to the department on or before September 30, 2026, and would require the department to initiate collection of any unexpended funds. The bill would require any local educational agency that does not submit the final expenditure report to forfeit all funds allocated to it pursuant to the applicable grant. (15) Existing law, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, appropriates $300,000,000 each fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation for the Local Control Funding Formula Equity Multiplier apportionment, as provided. Existing law requires the funding to be allocated to eligible local educational agencies on a per-unit basis of a schoolsite's total prior year adjusted cumulative enrollment, as specified, and provides that an eligible schoolsite shall not receive funding of less than $50,000. This bill would, among other things, annually adjust that $50,000 minimum funding requirement by a specified cost-of-living adjustment, as specified. The bill would require an eligible schoolsite to instead be deemed ineligible if the schoolsite has been closed in the year in which the funds are to be allocated or, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, the local educational agency generated funding for a schoolsite for these purposes due to a pupil being enrolled in the school district office. The bill would require unspent funds from any fiscal year provided to a local educational agency with a schoolsite that has closed to be returned to the department, and would require local educational agencies to report the total amount of unspent funds in accordance with instructions and forms prescribed and furnished by the Superintendent. (16) Existing law establishes the Public School System Stabilization Account to provide a reserve for public school funding. Existing law requires, pursuant to specified calculations, the Controller to transfer certain moneys from the General Fund into the Public School System Stabilization Account for subsequent allocation to school districts and community college districts, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Legislature, upon the Governor's proclamation declaring a budget emergency to enact a statute that, among other things, appropriates funds in the Public School System Stabilization Account for the support of school districts and community college districts. This bill would appropriate specified amounts from the Public School System Stabilization Account for transfer by the Controller to Section A of the State School Fund for the support of school districts, as provided. (17) Existing law appropriates $6,557,443,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for the 2020–21 fiscal year, of which $4,557,443,000 is apportioned to school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools, as prescribed, and makes those funds available for expenditure until September 30, 2024, for certain activities, including offering supplemental instruction and support. Existing law requires local educational agencies receiving apportionments pursuant to these provisions to report final expenditures of those apportioned funds to the department by December 1, 2024, and authorizes a forfeiture of all funds if a local educational agency does not submit the required report. Existing law makes these provisions inoperative on June 30, 2025. This bill would require local educational agencies, as a condition of receiving those funds, to instead report final expenditures to the department over a span of multiple reports with respective due dates, as provided. The bill would authorize certain funds from the reporting period to be withheld if any of the reports are not submitted to the department and authorizes the Superintendent to withhold any forfeited amounts from the local educational agency's principal apportionment, as provided. The bill would extend the operation of these provisions by one year to June 30, 2026. (18) Existing law authorizes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, in order to expedite the application process for the benefit of applicants for credentials, certificates, permits, or other documents, to receive from, or transmit to, the agency that submitted the application, either electronically or by printed copy, the information set forth in that application. For purposes of these provisions, existing law defines "agency" to mean a school district, county office of education, or institution of higher education having a commission-approved program of professional preparation. This bill would add charter schools and nonpublic schools or agencies to the definition of "agency" for purposes of those provisions. (19) Existing law establishes the Test Development and Administration Account in the Teacher Credentials Fund, and, until June 30, 2023, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the account. Existing law, commencing July 1, 2023, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the Teacher Credentials Fund. This bill would abolish the Test Development and Administration Account on July 1, 2024, and would require all unencumbered moneys and authority in the fund to be transferred to the Teacher Credentials Fund. (20) Existing law requires the commission, among other duties, to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law prohibits the commission from issuing initially a credential, permit, certificate, or renewal of an emergency credential to a person to serve in the public schools unless the person has demonstrated proficiency in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills in the English language by passing the state basic skills proficiency test, except for specified persons who are exempt from the basic skills proficiency test requirement. Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district from initially hiring on a permanent, temporary, or substitute basis a certificated person seeking employment in the capacity designated in the certificated person's credential unless that person has demonstrated basic skills proficiency or is exempt from the basic skills requirement, as provided. This bill would, among other things, additionally exempt from the above-described basic skills proficiency test requirements a person who has obtained a baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education, and provide that an individual who possesses a baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education is required to be considered proficient in the skill of reading, writing, and mathematics, as provided. Existing law requires, as a condition of certain teaching credentials, the demonstration of skills proficiency in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills in the English language. Under existing law, the minimum requirements for the preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist credential, the 3-year preliminary designated subjects adult education teaching credential, and the preliminary services credential with a specialization in administrative services for an out-of-state trained administrator all include the demonstration of basic skills proficiency, as provided. This bill would delete the requirement to demonstrate basic skills proficiency as a condition of the above-described credentials, as provided. (21) Under existing law, one requirement for the preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential is the verification of subject matter competence, demonstrated by any of a range of methods, including completion of a subject matter program, passage of a subject matter examination, or completion of coursework that addresses each of the domains of the subject matter requirements adopted by the commission in the content area of the credential, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to ensure that subject matter standards and examinations are aligned with the academic content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the state board. This bill would additionally require the commission to maintain the subject matter domains that include both broad content areas to support coursework review, as provided, and specific content elements to delineate subject matter examination specifications, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to waive the subject matter examination requirement for graduates of a regionally accredited institution of higher education under specified circumstances, and authorizes the commission to require that the approved examination be taken by candidates, who are otherwise eligible for an examination waiver, for informational purposes only. This bill would delete the authorization for the commission to require that the approved examination be taken for informational purposes, as described above, and would require the commission to encourage through its accreditation system that programs of professional preparation provide candidates equitable access to all of the options for meeting subject matter competence, as provided. (22) Existing law requires the commission to administer a State Assignment Accountability System to provide local educational agencies with a data system for assignment monitoring. Existing law requires the commission to annually use data it receives from the department to produce an initial data file of vacant positions and assignments that do not have a clear match of credential to assignment. Existing law requires a monitoring authority to review and determine any potential misassignments, as defined, reported in and identified through the system for local educational agencies within its authority, as provided. Existing law defines a "monitoring authority" for these purposes to include, among others, the chartering authority for a charter school. This bill would revise the definition of monitoring authority, in cases where a charter school operates under the authority of a school district in which the charter school is the sole schoolsite in the school district, to be the commission instead of the chartering authority for the charter school. (23) Existing law requires an internship program to provide interns who meet entrance criteria and are accepted to a multiple subject teaching credential program, a single subject teaching credential program, or an education specialist credential program that provides instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities the opportunity to choose an early program completion option, culminating in a 5-year preliminary teaching credential. Existing law requires that this early program completion option be made available to interns who meet specified requirements, including that the intern pass specified assessments. Existing law provides that an intern who passes those assessments and is recommended by the internship program to the commission is eligible for a 5-year preliminary teaching credential that authorizes instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities, and requires the commission to issue the teaching credential to an applicant who holds the preliminary 5-year teaching credential and meets other specified requirements. This bill would also authorize an intern who is accepted into a PK-3 early childhood education specialist credential program that provides instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities to choose the above-described early program completion option, culminating in a 5-year preliminary teaching credential, and would apply the above-described provisions to those applicants. (24) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to terminate the services of any permanent or probationary certificated employees of the school district, including employees holding a position that requires an administrative or supervisory credential, during the time period between 5 days after the enactment of an annual Budget Act and August 15 of the fiscal year to which the Budget Act applies if the governing board of the school district determines that its total revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance for the fiscal year of that Budget Act has not increased by at least 2%, and if the governing board of the school district determines it is therefore necessary to decrease the number of permanent employees in the school district. This bill would make that provision inoperative from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, inclusive. (25) Existing law requires any entity that has a contract with a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that any employee who interacts with pupils, outside of the immediate supervision and control of the pupil's parent or guardian or a school employee, has a valid criminal records summary, as provided. Existing law exempts an employee of any entity that has a contract with a local educational agency, and that offers work experience opportunities for pupils or workplace placements as part of a pupil's individualized education program, from the requirement to have a valid criminal records summary if certain requirements are met, including that a staff representative of the local educational agency, among other things, makes at least one visitation every 3 weeks to consult with the pupil's liaison. This bill would, for purposes of the latter-described requirement for a staff representative of the local educational agency to make at least one visitation every 3 weeks to consult with the pupil's liaison in order to be exempt from having a valid criminal records summary, instead require that those visitations be made as specified in a pupil's individualized education program, or, if unspecified, at least once every 3 weeks. (26) Under existing law, a pupil's total days of attendance in the schools and classes maintained by a school district or county superintendent of schools during the fiscal year is the number of days that school was actually taught for not less than the minimum required number of minutes minus the sum of the pupil's absences. This bill, beginning July 1, 2025, would authorize a local educational agency to implement attendance recovery programs for pupils to make up lost instructional time and offset absences, as specified. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to operate an attendance recovery program before or after school, on weekends, or during intersessional periods. The bill would prohibit a pupil from being credited with more than the lesser of the equivalent of 10 days of attendance in a school year, or the number of absences the pupil accrued in that school year, for participation in an attendance recovery program. The bill would require an attendance recovery program, as a condition of generating average daily attendance for a local educational agency, to be composed of pupils engaged in educational activities that align to grade level standards and that are substantially equivalent to the pupils' regular instructional program, and under the immediate supervision and control of a certificated employee who possesses a valid certification document. The bill would require the department, when determining the chronic absenteeism rate of a school district or county office of education, to reduce a pupil's absences by participation in an attendance recovery program. (27) Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program. Existing law requires local educational agencies, as a condition of receipt of specified funds, to offer to all pupils in classroom-based instructional programs in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, access to expanded learning opportunity programs. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding appropriated for purposes of the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program in a specified manner, and requires those funds to be used to support pupil access to expanded learning opportunity programs. This bill would, among other things, authorize those funds also be used to support attendance recovery when attendance recovery is operated by a local educational agency in conjunction with, and on the same schoolsite as, its expanded learning opportunities program, and would require those funds, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, to be expended by June 30 of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the appropriation is made and would require any funds that are not expended by a local educational agency by the end of that period to be returned to the state, as provided. For the 2024–25 fiscal year, the bill would require those returned funds to be added to other specified remaining funds and expended, as specified. The bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year and annually thereafter, require local educational agencies to annually declare their operational intent to the department to run an expanded learning opportunity program, as provided. (28) Existing law includes, for purposes of computing the average daily attendance of a school district, the attendance of pupils in kindergarten or transitional kindergarten after they have completed one school year in that program only if one of specified conditions is met. This bill would apply that provision to charter schools. (29) If the average daily attendance of a local educational agency has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of an emergency and that fact has been established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by an affidavit submitted by the local educational agency, existing law requires the Superintendent to credit to the local educational agency the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to it had the emergency not occurred. Existing law requires a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring after September 1, 2021, to certify that it has a plan to, among other things, offer independent study to pupils within 10 days, as specified. This bill would instead require a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring after September 1, 2021, but on or before June 30, 2025, to certify that it has a plan to offer instruction to pupils within 10 instructional days. The bill would require a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring on or after July 1, 2025, that results in a school closure or material decrease in attendance to certify that it has a comprehensive school safety plan, including an instructional continuity plan, in place and that it either offered pupil engagement and instruction consistent with the instructional continuity plan or that it did not do so due to extenuating circumstances, as provided. (30) Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to place 4-year-old children, as defined, enrolled in a California state preschool program into a transitional kindergarten program classroom and requires a school district or charter school that commingles children from both programs in the same classroom to meet specified requirements, including, among others, that an early childhood environment rating scale be completed for the classroom. This bill would delete the provision regarding the early childhood environment rating scale and instead would require that an observation using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and CLASS Environmental tool be completed for the classroom. (31) Existing law authorizes any person 16 years of age or older and certain other persons to have their proficiency in basic skills taught in public high schools verified according to criteria established by the department. Existing law requires the state board to award a certificate of proficiency, equivalent to a high school diploma, to persons who demonstrate that proficiency. Existing law authorizes the department to charge a fee for each examination application in an amount sufficient to recover the costs of administration, as provided, and requires these levies and fees collected by the department to be deposited in the State Treasury for remittance to the current support appropriation of the department as reimbursement for the costs of administration. Existing law requires any reimbursement collected in excess of the actual costs of administration to be transferred to the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund by order of the Director of Finance. This bill instead would authorize a Special Deposit Fund Account in the State Treasury, composed of those fees that may be prescribed by the department for examination applications. The bill would require these fees to be appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, to support the department in administering the examinations, as provided. (32) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to authorize a pupil who meets specified criteria to attend community college. Existing law requires a pupil to receive credit for community college courses that the pupil completes at the level determined appropriate by the governing boards of the school district and community college district. This bill would require the governing board of a community college district to report courses completed and grades received by pupils at the community college pursuant to these provisions through eTranscript California for purposes of enabling the uniform integration of completed courses and grades received into the pupil's universal and electronic high school transcript that is housed on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform. By imposing new duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (33) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. Existing law authorizes $1,500,000 to be allocated to up to 3 county offices of education in different regions throughout the state for purposes of establishing technical assistance centers to foster relationships with community partners and other local educational agencies in each region, as provided. Existing law requires the department to determine which county offices of education to allocate those funds to through a competitive process, as provided. Existing law requires the technical assistance centers to be operative only for the duration of a specified federal grant period. This bill instead would require, pursuant to specified funding appropriated in the Budget Act of 2024, up to $2,500,000 to be allocated to up to 3 county offices of education to sustain and enhance the above-described technical assistance centers, and would require those technical assistance centers to prioritize providing regional support, resources, and expertise to homeless education liaisons to ensure that local educational agencies meet all requirements under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as provided. The bill instead would require the technical assistance centers to be operative only for the duration of the availability of those certain federal grant funds. (34) Existing law requires, commencing with the 2024–25 school year, recess, as defined, that is provided by a public school to be at least 30 minutes on regular instructional days and at least 15 minutes on early release days, as provided. Existing law defines public school for these purposes to mean a school that is operated by a school district or county office of education, or that is a charter school. This bill would limit the applicability of the above-described provisions to recess that is instead provided by schools that are operated by a school district or county office of education, or charter schools, that maintain kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive, as provided. The bill would specify that for schools that also maintain a grade higher than grade 6, these provisions apply only to recess provided to those pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive. The bill would also specify that these provisions do not apply to pupils in grade 6 of a school that (A) maintains grade 6 as part of a middle school or that solely maintain some or all of grades 6 to 12, inclusive, and (B) provides those pupils with physical education, as provided. (35) Existing law establishes the California School Information Services to, among other things, build the capacity of local educational agencies to implement and maintain comparable, effective, and efficient pupil information systems, as specified. This bill would require the California School Information Services, in consultation with the department, to create and maintain a list of school information system vendors serving school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools educating pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as specified. The bill would require the list to include a state designation established by the California School Information Services for school information system vendors meeting certain requirements regarding the management of pupil data, as provided. The bill would require the California School Information Services to post the list on its internet website. (36) Existing law requires the department to develop model referral protocols for addressing pupil mental health concerns, contingent upon funds being appropriated or allocated for that purpose, within 2 years of the date those funds are received or allocated, as provided. This bill would, among other changes, delete the contingency language described above and instead require the department to develop model referral protocols for pupil behavioral health concerns on or before June 1, 2025. The bill would also make conforming changes. The bill would require a governing board or body of a local educational agency that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, before January 31, 2026, to adopt a policy on referral protocols for addressing pupil behavioral health concerns in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, as provided. The bill would require a local educational agency to certify to the department, on or before July 1, 2029, that 100% of its certificated employees and 40% of its classified employees, who have direct contact with pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, have received youth behavioral health training, as defined, at least one time, as provided. By creating new duties for local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (37) Existing law requires each school district, county superintendent of schools, and charter school to make available a nutritionally adequate breakfast, as defined, and a nutritionally adequate lunch, as defined, free of charge during each schoolday, as defined, to any pupil who requests a meal, without consideration of the pupil's eligibility for a federally funded free or reduced-price meal, as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide state meal reimbursement to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that participate in, and meet the requirements of, the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program, and any applicable state laws or regulations, for reduced-price and paid meals served to pupils, as provided. This bill would require a school district, county office of education, and charter school to, as a condition on the receipt of the above-described state meal reimbursement, conduct direct certification matching through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System on a monthly basis. (38) Existing law requires a school district or county superintendent of schools that has a high-poverty school, as defined, in its jurisdiction to, on or before June 30, 2022, apply to operate a federal universal meal service provision pursuant to specified federal law. This bill would limit the applicability of the above-described requirement to high-poverty schools that also have an identified student percentage of 40% or more. (39) Existing law requires a local educational agency to exempt an individual with exceptional needs who satisfies specified eligibility requirements, including that the pupil entered grade 9 in the 2022–23 school year or later, from all courses and other requirements adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency that are additional to the statewide course requirements and to award the pupil a diploma of graduation from high school, as provided. Until July 1, 2031, this bill would authorize a local educational agency to additionally exempt an individual with exceptional needs who was enrolled in grade 10 or higher in the 2022–23 school year, and who satisfies specified eligibility criteria, from all courses and other requirements adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency that are additional to the statewide course requirements and to award the pupil a diploma of graduation from high school, as provided. (40) Existing law requires the governing body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to confirm that a grade 12 pupil who has not opted out, as specified, completes and submits a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or, if the pupil is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under existing law, completes and submits a form for purposes of the California Dream Act, as provided. Existing law requires the governing board or body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that the school district, county office of education, or charter school directs each high school pupil and, if applicable, the pupil's parent or legal guardian to any support and assistance services necessary, to complete and submit a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, that may be available through outreach programs, as provided. This bill would require, among other things relating to ensuring that pupils complete and submit a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, commencing with participation of a local educational agency in the universal basic pupil accounts on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, and in furtherance of each pupil successfully completing and submitting a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, the governing boards of school districts and the governing bodies of charter schools to (A) ensure that each pupil in grade 11 is advised to complete the grade 11 financial aid lessons on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, as specified, and (B) that a representative of the school district or the charter school, as applicable, has a district administrator account registered on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform for purposes of this representative serving as the district administrator to support grade 11 pupils in completing the grade 11 financial aid lessons. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (41) Existing law requires a school district offering any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to provide the parent or guardian of each minor pupil enrolled in any of those grades in the school district with written notification containing certain information, including information relating to A–G subject matter requirements and career technical education. This bill would require this written notification to also include (A) direction to the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform to access resources that help pupils and their families learn about college admission requirements and (B) a separate and distinct disclosure, provided as part of the school district's annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, that data may be shared with the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) to provide pupils and their families with direct access to online tools and resources for college and career planning. By imposing new duties on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (42) Existing law requires a local educational agency to maintain a current written agreement for each pupil enrolled in an independent study program or course. Existing law requires the agreement to be signed before the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 15 schooldays or more, and within 10 schooldays of the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for fewer than 15 schooldays. This bill would instead require the written agreement maintained by a local educational agency to be signed before the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 16 schooldays or more, and during the school year in which the independent study takes place if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 15 schooldays or fewer. (43) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to, on or before January 31, 2025, adopt an IDEA Addendum relating to improvements in services for individuals with exceptional needs, as specified. Existing law requires certain school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education identified by the department, as provided, to complete the IDEA Addendum and to undertake certain activities related to the addendum on or before July 1, 2025. This bill would extend by 2 years the date for the state board to adopt an IDEA Addendum to instead be January 31, 2027, and the date for the above-described school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to undertake certain activities related to the addendum to instead be on or before July 1, 2027. (44) Existing law requires each school district, county office of education, and charter school, on or before July 1, 2019, and each year thereafter, to develop a summary document known as the local control funding formula budget overview for parents. Existing law, on or before July 1, 2015, and each year thereafter, requires the governing body of a charter school to hold a public hearing to adopt an LCAP using a template adopted by the state board. Existing law requires the governing body of a charter school to update the goals and annual actions to achieve those goals identified in the charter petition, as provided, using the template for the LCAP and annual update to the LCAP adopted by the state board, as provided. Existing law requires a charter school to present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing body of the charter school, as provided. This bill would require a charter school to present the above-described report as part of a nonconsent item at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing body of the charter school. Existing law requires, before a governing board of a school district or a county board of education considers the adoption of an LCAP or an annual update to the plan, certain things to occur, including that the superintendent of the school district or the county superintendent of schools present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district or the county board of education, as specified. This bill would require the superintendent of a school district or the county superintendent of schools to present the above-described report as part of a nonconsent item at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district or the county board of education. By requiring local educational agencies and officials to present this report as part of a nonconsent item, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (45) Existing law requires the state board to, on or before March 31, 2014, adopt a template for a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) and an annual update to the LCAP for use by school districts, county boards of education, and charter schools. Existing law requires the state board to include instructions for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to complete the LCAP and annual update to the LCAP. This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2025, the above-described instructions developed by the state board to specify that all Learning Recovery Emergency Funds received by the local educational agency and bound by the above-described requirements related to local needs assessments are required to be included in the LCAP, or the annual update to the LCAP, for the period of July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2028, inclusive, as provided. By creating new requirements involving the template used by local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (46) Existing law requires the state board to adopt specified evaluation rubrics, including, among other things, state and local indicators to measure school district and individual schoolsite performance in regard to specified state priorities. Existing law, no later than January 31, 2020, requires those local indicators to ensure, at a minimum, that the governing board of a school district, the county board of education, and the governing body of a charter school review any data to be publicly reported for local indicators in conjunction with the adoption of the LCAP, as provided. If the governing board of a school district, the county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school is unable to review any data to be publicly reported due to a specified emergency, this bill would require the local indicator data to be reviewed at the next meeting of the governing board or body and would require a resolution to be adopted and submitted to the department, as provided. (47) Existing law requires the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and the department to establish a process, subject to approval by the executive director of the state board, to select county offices of education to serve as geographic lead agencies for a term not to exceed 5 years to conduct specified activities. At the conclusion of the term for each selected geographic lead agency, existing law authorizes the department and the collaborative to renew the selection of the existing geographic lead agency or reopen the selection of a geographic lead agency, as provided. This bill would require the executive director of the state board to approve the renewal or reopening, among other changes. Existing law requires the state board, as part of the evaluation rubrics, to adopt performance criteria for local educational agency assistance and intervention. If a charter school meets the performance criteria, as specified, existing law requires the county superintendent of schools in which the charter school is located to provide technical assistance, as provided. Existing law requires the geographic lead agency, or its designee, to serve in the role of the county superintendent of schools for a charter school authorized by the county board of education. This bill would require the geographic lead agency to choose a designee to provide technical assistance for any charter school for whom the geographic lead agency's county board of education is the chartering authority. The bill would require the geographic lead agency to contract with the designee using specified funds. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (48) Existing law establishes the Community Engagement Initiative and requires the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and a selected lead agency to convene professional learning networks for purposes of improving local pupil outcomes and community engagement, as specified. Existing law also establishes the Community Engagement Initiative Expansion and, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, appropriates $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for allocation to the collaborative to expand and strengthen the Community Engagement Initiative, as provided. Existing law requires the department and the collaborative, with approval from the executive director of the state board, to select an expert community engagement lead agency to coadminister the expansion with the collaborative, as provided. This bill would require the collaborative and the selected expert community engagement lead agency to incorporate learning recovery work, as specified, into the training and resources provided to local educational agencies. To the extent that the bill would impose additional duties on the expert community engagement lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (49) Existing law requires a county superintendent of schools to prepare a summary of how the county superintendent of schools plans to support school districts and schools within the county in implementing laws relating to LCAPs and the statewide system of support. Existing law requires the summary to include, among other things, a description of how the county superintendent of schools will assist each school district identified for technical assistance. This bill would also require the summary to include how the county superintendent of schools will assist charter schools identified for technical assistance, as provided, and would make related conforming changes. By expanding a duty of a county superintendent of schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (50) Existing law requires the state board, on or before January 31, 2024, to appoint an independent panel of experts for the purpose of creating an approved list of evidence-based, culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening instruments for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 to assess pupils for risk of reading difficulties, including possible neurological disorders such as dyslexia, as specified. Existing law requires the governing board or body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school serving pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 or 2 to adopt, on or before June 30, 2025, one or more screening instruments from the approved list to assess pupils for risk of reading difficulties, as specified, and commencing no later than the 2025–26 school year, requires those local educational agencies to assess each pupil in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 for risk of reading difficulties using the screening instrument or instruments adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency, as specified. For purposes of the above-described requirement that local educational agencies assess each pupil in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 for risk of reading difficulties, this bill would require that the employees administering the screening instrument or instruments be appropriately trained to administer that instrument or instruments. To the extent this training requirement imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would appropriate $25,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation, as specified, to local educational agencies that administer literacy screenings pursuant to the above-described provisions, as provided, and would require a local educational agency to expend those funds for training for educators to administer pupil screenings in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, but excluding transitional kindergarten, in order to assess for risk of reading difficulties using those approved screening instruments. (51) Existing law provides that an essential component of transition services for individuals with exceptional needs is the project workability program that provides instruction and experiences that reinforce core curriculum concepts and skills leading to gainful employment. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop criteria for awarding grants, funding, and evaluating workability projects and requires project workability project applications to include, but not be limited to, specified elements. Existing law defines eligible applicants for project workability to include local educational agencies, including school districts, county offices of education, state special schools, and charter schools, and nonpublic, nonsectarian schools, as defined. This bill would remove nonpublic, nonsectarian schools from the list of eligible applicants for project workability funding. (52) Existing law requires a school district to be assessed a specified financial penalty if the Superintendent determines that the school district has not provided sufficient textbooks or instructional materials to pupils, as specified. This bill would make that financial penalty a reduction to the school district's principal apportionment for the applicable fiscal year, as provided. (53) Existing law requires the state board to adopt instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, and to adopt procedures for the submission of instructional materials. This bill would make the adoption of the procedures for the submission of instructional materials contingent upon an appropriation for that purpose. The bill would authorize the department to conduct a followup adoption, as defined, of instructional materials for language arts and mathematics. The bill would require the department to assess a fee on publishers and manufacturers choosing to participate in the followup adoption and would prohibit the fee from exceeding the reasonable costs to the department to conduct the followup adoption process, as specified. The bill would repeal provisions relating to followup adoptions on January 1, 2032. (54) Existing law establishes the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CalPADS) , which is maintained by the department and consists of pupil data from elementary and secondary schools, as specified, relating to, among other things, demographic, program participation, enrollment, and statewide assessments. Existing law requires the system to be used to accomplish specified goals and requires local educational agencies, in order to comply with federal law, to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, as provided. Existing law requires local educational agencies, in order to accomplish the specified goals and to comply with the requirement to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, to submit data according to the processes and timelines established by the department, as specified. This bill would require local educational agencies, among other things, to, in order to accomplish those specified goals and to comply with the requirement to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, also (A) inform the department of any schoolsite closure within 10 business days of the last day that pupils were no longer enrolled at the schoolsite and (B) submit grades 9 to 12, inclusive, pupil data to the CCGI according to processes and timelines established by the CCGI in the format approved by the Superintendent, as provided. The bill would require local educational agencies to, on or before June 30, 2026, using reports on CaliforniaColleges.edu and technical assistance from the California College Guidance Initiative, ensure that data needed to verify course eligibility to fulfill the A–G admissions requirements of the University of California and the California State University is accurate and up to date. By imposing new duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (55) Existing law requires the department to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the CCGI to accomplish specified goals, including sharing course level data from each local educational agency to validate, as they are submitted to CalPADS, if the course meets the requirements of A–G coursework, as specified. Existing law requires the department to notify local educational agencies of the additional use of CalPADS data and advise local educational agencies to include in their annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, information about the sharing and use of CalPADS data, as provided. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, removing the sharing of course level data from local educational agencies as submitted to CalPADS from the department's memorandum of understanding with the CCGI and requiring the department to instead inform local educational agencies of the use of data submitted to the CCGI and advise local educational agencies to include in their annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, information about the sharing and use of that data, as specified. Existing law requires the Riverside County Office of Education to report to the Director of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee regarding the annual budget for the CCGI as supported through the annual Budget Act, as specified. This bill would require that annual report to additionally be made in collaboration with the department. By imposing additional duties on the Riverside County Office of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (56) Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2025, the Student Aid Commission to require that any grade point average data required for eligibility for student financial aid programs be submitted by local educational agencies through CalPADS for transmittal to the CCGI. This bill instead would require, upon implementation of transcript-informed accounts for pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, the commission to require that any grade point average data required for eligibility for student financial aid programs be submitted by local educational agencies through the CCGI. (57) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that public higher education in California strive to provide educationally equitable environments that give each Californian, regardless of age, economic circumstance, or certain specified characteristics, including mental disability, a reasonable opportunity to develop fully their potential. This bill would establish the California Center for Inclusive College (the center) and would annually appropriate, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, $2,000,000 each fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to, in consultation with the executive director of the state board, allocate to a county office of education selected to administer the center, working in partnership with specified entities. The bill would require the responsibilities of the center to include, among other things, assisting inclusive college programs, as defined, in aligning with the federal requirements, standards, and quality indicators pursuant to specified federal law and assisting public postsecondary educational institutions and inclusive college programs with the identification of potential funding sources to establish, sustain, or expand upon inclusive college programs, including student financial assistance opportunities. The bill, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, would require up to $500,000 to be available for the center to convene an advisory workgroup consisting of representatives from at least 2, but not more than 5, existing inclusive college programs throughout the state to consult with the center, as specified. To the extent that this bill would create new duties for a county office of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (58) Existing law establishes the Golden State Teacher Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission to, among other things, award grants of up to $20,000 to students enrolled in a professional preparation program leading to a preliminary teaching credential or a pupil personnel services credential who commit to work at a priority school or a California preschool program for 4 years within 8 years of program completion and meet certain other conditions, including, among others, satisfying a certain state basic skills requirement, as provided. This bill would, among other things, for applications received on July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, revise the terms of the Golden State Teacher Grant Program by lowering the award limit to $10,000, instead requiring a student to commit to working for 2 years within 4 years of program completion, and replacing the state basic skills requirement with a requirement to complete a baccalaureate degree program, as specified. The bill would require the Student Aid Commission, commencing July 1, 2024, to prioritize awards for eligible applicants with the lowest income at the time of application, and to establish up to 3 application period each year, as provided. (59) Whenever a student transfers from one community college or public or private institution of postsecondary education to another within the state, existing law requires appropriate records or a copy of appropriate records to be transferred by the former community college or college or university upon a request from the student. This bill would require community colleges enrolling high school pupils through dual or concurrent enrollment, as specified, to use eTranscript California to enable the uniform integration of the pupil's completed courses and grades received into the pupil's universal and electronic high school transcript that is housed on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform. By imposing new duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (60) Existing law appropriates $7,500,000 from the General Fund to the Controller for allocation to the State Department of Education for the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program to improve broadband connectivity at California local educational agencies and improve digital learning opportunities for pupils. Existing law requires the department to contract with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California to identify external broadband connectivity solutions that provide fiber broadband connectivity to the most poorly connected schoolsites to allow digital learning opportunities for pupils. Existing law requires any federal E-rate subsidies and California Teleconnect Fund subsidies received by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California as a result of broadband connectivity solutions pursuant to the program to be used for additional broadband connectivity solutions. This bill, notwithstanding that latter provision, would require, commencing July 1, 2024, any federal E-rate subsidies and California Teleconnect Fund subsidies received by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California as a result of broadband connectivity solutions pursuant to the program to instead first be made available for annual administrative costs for the department and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, as specified, before being allocated for additional fiber broadband connectivity solutions for the most poorly connected schoolsites for purposes of allowing digital learning opportunities for pupils. (61) Existing law appropriates $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to further support the Educator Workforce Investment Grant Program to coordinate and support professional learning opportunities for educators across the state, as specified, and requires those funds to be available through the 2024–25 fiscal year to provide one or more grants, as provided. Existing law requires the department and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, by September 1 each year, to report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Governor on the process for awarding grants, the name of each grant recipient, the amount awarded to each grant recipient, the activities provided with grant funds, and, if available, the number of schools served and the number of educators served. This bill would require those funds to instead be available through the 2025–26 fiscal year. By extending the time for which previously appropriated moneys are available, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill also would revise the above-described reporting requirements to instead require an initial report by September 1, 2023, an interim report by June 1, 2025, and a final report by June 1, 2027, and would revise the categories of information to be reported, as specified. (62) Existing law appropriates $3,360,885,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to establish the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant, for allocation to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools, in accordance with a formula based on a per-pupil basis, as provided. Existing law authorizes funds to be used to obtain standards-aligned professional development and acquire instructional materials in specified subject areas, to develop diverse book collections and obtain culturally relevant texts, and for operational costs, as provided. Existing law requires those funds to be available for encumbrance through the 2025–26 fiscal year. This bill would require those funds to instead be available for expenditure through June 30, 2026. The bill would require each local educational agency receiving those funds, by September 30, 2026, or, for a charter school that closes before June 30, 2026, within 60 days of ceasing operations, to report final expenditures to the department, would require the department to initiate collection of any unexpended funds, and would require any local educational agency that does not submit the final expenditure report to forfeit all of those funds. (63) This bill would require the department, on or before November 1, 2025, to develop a pupil benefit form in an alternative electronic format that meets the requirements and purposes of the local control funding formula and the eligibility requirements for federal school meals programs, as provided. (64) This bill would require the Superintendent to update the State Department of Education's Science Safety Handbook, as specified, and would require the department, by August 1, 2026, to make the updated handbook publicly available on its internet website. (65) The Budget Acts of 2021, 2023, and 2024 appropriated various amounts to either the Superintendent or the Marin County Office of Education for activities relating to Holocaust and genocide education, as specified. This bill would require the Marin County Office of Education, on or before January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter to January 1, 2030, inclusive, to report specified information relating to Holocaust and genocide education to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the Department of Finance, as specified. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on the Marin County Office of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (66) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation, until July 1, 2024, to establish a "California State Park Adventure Pass" to be available, upon application to the department, to any child in the 4th grade, or 4th grade equivalent, who is a California resident. Existing law authorizes the department, until July 1, 2024, to waive the day use entrance fees to an eligible unit of the state park system, as determined by the department, for any child who holds a valid "California State Park Adventure Pass" and specified persons accompanying that child, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, require the Superintendent to add $2,100,000 to the Sacramento County Office of Education's local control funding formula allocation in order to contract with the Department of Parks and Recreation for purposes of providing pupils enrolled in grade 4 in California public schools access to California state parks pursuant to the provisions establishing the "California State Park Adventure Pass," as specified. The bill would authorize up to 5% of those funds to be used to support the Sacramento County Office of Education's indirect costs. (67) This bill would appropriate $4,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to select a county office of education to research models of hybrid and remote learning at public schools across the state and provide guidance, support, and resources to local educational agencies, as specified. The bill would require the selected county office of education to submit a report on its findings and recommendations to specified entities on or before June 30, 2027. (68) This bill would appropriate $7,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to the Los Angeles County Office of Education to contract, with the approval of the executive director of the state board, with one or more nonprofit organizations with specified expertise to do certain things, including, among others, to develop a statewide repository of high-quality curriculum-embedded performance tasks across all grade levels, mapped to the Next Generation Science standards for use by local educational agencies and educators to support inquiry-based instruction and assessment, and to research existing high-quality curriculum-embedded performance tasks aligned to the Next Generation Science standards and identify tasks that can be used for the California repository. (69) This bill would appropriate $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to one or more county offices of education, or consortia of county offices of education, to partner with the California Mathematics Project and other specified entities to develop and deliver educator training, including the training of mathematics coaches, and provide resources to educators on delivering high-quality mathematics instruction to pupils throughout the state pursuant to the curriculum framework for mathematics adopted by the state board, as specified. (70) This bill would, on or before June 30, 2025, appropriate an amount to be determined by the Director of Finance from the General Fund to the Superintendent in augmentation of a certain item in the Budget Act of 2024. The bill would make these funds available only to the extent that revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies are less than the estimated amount determined by the Director of Finance. The bill would require, on or before June 30, 2025, the Director of Finance to determine if the revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies exceed the estimated amount reflected in the Budget Act of 2024 and, if so, would require the Director of Finance to reduce the specified appropriation in the Budget Act of 2024 by the amount of that excess. (71) This bill would appropriate $1,260,000 from the General Fund to the State Allocation Board to be available for allocation to the William S. Hart Union School District to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of William S. Hart Union High School infrastructure. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the William S. Hart Union School District. (72) This bill would state that its provisions are severable. (73) 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 the statutory provisions noted above. (74) Certain funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. (75) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

(1) Existing law establishes in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, the Department of Consumer Affairs. Under existing law, the department is composed of various boards, bureaus, committees, and commissions. This bill would, until January 1, 2027, require the minimum number of hours, or equivalent, established in this state for education programs that qualify persons for any license issued by a board within the department, to be equal to the number of clock or credit hours that is approved by the department, as specified. The bill would require the applicable board, no later than January 1, 2027, to complete its review of a request by an education program, as specified, to modify the program to reduce the program clock or credit hours, as provided. (2) Existing law requires a Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) fee of $9 to be assessed annually, at the time of license renewal, on specified active licensees to pay the reasonable costs associated with operating and maintaining CURES for the purpose of regulating those licensees. Existing law requires these fees to be deposited in the CURES Fund, which is subject to appropriation by the Legislature. This bill, beginning April 1, 2025, would increase that fee to $15. (3) The Real Estate Law defines real estate brokers and salespersons and provides for their licensure and regulation, the administration of which is committed to the Real Estate Commissioner, the chief officer of the Department of Real Estate within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Existing law establishes the Real Estate Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, and, within that fund, a Consumer Recovery Account, which is funded by various fees and fines imposed on licensees, and is also continuously appropriated. Existing law requires that a separate application for a license as a prepaid rental listing service be submitted to the department for each location to be operated by a licensee, other than a real estate broker, and that it be accompanied by a specified fee. Existing law requires an application and fee to be submitted to add or eliminate locations during the term of the license and requires that a particular amount of each application fee be credited to the Consumer Recovery Account. Existing law specifies the amount of the fees for a real estate broker license, including for an original license, an examination, and reexamination. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to establish the fees for applications for approval of equivalent courses of study given by a private vocational school, as specified. Existing law specifies the amount of the fees for a real estate salesperson license, including for the real estate salesperson license examination and reexamination. Existing law authorizes broker and salesperson applicants for examination to make written application for a new examination date, accompanied by specified fees. Existing law authorizes a real estate broker, before using any proposed advertisement, to submit a copy thereof to the department, accompanied by a fee, as specified. Existing law also authorizes an owner, subdivider, or agent, before using, publishing, distributing, or circulating an advertisement concerning subdivided lands, to submit the advertisement to the department for approval. Existing law requires the submission to be accompanied by a specified fee. This bill would increase the amount of the above-described fees and make various nonsubstantive changes. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to periodically by regulation prescribe fees lower than the maximum fees provided, as specified. Existing law requires the commissioner to hold at least one regulation hearing each calendar year, to determine if lower fees should be prescribed. This bill would require the department, at the above-described hearing, to report on the financial status of the department, as specified, and to post a hearing notice 15 days in advance of the hearing, as described. The bill would require the department, beginning January 1, 2025, before submitting a regulatory fee increase proposal, as specified, to conduct at least one meeting to which specified statewide membership organizations are invited. The bill would require the department to provide information related to the proposed fee increase, as provided, to the specified statewide membership organizations. Existing law requires a person acting as a principal or agent who intends, in this state, to sell or lease or offer for sale lots, parcels, in interests in a subdivision situation outside of this state to register the subdivision with the commissioner. Existing law require the application for registration be accompanied by a specified filing fee. Existing law requires the commissioner to hold at least one regulation hearing each calendar year, to determine if lower fees should be prescribed. This bill would increase the amount of the fees that may be charged for an application for registration, renewal of a registration, and amendment of a registration pursuant to the provisions described above. The bill would require the department, at the above-described meeting, to report on the financial status of the department, as specified, and to post a hearing notice 15 days in advance of the hearing, as provided. Existing law requires any person who intends to offer subdivided lands within this state for sale or lease to file with the department an application for a public report consisting of a notice of intention and a completed questionnaire, as specified. Existing law specifies the filing fees for particular public reports issued pursuant to these provisions. Existing law requires the commissioner to hold at least one regulation hearing each calendar year, to determine if lower fees should be prescribed. This bill would increase the amount of the filing fees for applications for original public reports, conditional public reports, and renewal and amendment of original and conditional public reports pursuant to these provisions, as specified. The bill would require the department, at the above-described meeting, to report on the financial status of the department, as specified, and to post a hearing notice 15 days in advance of the hearing, as provided. Existing law provides that no amendment or modification of provisions in the declaration of restrictions, bylaws, articles of incorporation or other instruments controlling or otherwise affecting rights to ownership, possession, or use of interests in subdivisions that would materially change those rights of an owner, either directly or as a member of an association of owners, is valid without the prior written consent of the commissioner. Existing law requires an application for consent to be accompanied by a filing fee. This bill would increase the amount of the filing fee that may be charged for an application for consent and make other nonsubstantive changes. Existing law requires any person who, to any individual located in the state, sells, offers to sell, or attempts to solicit prospective purchasers to purchase a time-share interest, or any person who creates a time-share plan with an accommodation in the state, to register the time-share plan with the commissioner, unless the time-share plan is otherwise exempt. Existing law, authorizes the commissioner, in connection with its review of the registration application of a time-share plan, to make an examination of any time-share property submitted for regulation and, unless there are grounds for denial, issue to the developed a public report authorizing the sale or lease of time-share interest within the submitted time-share plan. Existing law specifies the filing fees for an application for a public report issued pursuant to these provisions. Existing law requires the commissioner to hold at least one regulation hearing each calendar year, to determine if lower fees should be prescribed. This bill would increase the amount of the filing fees for applications for original, renewal, amended, conditional, and preliminary public reports pursuant to these provisions, as specified, and make other conforming changes. The bill would also require the department, at the above-described meeting, to report on the financial status of the department, as specified, and to post a hearing notice 15 days in advance of the hearing, as provided. Because this bill would increase the fees deposited into the Real Estate Fund and the Consumer Recovery Account, which are continuously appropriated, the bill would make an appropriation. (4) Existing law, commencing March 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, requires a covered entity, defined as a venture capital company that meets specified criteria, to report to the Civil Rights Department specified information about their funding determinations, as specified. Existing law requires the Civil Rights Department to take certain actions with respect to these reports, and authorizes the Civil Rights Department to commence prescribed proceedings seeking specific relief, including a penalty, if certain conditions are met. Existing law requires money collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund (fund) , which is administered by the Civil Rights Department. Existing law authorizes moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act, to be used to offset the costs of the Civil Rights Department. This bill would repeal the above-described provisions and make a conforming change. The bill would also generally recast those provisions, and, commencing March 1, 2026, the bill would require a covered entity, defined to mean a venture capital company that meets specified criteria, to submit to the department specified information, including the covered entity's internet website, as prescribed by the department. By April 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, the bill would require a covered entity to report to the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (department) specified information about its funding determinations. If a covered entity fails to timely file that annual report, the bill would require the department to notify the covered entity that the covered entity has 60 calendar days from the date of the notification to submit the report without penalty. The bill would require the department to take prescribed action with respect to these reports, including making the reports available on its internet website, as provided. The bill would also require the department to charge and collect fees from covered entities to cover the expenses incurred in the administration of these provisions, as prescribed. The bill would establish the investigative and enforcement powers of the department and the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation (commissioner) with respect to the bill's provisions, including authorizing the commissioner to take specified action against a covered entity that fails to meet specified requirements. The bill would prescribe various penalty amounts in any civil or administrative action brought pursuant to a violation of the bill's provisions in which the commissioner orders penalties. The bill would require money collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the Financial Protection Fund and would express the intent of the Legislature that these moneys be appropriated in the annual Budget Act to the department for administration of these provisions. The bill would define various terms for the bill's purposes. (5) Existing law prohibits a person from acquiring any voting securities or assets of a retail grocery firm or retail drug firm, as those terms are defined, unless both parties give, or in the case of a tender offer, the acquiring party gives, specified notice to the Attorney General. Existing law requires the Attorney General to evaluate the transaction within 180 days, as provided, and to charge the acquiring party a filing fee not to exceed the reasonable regulatory costs of that evaluation and subject to specified conditions, including prohibiting the fee from exceeding .00045 percent of the combined sales of the parties to the merger or acquisition for the fiscal year prior to the filing of the notice. This bill would, instead, prohibit the fee from exceeding .00045 of the dollar amount of those combined sales, and would also make a nonsubstantive change. (6) Existing law requires the Department of General Services, for the purpose of ensuring access and use by persons with disabilities, to issue a written approval before a contract may be awarded where state funds are used for specified buildings or facilities, or where funds of counties, municipalities, or other political subdivisions are used for the construction of specified educational buildings or facilities. Existing law requires an application fee, in an amount determined by the department, to be submitted with the application for approval, and requires those fees to be deposited into the Disability Access Account, which is continuously appropriated to the department to carry out specified responsibilities relating to disability access. Existing law establishes the California Commission on Disability Access within the department to carry out specified duties relating to disability access, including recommending programs to enable persons with disabilities to obtain full and equal access to public facilities and providing information requested by the Legislature on disability access issues and compliance. This bill would authorize funds in the Disability Access Account to fund the activities of the California Commission on Disability Access. By expanding the purposes for which continuously appropriated fund moneys may be used, the bill would make an appropriation. (7) Existing law, by executive order, establishes CaliforniaVolunteers in the office of the Governor and charges that entity with specified duties and responsibilities, including to recruit and mobilize citizens for volunteer service by identifying service opportunities throughout the state and by recognizing citizens for the contributions they make as volunteers and participants in public service. Existing law authorizes CaliforniaVolunteers to form a nonprofit public benefit corporation or other entity exempt from income taxation, as provided, to raise revenues and receive grants or other financial support from private or public sources, for purposes of undertaking or funding any lawful activity authorized to be undertaken by CaliforniaVolunteers. Existing federal law, the National and Community Service Trust Act, also requires the state to create a commission to carry out specified duties relating to national service programs to be eligible for grants or allotments under certain programs, or to receive distributions of approved national service positions. Existing law continues into existence a Board of Commissioners under CaliforniaVolunteers for purposes of meeting the requirements of the federal act and the act's implementing rules and regulations, as provided. Existing law establishes the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications within the Office of Planning and Research to serve as the manager of the state's highest priority public awareness and community outreach efforts, as prescribed, under the management of the Executive Officer of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communication, under the direction of the Director of the Office of Planning and Research. Existing law, the California Youth Empowerment Act, until January 1, 2030, establishes the California Youth Empowerment Commission within the Office of Planning and Research to advise on providing meaningful opportunities for civic engagement to improve the quality of life for California's disconnected and disadvantaged youth. This bill would establish the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement in state government in the Governor's office and the work of the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement would be organized within CaliforniaVolunteers, the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, and the California Youth Empowerment Commission. Under the bill, the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement would be under the direct control of a Director of the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement, who would be appointed by the Governor. Commencing on July 1, 2024, the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement would succeed to, and be vested with, all the duties and responsibilities of the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation related to the administration or implementation of those programs or offices. This bill would make the implementation of the California Youth Empowerment Act subject to appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would also make related technical, conforming changes. (8) Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2030, the Racial Equity Commission (commission) within the Office of Planning and Research and requires the commission to develop resources, best practices, and tools for advancing racial equity, by, among other things, developing a statewide Racial Equity Framework, as specified. Existing law requires the framework, on or after December 1, 2024, but no later than April 1, 2025, to be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature. This bill would, instead, require the Racial Equity Framework to be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature no later than December 1, 2025. Existing law requires the commission to prepare an annual report that, among other things, summarizes feedback from public engagement with communities of color. Existing law requires the commission to, on or after December 1, 2025, and no later than April 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, submit the report to the Governor and the Legislature. This bill would instead require the commission to submit the report to the Governor and the Legislature on or after December 1, 2026, and no later than December 31, 2026, and annually on or after December 1, and no later than December 31, thereafter. (9) Existing law establishes the California State Auditor's Office, headed by the appointed California State Auditor and under the direction of the Milton Marks "Little Hoover" Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy, with specified duties that include, among others, conducting financial and performance audits as directed by statute. Existing law authorizes the auditor to establish a high-risk local government agency audit program for the purpose of identifying, auditing, and issuing reports on any local government agency that the auditor identifies as at high risk for fraud or waste, among other things. This bill would require the California State Auditor to conduct an audit of the County of Mendocino that includes an audit of any potential waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, the county's administration of elections in 2024, and contracting and procurement processes, by January 1, 2026. The bill would require the California State Auditor to report their findings to the Legislature by January 1, 2026, as specified. (10) Existing law, the Dixon-Zenovich-Maddy California Arts Act of 1975, establishes the Arts Council and sets forth the duties of the council in promoting the arts in the state. Existing law establishes the position of California Youth Poet Laureate, who is appointed by the Governor from a list of 3 nominees 13 to 19 years of age, inclusive, provided by the council garnered through a prescribed process. Existing law also requires the council to establish a panel of 3 literary experts, which may include members from a listing of eligible persons, including city youth poet laureates. This bill would rename the position of California Youth Poet Laureate to the California Teen Poet Laureate and would make conforming changes. The bill would delete city youth poet laureates from the list and would, instead, include city poet laureates, teen poet laureates, and other appropriate designations. By requiring the County of Mendocino to participate in an audit, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (11) The California State Lottery Act of 1984, enacted by initiative, authorizes a California State Lottery and provides for its operation and administration by the California State Lottery Commission and the Director of the California State Lottery, with certain limitations. The act establishes the California State Lottery Education Fund and provides for direct payments from the fund to various entities, including the former Department of the Youth Authority. This bill would delete an obsolete provision relating to the Department of the Youth Authority and make other conforming changes. (12) Existing law requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy to oversee the acquisition and management of contracts for the development and construction of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network and for the maintenance and operation of the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to facilitate high-speed broadband service. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in collaboration with a third-party administrator retained by the office, to assist the office and to provide to the office the locations for the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network in a staff report, as specified. This bill would also require the office, with the third-party administrator, to develop and construct a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network, and to work directly with last-mile grant project awardees to ensure that network segments support last-mile connections, as specified. The bill would require the office and the third-party administrator to minimize disruption due to excavation, to the extent feasible. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to also provide the office and the third-party administrator with information on last-mile projects with grant awards, as specified, including whether a project plans to connect to the statewide open-access middle-mile network. (13) Existing law creates the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, known as "GO-Biz," and requires GO-Biz to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. Existing law continues into existence the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) division within GO-Biz as the Zero-Emission Vehicle Market Development Office. Existing law requires the office to develop and adopt an equity action plan as part of the ZEV Market Development Strategy that considers optimizing for equity benefits in ZEV deployment. Existing law requires the equity plan to include, among other things, recommendations to advance equity by reducing pollution driven by the transportation sector and related industries in low-income, disadvantaged, and historically underserved communities, as described, and by supporting an equitable zero-emission vehicle industry and workforce. Existing law also requires the office to assess progress towards the plan as part of the update to the ZEV Market Development Strategy, as specified. Existing law requires the assessment to include metrics that track, among other things, state funding for multiyear projects that advance deployment of zero-emission vehicles in specified communities. Existing law requires the office to coordinate and partner with specified entities, as described, in developing the equity action plan. This bill would also require the equity plan to include strategies implemented and steps taken to embed equity in the state's overall ZEV Market Development Strategy. The bill would also require the above-described assessment to include metrics tracking the identification of project locations. The bill would additionally require the office to include information on the constituencies coordinated with to develop or advance equity actions in zero market development in the equity action plan. (14) The Small Business Procurement and Contract Act requires the Director of General Services and the heads of other state agencies that enter into contracts for the provision of goods, information technology, and services to the state or for construction of state facilities to take various actions with respect to small businesses and microbusinesses, including establishing minimum goals for participation of those businesses in those contracts and providing preferences in the awards of those contracts for those businesses, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of General Services to contract for a statewide procurement and contracting disparity study, in order to guide outreach strategies, state government program development, and improvements to contracting policies, and, on or before January 1, 2025, to post a report on its internet website setting forth the results of the study and implementation actions taken in response to it. This bill would, instead, require that report to be posted on or before December 31, 2025. (15) Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research within the Governor's office for the purposes of developing state land use policies, coordinating planning of all state agencies, and assisting and monitoring local and regional planning. Existing law sets forth the specific powers and duties of the Office of Planning and Research, including specified shared administrative responsibility for planning, oversight, and decisionmaking for the Community Economic Resilience Fund Program. Entities within the office include, among others, the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine. This bill would rename the Office of Planning and Research the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and would rename the Director of State Planning and Research as the Director of Land Use and Climate Innovation. The bill would require, commencing on July 1, 2024, that all references to the Governor's Office of Planning and Research throughout the published laws of the state be deemed to be references to the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, except as specified. This bill would delete provisions establishing the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine in the Office of Planning and Research until June 30, 2029, and, instead, would establish the initiative until that date in the California Health and Human Services Agency. Commencing July 1, 2024, the initiative and agency would succeed to, and be vested with, all the duties and responsibilities of the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation related to the administration or implementation of the initiative's programs, as prescribed. The bill would make various changes to expand the scope of the initiative relating to preventing or alleviating the impact of a pandemic, as specified. Also on July 1, 2024, the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development would succeed to, and be vested with, all the duties and responsibilities of the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation related to the administration or implementation of the Community Economic Resilience Fund Program, as prescribed. This bill would also make related technical, conforming changes. (16) Existing law requires a skilled nursing and intermediate care facility to adopt an approved training program for nurse assistants that meets standards established by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law requires an applicant for certification as a certified home health aide to, among other things, successfully complete an approved training program. Existing law provides for the certification and regulation of radiologic technologists by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law authorizes the department to adopt regulations to implement those provisions, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2027, require the minimum number of hours, or the equivalent, established in this state for nurse assistant and home health aide educational or training programs, and for approved schools for radiologic technicians, to be equal to the number of clock or credit hours that is approved by the department, as specified. (17) Existing law specifies the membership of the office of the Adjutant General, including one officer who may be of the rank of brigadier general who is the Deputy Adjutant General. Existing law specifies that the Deputy Adjutant General, whose duties are assigned by the Adjutant General, is subordinate only to the Governor and the Adjutant General. Existing law specifies 3 additional officers who may be of the rank of brigadier general, one of whom is the Assistant Adjutant General, Army Division, one of whom is the Assistant Adjutant General, Air Division, and one of whom is the Chief of Staff and Director of the Joint Staff. This bill would revise the ranks of officers in that office by providing that the Deputy Adjutant General may instead be of the rank of major general. (18) Existing law authorizes the Department of General Services, the Military Department, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to use the design-build project delivery process for specified public works projects in accordance with specified procedures and requirements. Existing law requires information submitted to prequalify design-build entities to be certified under penalty of perjury. Existing law repeals those design-build provisions on January 1, 2025. This bill would delete the repeal provision, thereby extending the operation of those provisions indefinitely. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (19) Existing law authorizes an individual, until January 1, 2025, to designate on the individual's personal income tax return that a specified amount in excess of the individual's tax liability be contributed to the Keep Arts in Schools Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which is continuously appropriated, to be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board, the Controller, and the Arts Council, as specified. If the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of the contributions estimated to be received during a calendar year will not equal at least $250,000, existing law requires these provisions to become inoperative with respect to taxable years beginning on or after January 1 of that calendar year and requires these provisions to be repealed on December 1 of that year. This bill would extend the above-described provisions related to the Keep Arts in Schools Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund until January 1, 2032. By extending these provisions, and thereby increasing the amounts to be deposited into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (20) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Mendocino with respect to the California State Auditor conducting the above-described audit of the county by January 1, 2026. (21) 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (22) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

(1) Existing law establishes the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund and authorizes the Controller to use funds in the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund for cashflow loans to the General Fund. Existing law authorizes a loan from the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund to the General Fund and requires the loan to be repaid in the 2025–26 fiscal year. This bill would delay repayment of the loan and require 3 payments of $200,000,000 over 3 fiscal years beginning with the 2026–27 fiscal year. (2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, clinics, home health agencies, and hospice agencies, as defined, by the State Department of Public Health. A violation of these provisions by a licensee is a crime. Existing law prescribes the method for determining licensing and certification fees and requires the department to annually post on its internet website a list of the estimated department fees for the facilities that it licenses. This bill would require the posted fees to include, but not be limited to, annual licensing, report of change application, and written notification fees, and would make conforming changes to reflect the inclusion of fees other than annual fees. The bill would establish late payment penalties for delinquent fees, as specified. The bill would revise existing licensing provisions for those facilities, to replace references to the department and its Licensing and Certification Division with references to the Licensing and Certification Program (program) . The bill would delete various obsolete provisions, including a related fee schedule, and would replace references to renewal fees with references to an annual license fee. (3) Existing law requires any person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation desiring a license for clinics, home health agencies, and hospice agencies to submit an application containing specified information to the department. This bill would require the application information to be provided to the program upon initial application for licensure. The bill would require any change in the information that requires the licensee to submit a report of change or written notification to the program to be provided within 10 business days of the change along with any applicable fee, unless otherwise specified. Because a violation of the bill's requirements by those facilities would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law establishes the Office of Oral Health within the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to maintain a dental program in order to, among other things, develop comprehensive dental health plans to maximize utilization of all resources. Existing law, the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act, creates a state medical contract program with specified educational entities and programs to maximize the delivery of primary care to specific areas of California where there is a recognized unmet priority need for those services. This bill would, until June 30, 2029, require the Office of Oral Health to support the establishment of community-based clinical education rotations for dental students in their final year or dental residents. The bill would require the office to compile data and prepare a report to be submitted to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2027, on specified desired outcomes. (5) Existing law, the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016, an initiative measure approved as Proposition 56 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, increases taxes imposed on distributors of cigarettes and tobacco products and requires all revenues to be deposited into the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016 Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. That act allocates those revenues for specified purposes, including $30,000,000 to provide funding to the State Department of Public Health state dental program, as specified. Under existing law, if there is a reduction in revenues resulting from a reduction in the consumption of cigarettes and tobacco products due to the additional taxes imposed on cigarettes, the amount of funds allocated to specified programs, including the state dental program, is required to be reduced proportionally. If the allocations to the state dental program are reduced, existing law backfills the reduced amount by continuously appropriating moneys from the General Fund in an amount equivalent to the reduction, so that the total funding for the state dental program remains at $30,000,000 annually. This bill would repeal the continuous appropriation to the state dental program that occurs upon a reduction of allocated funds to the program. (6) Existing law establishes within the State Treasury the Litigation Deposits Fund (LDF) , under the control of the Department of Justice and consisting of moneys received as litigation deposits for which the state is a party to the litigation. The state is a party to a settlement related to electronic cigarettes through which it receives funds for nicotine use remediation. This bill would establish the Electronic Cigarette Settlements Fund within the State Treasury and would require the State Department of Public Health to administer the fund. The bill would require the Controller, upon order of the Department of Finance, to transfer funds received in the LDF payable to the Department of Justice from the People of the State of California v. JUUL Labs, Inc., et al. settlement that are allocated to e-cigarette programs to the fund. The bill would require moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be used for activities in accordance with the terms of the settlement and specified department notices. The bill would specify that these provisions would remain operative only until July 1, 2035. (7) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to examine the causes of communicable diseases occurring or likely to occur in the state, and to establish a list of reportable diseases. Existing law requires local health officers to immediately report to the department every discovered or known case or suspected case of those reportable diseases and, in the case of a local epidemic, to report, as requested by the department, all facts concerning the disease, and the measures taken to abate and prevent its spread. This bill would authorize the department to develop and administer a syndromic surveillance program and, subject to an appropriation, to either designate an existing system or to create a new system that would be required, at a minimum, to provide public health practitioners access to an electronic health system to rapidly collect, evaluate, share, and store syndromic surveillance data, as specified. The bill would require general acute care hospitals with emergency departments to submit specified data electronically to the system in accordance with the schedule, standards, and requirements established by the department, unless the hospital reports its data to the local health department and the local health department reports that data to the department, as specified. The bill would authorize the sharing of collected data with specified entities, including the federal Centers for Disease Control, state and local government entities, and persons with a valid scientific interest, as specified, subject to specified confidentiality requirements. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. (8) Existing law prohibits a person from being tried or adjudged to punishment while that person is mentally incompetent. Existing law establishes a process by which, if the mental competency of a defendant is in doubt, the defendant's mental competency is evaluated and, if found to be mentally incompetent, the defendant may be committed to the State Department of State Hospitals (DSH) with the goal of returning the defendant to competency, as specified. This bill would require DSH to coordinate with the sheriff in the county of commitment to transport a defendant who has been committed to a DSH facility once a placement in the facility is available and would require DSH to notify the sheriff and the court if the defendant has not been transported within 90 days from the date of commitment, as specified. The bill would, if the sheriff fails to deliver the defendant within the required period of time, stay the commitment and remove the defendant from the waiting list until notice is provided that the defendant is available for transportation. (9) Under existing law, if a defendant is committed to a DSH facility, the court must provide specified documents to DSH, including the defendant's medical records, before the defendant is admitted to the facility. This bill would also, if DSH determines that additional medical or mental health records are required for continuity of care, require any public or private entity holding such records to release the records to DSH upon request, as specified. (10) Existing law requires DSH, upon a determination that the defendant has regained mental competence, to immediately certify that fact to the court by filing a certificate of restoration with the court. Existing law requires the sheriff to deliver the defendant to the court no later than 10 days following the filing of a certificate of restoration. Existing law provides that the state shall only pay for 10 hospital days following filing of the certificate This bill would clarify that the state will only pay for 10 calendar days in which the defendant remains confined in a DSH facility following the filing of the certificate. (11) Under existing law, if a defendant is issued a certificate of restoration or becomes mentally competent after conservatorship, but is not released either on bail or a promise to appear, the defendant may, as specified, be returned to a facility for continued treatment. This bill would clarify that the defendant may be returned only on the recommendation of the person that issued the certificate of restoration and that the defendant shall be returned to a DSH facility at the discretion of, and as directed by, DSH. The bill would also require the recommendation to include a recommendation regarding the involuntary administration of medication and requires the court to review the recommendation, and, as appropriate, issue or continue an order for the involuntary administration of medication, as specified. (12) Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue an identification card to an eligible applicant, as specified. Existing law provides a procedure for a person being released from the custody of a county jail, federal correctional facility, or state hospital facility to obtain a replacement identification card. Existing law also provides a procedure for a person being released from a state correctional facility to obtain an original or replacement identification card. This bill would provide a procedure for a patient being released from a state hospital facility to also obtain an original identification card. The bill would remove the requirement that an applicant for a replacement identification card have no outstanding identification card fees and would remove the requirement that an applicant for a replacement identification card have a usable photo on file with the DMV if the applicant has a new photo taken. The bill would require the State Department of State Hospitals to assist the applicant in applying for an identification card, as specified, including assistance with obtaining qualifying documentation. (13) Existing law establishes 5 separate minimum wage schedules for covered health care employees, as defined, depending on the nature of the employer, and makes a violation of these minimum wage requirements a misdemeanor. Existing law requires, for any covered health care facility employer, as defined, with 10,000 or more full-time equivalent employees (FTEE) , as defined, any covered health care facility employer that is a part of an integrated health care delivery system or a health care system with 10,000 or more FTEEs, a covered health care facility employer that is a dialysis clinic or is a person that owns, controls, or operates a dialysis clinic, or a covered health facility owned, affiliated, or operated by a county with a population of more than 5,000,000 as of January 1, 2023, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $23 per hour from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, inclusive, $24 per hour from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, inclusive, and $25 per hour from July 1, 2026, and until as adjusted, as specified. Existing law requires, for any hospital that is a hospital with a high governmental payor mix, an independent hospital with an elevated governmental payor mix, a rural independent covered health care facility, or a covered health care facility that is owned, affiliated, or operated by a county with a population of less than 250,000 as of January 1, 2023, as those terms are defined, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $18 per hour from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2033, inclusive, and $25 per hour from July 1, 2033, and until as adjusted, as specified. Existing law requires, for specified clinics that meet certain requirements, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $21 per hour from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026, inclusive, and $22 per hour from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, inclusive, and $25 from July 1, 2027, and until as adjusted, as specified. Existing law requires, for all other covered health care facility employers, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $21 per hour from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026, inclusive, $23 per hour from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2028, inclusive, and $25 per hour from July 1, 2028, and until as adjusted, as specified. Existing law also separately requires, for a licensed skilled nursing facility, as described, in specified circumstances the minimum wage for certain other covered health care employees, as described, to be $21 per hour from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026, inclusive, $23 per hour from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2028, inclusive, and $25 per hour from July 1, 2028, and until as adjusted, as specified. This bill would provide for a delay of the implementation dates of the above-described minimum wage increases until either of 2 events occur, as specified. (14) Existing law defines various terms for purposes of these provisions relating to minimum wage schedules for covered health care employees, including a covered health care employee, covered health care facility, and full-time equivalent employee. Existing law excludes certain characteristics from the definition of a covered health care employee, including any work performed in the public sector where the primary duties performed are not health care services. Existing law excludes certain entities from the definition of a covered health facility, including a skilled nursing facility owned, controlled, or operated by the state. Existing law defines a full-time equivalent employee as the total paid hours at a covered health care facility, as specified, as per Department of Health Care Access and Information guidance, divided by 2,080. This bill would, instead, exclude from the definition of a covered health care employee any work performed by a public employee where the public employee is not primarily engaged in services, as described, performed for a covered health care facility. For purposes of the definition of a covered health care facility, the bill would, instead, delete the exclusion of a skilled nursing facility owned, controlled, or operated by the State Department of State Hospitals from that definition, and would additionally exclude from that definition any health care facility, as described, that is owned, controlled, or operated by the state or any state agency, as defined, of the executive branch. The bill would define full-time equivalent employee as the total hours paid at a covered health care facility, as specified, divided by 2,080 and would specify the determination of the number of full-time equivalent employees. (15) Existing law requires a health care minimum wage to be enforceable by, among other things, the Labor Commissioner. This bill would require a health care minimum wage to be enforceable by the Labor Commissioner through specified procedures. The bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to amend, supplement, and republish the Industrial Welfare Commission's wage orders to be consistent with these minimum wage provisions, as specified. The bill would require every employer subject to these provisions to post a copy of the order as amended, supplemented, and republished by the Department of Industrial Relations, as specified, and to provide to each employee on the effective date of the earliest minimum wage increase a written notice, as provided. For covered health care employment where the compensation of the employee is on a salary basis, existing law requires the employee to earn a monthly salary equivalent to no less than 150 percent of the health care worker minimum wage or 200 percent of the minimum wage, as described, for full-time employment in order to qualify as exempt from the payment of minimum wage and overtime under state law, including where the employer is the state, a political subdivision of the state, the University of California, or a municipality. This bill would instead qualify an employee as exempt from the payment of minimum wage and overtime, as described above, if the employer is a political subdivision of the state, a health care district, the University of California, or a municipality. (16) Existing law requires the Department of Health Care Access and Information to publish on their internet website a list of all covered health care facility employers, as specified, and a list of all hospitals that qualify as a hospital with a high governmental payor mix, independent hospital with an elevated governmental payor mix, or a rural independent covered health care facility. If a covered health care facility believes that they were inappropriately excluded from the list of hospitals that qualify as a hospital with a high governmental payor mix, independent hospital with an elevated governmental payor mix, or a rural independent covered health care facility, existing law authorizes the health facility to file a request with the Department of Health Care Access and Information to be classified as a hospital with a high governmental payor mix, independent hospital with an elevated governmental payor mix, or a rural independent covered health care facility. Existing law requires the requesting hospital to provide, among other things, the payor mix of the requesting hospital, as specified. This bill would require the lists described above to only include those covered health care facility employers included in the Department of Health Care Access and Information's 2021 Pivot Table, as described. The bill would require the requesting hospital to provide, among other things, the revised Annual Disclosure Report, as provided, that reflects the payor mix of the requesting hospital, as specified. (17) Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations, in collaboration with the State Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Health Care Access and Information, to develop, by March 1, 2024, a waiver program for covered health care facilities, as described, which would authorize a covered health care facility to apply for and receive a temporary pause or alternative phase in the schedule of the health care minimum wage requirements, as specified. In order to obtain a waiver, existing law requires a covered health care facility to demonstrate that compliance with the minimum wage requirements would raise doubts about the covered health care facility's ability to continue as a going concern under generally accepted accounting principles, as specified. In order to obtain a waiver, this bill would instead require a covered health care facility to demonstrate at the time the waiver application is submitted that it includes, among other things, the covered health care facility's, and any parent or affiliated company's, most recent audited financial statements, as specified, and a declaration verifying that the contents of the documents contained in the waiver request are true and correct. The bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to make approved financial information available on its internet website, and would require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to make the audited financial information submitted in conjunction with an approved waiver available on its internet website, as specified. If a waiver is issued, the bill would require any covered health care facility affected by the waiver to, within 10 days of notice from the Department of Industrial Relations, to, among other things, provide to each covered health care employee, a specified written notice, informing the covered health care employee the covered health care facility had applied for and received a one-year waiver of the increase of the minimum wage and stating the applicable minimum wage. The bill would authorize the Department of Industrial Relations and Department of Health Care Access and Information to enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts, or amend existing contracts, on a bid or negotiated basis, for purposes of implementing the minimum wage schedule provisions. By expanding the requirements relating to health care minimum wages, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (18) Existing law authorizes the department to contract with a county to help fund the development or expansion of pretrial diversion, as specified. Existing law requires a county so contracted to quarterly report data and outcomes to the department, regarding those individuals targeted by the contract and in the program. This bill would instead require the county to report monthly, as specified, and would make other conforming changes. (19) Existing law, the Bronzan-McCorquodale Act, contains provisions governing the operation and financing of community mental health services for persons with mental disorders in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs. Under existing law, mental health services are provided through contracts with county mental health programs and the department is authorized to temporarily withhold funds or impose monetary sanctions on a county behavioral health department that is not in compliance with the contract. This bill would require that certain funds collected as a result of sanctions between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2027, be deposited in the General Fund for use, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, for the nonfederal share of Medi-Cal costs for health care services furnished to specified groups. (20) Existing law, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) , an initiative measure enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election, funds a system of county mental health plans for the provision of mental health services. The MHSA establishes the Mental Health Services Fund. Existing law, the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) , approved by the voters as Proposition 1 at the March 5, 2024, statewide primary election, commencing January 1, 2025, revises and recasts the MHSA by, among other things, creating the Behavioral Health Services Fund. Existing law requires that any moneys remaining in the Mental Health Services Fund on January 1, 2025, be transferred to the Behavioral Health Services Fund. This bill would make conforming technical changes consistent with the creation of, and the transfer of moneys to, the Behavioral Health Services Fund, operative January 1, 2025. The bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes. (21) Existing law, the California Special Supplemental Nutrition Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program) , authorizes establishment of a statewide program, administered by the State Department of Public Health, for providing nutritional food supplements to low-income pregnant women, low-income postpartum and lactating women, and low-income infants and children under 5 years of age, who have been determined to be at nutritional risk. Existing law requires the department, in order to effectively manage and administer the federal and state requirements for the vendors in the WIC Program, to establish requirements for peer groups and a corresponding reimbursement system, criteria used for vendor authorization, and WIC Program-authorized foods. Existing law authorizes the department to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions by bulletin or similar instruction. Existing law requires the department to notify and consult with affected stakeholders in the process of implementing, interpreting, or making specific these provisions, and requires the notice to provide opportunity for written comment. Existing law requires any final action to be published on the department's internet website no later than 120 days after the consultation with stakeholders or the last day for comments, whichever is later, and deems the final action withdrawn if the department fails to meet this requirement. This bill would require the department to additionally establish requirements for online shopping and retail food delivery systems. The bill would also require the department to publish the final action no later than 180 days after the consultation with stakeholders or the last day for comments, whichever is later. The bill would authorize the department, without taking regulatory action, to implement, interpret, or make specific all of the above-mentioned provisions by means of all-county letters, plan letters, information notices, provider bulletins, or other similar instruction. The bill would authorize the department to modify or repeal specified WIC Program requirements by bulletin or similar instruction, without taking further regulatory action, if certain criteria are met. (22) Existing law establishes the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, administered by the California Health and Human Services Agency and its departments, as applicable. Under existing law, the purpose of the initiative is to transform the state's behavioral health system into an innovative ecosystem in which all children and youth 25 years of age or younger, regardless of payer, are screened, supported, and served for emerging and existing behavioral health needs. Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services, or a contracted vendor, to provide competitive grants to qualified entities to build partnerships, capacity, and infrastructure supporting ongoing school-linked behavioral health services, among other purposes, for children and youth 25 years of age or younger. For these purposes, existing law requires the department to develop and maintain a school-linked statewide fee schedule for outpatient mental health or substance use disorder treatment provided to a student who is 25 years of age or younger at a schoolsite. Existing law requires the department to develop and maintain a school-linked statewide provider network of schoolsite behavioral health counselors. This bill would authorize the department to contract with an entity to administer the school-linked statewide behavioral health provider network. The bill would require the entity that administers that network to create and administer a process for enrolling and credentialing eligible practitioners and providers and a process for the submission and reimbursement of their claims. The bill would require those practitioners and providers to comply with the enrollment, credentialing, and claims processes. The bill would also require a health care service plan, insurer, or Medi-Cal managed care plan that covers necessary schoolsite services, as specified, to comply with all administrative requirements to cover and reimburse the services set forth by the network administrator. The bill would establish the Behavioral Health Schoolsite Fee Schedule Administration Fund in the State Treasury for specified purposes. The bill would require the department to establish and charge a fee for participating health care service plans, insurers, or Medi-Cal managed care plans to be used to cover the reasonable cost of administering the school-linked behavioral health provider network, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to periodically update the amount and structure of the fee, as specified. The bill would require revenues generated from the fees, less refunds, to be deposited into the fund. This bill would limit the money in the fund to be used upon appropriation by the Legislature, as specified, and would require interest and dividends earned on moneys in the fund to be retained in the fund for specified purposes. (23) Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. This bill would, for dates of service no sooner than July 1, 2024, require the department to establish a directed payment reimbursement methodology, or revise one or more existing directed payment reimbursement methodologies, applicable to children's hospitals, as specified. The bill would require Medi-Cal managed care plans to reimburse children's hospitals in accordance with the requirements of the directed payment arrangement established by the department and any guidance issued by the department to implement these provisions. The bill would, commencing no sooner than July 1, 2024, continuously appropriate $115,000,000 on an annual basis to the department from the General Fund to support payments implemented pursuant to these provisions. The bill would authorize the department to reduce the amount of reimbursements, as specified, if the Protect Access to Healthcare Act of 2024 is approved by the voters and if children's hospitals receive increased reimbursement rates or payments under certain provisions. The bill would include related legislative intent with regard to these provisions. (24) Existing law imposes a managed care organization (MCO) provider tax, administered and assessed by the department, on licensed health care service plans and managed care plans contracted with the department. Under existing law, proceeds from the taxes are available, upon appropriation, for the purpose of funding specified subcomponents to support the Medi-Cal program, including certain payments to Medi-Cal managed care plan and transfers to the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Reserve Fund. Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation, to use moneys transferred to that fund for purposes of funding targeted increases to Medi-Cal payments or other investments, as specified. This bill would remove, as one of the designated expenditures from that fund, a $75,000,000 annual transfer to the University of California for expanding graduate medical education programs. The bill would instead add, as designated expenditures from that fund, a $40,000,000 transfer to support workforce investments, increased costs relating to continuous eligibility for children up to 5 years of age as described below, and departmental administrative costs for implementing the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Increases and Investments (PPI) Act described below. Under the bill, increased costs for targeted increases would instead be made pursuant to the PPI Act. The bill would repeal those additions if specified provisions relating to the MCO provider tax are approved by the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election. If those specified provisions are approved by the voters, the bill would instead remove, as a designated expenditure, increased costs for targeted increases to Medi-Cal payments or other investments based on a plan submitted by the department to the Legislature as part of the 2024–25 Governor's Budget. The bill would repeal provisions regarding that plan. Under the bill, community health workers would be an eligible provider type for rate increases specified in related provisions under existing law. (25) Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation, to establish a supplemental payment pool for nonhospital 340B community clinics, relating to discount drug purchasing. This bill would require the department to establish and implement a directed payment program under which a qualifying nonhospital 340B community clinic may earn payments from contracted Medi-Cal managed care plans, subject to an appropriation and any necessary federal approvals. The bill would set forth the criteria and methodologies for that program, including links to the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Reserve Fund. Under the bill, for any calendar year in which this program is implemented, neither the department nor a Medi-Cal managed care plan would be required to make the payments specified in the above-described supplemental payment pool. The bill would make conforming changes by repealing the supplemental payment pool-related provisions if certain conditions are met. (26) This bill would establish the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Increases and Investments (PPI) Act in order to, among other things, improve access to high-quality care for Medi-Cal members and promote provider participation in the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the department to seek federal approval for various PPI components, including reimbursement increases for professional services, ground emergency medical transport services, abortion services, family planning services, and certain other applicable services, for updating the reimbursement methodology for optional hearing aid benefits, for eliminating certain rate reductions as described below, and for increases to the amount of directed payments for qualifying nonhospital 340B community clinics as described above. The bill would set forth various provisions to implement those PPI components, including reimbursement methodologies and procedures involving Medi-Cal managed care plans. Under the bill, payments implemented under PPI would be supported by MCO provider tax revenue or other state funds appropriated by the Legislature, as specified. Except for the portion related to abortion services, the bill would condition PPI implementation on receipt of any necessary federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation. If a later enacted statute restricts the availability of moneys, including with regard to the MCO provider tax, the bill would require the department to implement PPI or related provisions to the extent that the department determines PPI remains feasible, as specified. The bill would authorize the Director of Health Care Services to make any necessary modifications, as specified. (27) Existing law sets forth various Medi-Cal payment reductions by specified percentages, including a 10% reduction, for certain services and providers. This bill would make an exception to some of those payment reductions for physician and professional services, and for abortion services, subject to implementation of the related PPI provisions described above. (28) Existing law establishes the Healthy Families Program, the Medi-Cal Access Program, and the County Children's Health Initiative Program. Existing law sets forth provisions, operative on January 1, 2025, or as otherwise specified, for the continuous eligibility of an applicable child under those programs up to 5 years of age. This bill would shift implementation of that continuous eligibility from 2025 to 2026. The bill would also make some changes to the implementation criteria for that continued eligibility. (29) Under this bill, if specified provisions relating to the MCO provider tax are approved by the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, most of the changes made by the bill to the provisions listed in paragraphs (24) through (28) would become inoperative, as specified. (30) Existing law requires, for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency period, the State Department of Health Care Services to implement any federal Medicaid program waiver or flexibility approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services related to that emergency. Existing law requires, upon expiration of the COVID-19 emergency period and subject to any necessary federal approvals, the department to continue to reimburse the administration of a COVID-19 vaccine at 100% of the Medicare national equivalent rate in effect at the time of vaccine administration without geographic adjustment. This bill would instead require the department to align COVID-19 vaccine administration payments to payment reimbursement structures for vaccines administered in accordance with the Medi-Cal State Plan. (31) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services, subject to federal approval, to establish and implement a program or programs under which a designated public hospital system or a district and municipal public hospital, as defined, may earn performance-based quality incentive payments from the Medi-Cal managed care plan with which they contract, as specified. Existing law requires the department, subject to federal approval, to require each Medi-Cal managed care plan to increase contract services payments to designated public hospital systems by amounts determined under a directed payment methodology that meets certain federal requirements. This bill would also apply the requirement for increased directed payments to district and municipal public hospitals commencing with the 2023 calendar year. The bill would make certain changes to the directed payment methodology and would make conforming changes to related provisions. Under existing law, the nonfederal share of the portion of the capitation rates specifically associated with directed payments and for the quality incentive payments may consist of voluntary intergovernmental transfers (IGTs) of funds provided by the hospitals and their affiliated governmental entities, or other public entities, as specified. Existing law prohibits the department from assessing a specified fee on an IGT or any other similar fee. This bill would remove that prohibition on a fee assessment and would instead authorize the department to assess a fee not to exceed 5% on IGTs to reimburse the department for the administrative costs of operating the programs under these provisions and for the support of the Medi-Cal program. The bill would make various other changes to related provisions with regard to, among other things, fiscal or rate years during which payments are made. (32) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services, subject to federal approval, to design and implement an IGT program, with voluntary participation, relating to Medi-Cal managed care services provided by nondesignated public hospitals, as defined, in order to increase capitation payments for the purpose of increasing their reimbursement. Existing law requires that the increased capitation payments be actuarially equivalent to the increased fee-for-service payments made pursuant to a certain other IGT program to the extent permissible under federal law. This bill would repeal the above-described provisions relating to capitation payments. (33) Existing law establishes the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, subject to federal approval, to follow the predecessor California Medi-Cal 2020 Demonstration Project. Under CalAIM, a designated public hospital is defined as any one of the hospitals identified in the California Medi-Cal 2020 Demonstration Project, and any successor, that is operated by a county, a city and county, the University of California, or a special hospital authority, or any additional public hospital to the extent identified as a designated public hospital in the CalAIM Terms and Conditions. This bill would make various changes to the definition of a designated public hospital, including changes to the name or scope of certain hospitals and the addition of other hospitals. (34) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to establish and maintain a plan, known as the County Administrative Cost Control Plan, whereby costs for county administration of the determination of eligibility for Medi-Cal benefits are effectively controlled within the amounts annually appropriated for that administration. Existing law expresses the intent of the Legislature not to appropriate funds for certain cost-of-doing-business adjustments, as described, for specified fiscal years. This bill would additionally express the intent of the Legislature not to appropriate funds for the cost-of-doing-business adjustment for the 2024–25 to 2027–28, inclusive, fiscal years. (35) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services, upon appropriation, to establish a clinic workforce stabilization retention payment program under Medi-Cal to provide funds to eligible qualified clinics, as defined, to make retention payments to their eligible employees for the public purposes of providing stability in the California qualified clinic workforce and retaining qualified health care workers. To the extent that any appropriated funds remain after the department has distributed funds to eligible qualified clinics for employee retention payments, existing law requires that those excess funds be used for qualified clinic workforce training, as described below. Under existing law, upon the order of the Director of Finance, any retention payment funding returned under related provisions or unexpended funds left over from a specified appropriation in the Budget Act of 2022 are transferred and available for expenditure or encumbrance through June 30, 2028, to fund workforce development programs that support primary care in clinics, as specified. This bill would delete the provisions that require that excess funds be used for qualified clinic workforce training and the provisions that require the transfer of returned or unexpended funds and their availability for workforce development programs. (36) Existing law establishes the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, administered by the Department of Health Care Access and Information, in order to provide interest-free cashflow loans to not-for-profit hospitals and public hospitals in significant financial distress or to governmental entities representing a closed hospital, except as otherwise provided, to prevent the closure of, or facilitate the reopening of, those hospitals. Existing law establishes the Distressed Hospital Loan Program Fund, with moneys in the fund being continuously appropriated for the department. Existing law authorizes the Department of Finance to transfer up to $150,000,000 from the General Fund and up to $150,000,000 from the Medi-Cal Provider Payment Reserve Fund to the Distressed Hospital Loan Program Fund in state fiscal year 2023–24 to implement the program. Existing law authorizes the department to allocate an amount not to exceed 5% of total program funds to administer the program, as specified. Existing law requires any funds transferred to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2026. This bill would instead require any funds transferred to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until December 31, 2031. By extending the amount of time continuously appropriated funds are available for encumbrance and expenditure, the bill would make an appropriation. (37) Existing law creates the California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) , which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, to provide major risk medical coverage through participating health plans to eligible residents of the state who are unable to secure adequate private health care coverage. If a health care service plan or health insurer rejects a dependent to be added to an individual grandfathered health plan, rejects an applicant for a Medicare supplement policy due to the applicant having end-stage renal disease, or offers an individual grandfathered health plan to an applicant at a rate that is higher than the standard rate, existing law requires the plan or insurer to inform the applicant about MRMIP. This bill would require the department to cease to provide coverage through MRMIP on December 31, 2024. The bill would require the department to direct participating health plans to inform subscribers of the transition of coverage at specified intervals, complete payments to, or payment reconciliations with, participating health plans or other contractors, process appeals, and conduct other necessary termination activities. Upon request of the California Health Benefit Exchange (HBEX) the bill would require the department to disclose information to HBEX to assist MRMIP subscribers to transition to coverage through HBEX, as specified. Commencing November 1, 2024, and ending when the transition of coverage is complete, the bill would require the department to provide monthly updates to the Assembly Committees on Health and Budget and the Senate Committees on Health and Budget and Fiscal Review about the transition of subscribers. The bill would require a plan or insurer that rejects an above-described application or makes an above-described offer to inform the applicant about MRMIP only if the rejection or offer is before July 1, 2024. Existing law establishes the Major Risk Medical Insurance Fund and the Health Care Services Plan Fines and Penalties Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the funds, except as specified, to the department for purposes of MRMIP. Existing law also establishes the Managed Care Administrative Fines and Penalties Fund, from which certain amounts are to be transferred to the Health Care Services Plan Fines and Penalties Fund and continuously appropriated to the department for purposes of MRMIP. This bill would instead continuously appropriate moneys in the Health Care Services Plan Fines and Penalties Fund to fund the nonfederal share of health care services for children, adults, seniors, persons with disabilities, and dual-eligible beneficiaries in the Medi-Cal program. By changing the purposes of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (38) Existing law establishes the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to promote transformational change in California's behavioral health system, among other things. Beginning January 1, 2025, existing law requires the commission to have an Executive Director, who is responsible for management over the administrative, fiscal, and program performance of the commission. Existing law requires the commission to award grants to county mental health or behavioral health departments to fund partnerships between educational and county mental health entities. Existing law authorizes the commission to exclusive or nonexclusive contracts, or amend existing contracts, on a bid or negotiated basis to implement that requirement. Until January 1, 2025, existing law exempts those contracts from contracting requirements applicable only to state contracts. This bill would extend that exemption from contracting requirements indefinitely. The bill would authorize the commission to delegate to the Executive Director any power, duty, purpose, function, or jurisdiction that the commission may lawfully delegate, and would authorize the Executive Director to redelegate, as specified. Beginning January 1, 2025, existing law creates the Behavioral Health Services Act Innovation Partnership Fund in the State Treasury to fund a program, administered by the commission, to award grants to private, public, and nonprofit partners to promote development of innovative mental health and substance use disorder programs and practices. This bill would authorize private donations or grants, federal or state grants, any interest on amounts in the fund, and moneys previously allocated that are returned to the fund, as specified, to be paid into the fund. (39) Existing law authorizes the State Public Health Officer, to the extent allowable under federal law, and upon the availability of funds, to expend money from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Rebate Fund for the HIV infection prevention program to cover the costs of prescribed ADAP formulary medications for the prevention of HIV infection and other specified costs. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program Rebate Fund is a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would, to the extent that the activities are an allowable use of the funds, authorize the State Department of Public Health to spend up to $23,000,000 to conduct other programs and grants related to the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS, such as increase the financial eligibility standards for ADAP, modify the ADAP formulary, and to create, develop, or contract for needs assessment analysis, as specified, among others. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to report to the Legislature a plan for modernization and expansion of ADAP, as described. By adding to the purposes of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (40) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (41) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

(1) The Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent to administer all California state preschool programs, including, but not limited to, part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. The act establishes eligibility criteria for those children. This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop and implement a streamlined request for application process for existing California state preschool program contractors to be awarded new California state preschool program slots and would require the State Department of Education to collaborate with the State Department of Social Services to ensure the request for application process is, where applicable, similar to the streamlined request for application process in the general childcare and development program. The bill would make certain contractors ineligible for the streamlined request for application process if any of specified conditions are met. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with the State Department of Social Services, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service, for California state preschool program contractors, as provided. Existing law requires each applicant or contracting agency to give priority for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs according to a specified priority order. Existing law establishes adjustment factors applicable to the reimbursement a contractor receives in order to reflect the additional expense of serving full-day and part-day preschool children who meet certain criteria and requires the adjustment factor for children who are 47 months or younger to be 1.8, as provided. This bill, until July 1, 2027, would authorize, but not require, a California state preschool contractor operating a part-day, full-day, or both part- and full-day California state preschool program to enroll interested eligible 2-year-old children, as defined, and would make conforming changes. The bill, on or after July 1, 2027, would prohibit a contractor from serving any 2-year-old children, unless the contractor was serving those 2-year-old children before July 1, 2027, as provided. The bill, until July 1, 2027, would instead require the adjustment factor for 2-year-old and 3-year-old children to be 1.8, as provided. The bill would provide that children enrolled in kindergarten who meet other specified criteria are eligible for a part-day California state preschool program. (2) The act, until June 30, 2025, requires at least 5% of part-day and full-day California state preschool program contracting agency's funded enrollment to be reserved for children with exceptional needs. The act requires, commencing July 1, 2025, at least 7.5% and, commencing July 1, 2026, at least 10% of a part-day and full-day preschool program contracting agency's funded enrollment to be reserved for children with exceptional needs, as provided. This bill would delete the above provisions relating to the 7.5% and 10% reservations for children with exceptional needs in part-day and full-day California state preschool programs and would instead indefinitely extend the provision relating to the 5% reservation for children with exceptional needs in part-day and full-day California state preschool programs. The bill would also make conforming changes. (3) The act requires each applicant or contracting agency to give priority for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs according to a specified priority order, including, as the 4th priority category, children from low-income families, as provided. This bill would revise and recast the above provisions relating to the 4th priority category for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs to, among other things, provide that within the 4th priority category for children from low-income families, after children with exceptional needs are enrolled, 3- and 4-year-old children without exceptional needs shall be enrolled in income ranking order, as provided. The bill would, until July 1, 2027, establish a new 4th priority category for certain 2-year-old children, as provided. (4) The act establishes the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program with the goal of expanding access universally to preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-old children, as provided. The act requires the Superintendent to develop and administer a grant process and award grant funds to each county that applies, as provided. The act provides, to the extent funds are available in the annual Budget Act for the 2023–24 and 2024–25 fiscal years, that existing grantees shall be eligible to apply for a renewal grant, as provided. This bill would also provide that newly formed consortia of current grantees or individual counties who participated as a grantee in a former consortium for the grant are eligible to apply for a renewal grant, as provided. (5) The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. Existing law exempts information regarding childcare providers from the disclosure exemptions of the act, except as specified. This bill would make technical and conforming changes to these provisions as they pertain to family childcare providers. (6) Existing law generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate various types of child daycare facilities, including, among others, child daycare facilities. Under existing law, a willful or repeated violation of those provisions is a crime. Existing law requires the director of the State Department of Social Services to annually publish and make available to interested persons a list or lists covering all child daycare facilities, other than small family childcare homes, and the services for which each facility has been licensed or issued a special permit. To encourage the recruitment of small family childcare homes and protect their personal privacy, existing law requires the department to prevent the use of lists containing names, addresses, and other identifying information of facilities identified as small family childcare homes, except as necessary for administering the licensing program, facilitating the placement of children in these facilities, and providing the names and addresses to specified programs. Existing law also authorizes parents seeking local daycare services to receive the names and telephone numbers of local small family childcare providers. This bill would make a technical conforming change to replace the term "small family childcare homes" with "small family daycare homes." The bill would revise the provisions described above by instead authorizing the department to disclose specified information relating to small family daycare homes to individuals and entities, including, but not limited to, consumer education internet websites available to the public and parents, legal guardians, and caregivers seeking daycare services for purposes of facilitating the placement of children in small family daycare homes. The bill would authorize the department to require an individual or entity to maintain the confidentiality of any information provided pursuant to these provisions and would also authorize the department to deny any individual or entity that violates those regulations access to information on small family daycare homes. The bill would require the department to report any violating individuals or entities to the appropriate funding or licensing agency. By expanding the definition of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to administer childcare and development programs that offer a full range of services to eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age, inclusive. Existing law appropriates $739,025,000 in federal funds to the State Department of Education to, upon order of the Department of Finance, be transferred to the State Department of Social Services for the purpose of expanding childcare access by funding additional slots under the alternative payment program and the general childcare and development program in the 2021–22 and 2022–23 fiscal years. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to add approximately 206,800 new childcare slots above the slot levels funded during the 2020–21 fiscal year, in accordance with a specified distribution. The bill would state that funding to programs has been added by the state as of May 15, 2024, resulting in an award of an estimated 118,800 new slots, as specified. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the remaining slots that have not been added and awarded as of January 1, 2024, may follow a specified distribution in certain fiscal years. The bill would require, subject to appropriation, that any unawarded slots be distributed in each subsequent fiscal year. The bill would require the department to release at least one request for applications, and to announce awards, as specified. The bill would require the department to annually revise the number of added and awarded slots based on final awardee data. To the extent that updated slot estimates fall below the listed total slot levels, and subject to appropriation, the bill would require the department to add, award, and put into contract additional slots to maintain total slot levels, to the extent requested. (8) Existing law authorizes, for purposes of implementation of state or federal legislation to expand childcare services, the department to waive regulations regarding the point qualifications for, and the process and scoring of, interviews of contract applicants, or the time limitations for scheduling and notification of appeal hearings and their results. This bill would additionally authorize the department to utilize an alternative application process to evaluate the ability and standing of existing contractors in determining allocation methodology and eligibility for funding. The bill would require the department to develop and implement a streamlined request for application process for current childcare and development program contractors to award new childcare and development program contracts. The bill would specify that certain current contractors are ineligible to participate in that streamlined process, including contractors who are on conditional status because of fiscal or programmatic noncompliance. The bill would also authorize the department to consider scoring criteria as necessary to award contracts. (9) Existing federal law establishes the Child Care and Development Fund authorized under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 and administered by states to provide assistance to low-income families who need childcare due to specified reasons. Existing federal regulations require a portion of those funds to be used on specified activities to improve the quality of childcare. This bill would require the department to provide, no later than May 14, 2025, and no later than May 14 every year thereafter, specified committees with a proposed list of the quality improvement activities, including funding totals by activity, that will be funded in the next fiscal year with the funds from the federal Child Care and Development Fund. (10) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates. Existing law requires the state and Child Care Providers United - California to establish a Joint Labor Management Committee to develop recommendations for a single reimbursement rate structure that addresses quality standards for equity and accessibility while supporting positive learning and developmental outcomes for children, as specified. Existing law also requires the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to develop and conduct an alternative methodology, as specified, in order to set reimbursement rates for state-subsidized childcare and development services. Existing law requires the department to, by no later than July 1, 2024, submit necessary information to support use of a single rate structure utilizing the alternative methodology to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families in the Child Care and Development Fund state plan or an amendment to the state plan. Within 60 days of federal approval of the single rate structure utilizing the alternative methodology, existing law requires the department to provide specified committees of the Legislature and the Legislative Analyst's Office with an outline of the implementation components for the approved single rate structure. This bill would instead require the department to provide the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees and Legislative Analyst's Office with a report that outlines the implementation components for the approved single rate structure. The bill would require the report to include the department's plan to set new reimbursement rates under the alternative methodology by no later than July 1, 2025, and the estimated costs and estimated timelines associated with the implementation components, as specified. The bill would also require the department to, beginning October 1, 2024, until January 1, 2026, provide the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees and the Legislative Analyst's Office with quarterly updates on the implementation of the new reimbursement rates, as specified. The bill would require the Governor and the Legislature to, by no later than July 1, 2025, establish reimbursement rates based on the alternative methodology. If the new reimbursement rates established by the Governor and the Legislature do not take effect on July 1, 2025, the bill would require the department to provide the Legislature with a timeline for transitioning from the rates that are in effect on July 1, 2025, to the new reimbursement rates, as specified. The bill would also prohibit the new reimbursement rates established by the Governor and the Legislature, or any temporary reimbursement established by the department as part of a transition timeline, from being reduced from reimbursement rates that were in effect on June 30, 2024, as specified. (11) The bill would appropriate $328,000 in specified funds from the Federal Trust Fund to allow the State Department of Social Services to assist the California Health and Human Services Agency with the administration of the Preschool Development Grant. (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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (13) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

The Budget Act of 2023 made appropriations for the support of state government for the 2023–24 fiscal year. This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2023 by amending and adding items of appropriation and making other changes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a Budget Bill.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Existing law, until January 1, 2025, exempts from the requirements of CEQA projects that conserve, restore, protect, or enhance, and assist in the recovery of California native fish and wildlife and the habitat upon which they depend and projects that restore or provide habitat for California native fish and wildlife, as provided. Existing law requires the lead agency to obtain the concurrence of the Director of Fish and Wildlife for the exemption determination. Existing law requires the lead agency to file a notice of exemption within 48 hours of making a determination that a project is exempt from CEQA with the Office of Planning and Research and requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to post the director's concurrence on its internet website. This bill would extend the above-described exemption from the requirements of CEQA by 5 years to instead be until January 1, 2030. By extending the duties of the lead agency in implementing the exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, known as the State Capitol Building Annex Act of 2016 (annex act) , authorizes the Joint Rules Committee to pursue the construction of a state capitol building annex or the restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction of the existing State Capitol Building Annex. Existing law states that it is the intent of the Legislature that all available cash sources, as described, be used to fund the projects authorized under a specified provision of the annex act. Existing law establishes the State Project Infrastructure Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund for state projects and specified other purposes, including for transferring to the Operating Funds of the Assembly and Senate to be used for the capital outlay projects specified in the annex act, as specified. For works undertaken pursuant to the State Capitol Building Annex Act of 2016 or the State Office Building Act of 2018, existing law requires the environmental review under CEQA be conducted in a specified manner and requires an action or proceeding alleging that a public agency has approved or is undertaking those works in violation of CEQA to be subject to the Judicial Council rule of court requiring the action or proceeding, including any appeals, be resolved, to the extent feasible within 270 days of the certification of the record of proceedings. This bill would repeal those provisions related to environmental and judicial reviews of those works and would expressly provide that works performed under the State Capitol Building Annex Act of 2016 are exempt from CEQA. The bill would make conforming changes to the State Office Building Act of 2018. This bill would appropriate a total of $700,000,000 from the General Fund over 3 fiscal years, starting with the 2024–25 fiscal year, as specified, to fund the acquisition, design, construction, and equipping of projects authorized by the annex act and would require the amount appropriated for each fiscal year to be transferred to the State Project Infrastructure Fund, as provided. The bill would require the Director of Finance to augment the appropriated amounts in any fiscal year with a corresponding reduction in the subsequent fiscal year or years if needed to provide timely payments for those purposes and upon receipt of an amended transfer schedule provided by the Joint Rules Committee. The bill would require the Joint Rules Committee to confer with the Department of Finance and the Department of General Services or their designated representatives before submitting the amended transfer schedule. The bill would, upon the transfers of the appropriated amounts or the augmented amount specified in the amended transfer schedule, if any, require the Director of Finance to direct the Controller to transfer the entirety of the amount to the Operating Funds of the Assembly and Senate. The bill would, upon the transfer of $700,000,000 from the State Project Infrastructure Fund to the General Fund, as provided, require all remaining amounts in the State Project Infrastructure Fund be transferred to the Operating Funds of the Assembly and Senate for capital outlay projects specified in the annex act. This bill would declare the severability of its provisions. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to exempt from taxation, in whole or in part, property that is used exclusively for religious, hospital, or charitable purposes, and is owned or held in trust by a nonprofit entity. Pursuant to this constitutional authority, existing law partially exempts, as described, from property taxation property that is used exclusively for rental housing and related facilities and that is owned and operated by specified entities if any of specified criteria are met. Under existing law, one of those criteria requires, except in the case of a limited partnership in which the managing general partner is a nonprofit corporation eligible for the exemption, that 90% or more of the occupants of the property be lower income households whose rents do not exceed the rent limits prescribed by a specified law. Existing law limits the total exemption amount allowed to a taxpayer under that criteria, with respect to a single property or multiple properties for any fiscal year on the sole basis of the application of that criterion, to $20,000,000 of assessed value. This bill would remove, for the 2024–25 fiscal year through the 2028–29 fiscal year, the above-described limit on the total exemption amount for any property for which a claim is filed and granted if, in addition to the above-described requirement, at least 90% of the property's units are made continuously available to, as defined, or are occupied by lower income households, as defined, at a rent that does not exceed the rent for lower income households, as prescribed by specified law, the property is owned and operated by an eligible nonprofit corporation, and the claimant provides an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, that any additional moneys that would have been used to pay any ad valorem property taxes on the property if not for the removal of the exemption cap will be used for the construction or rehabilitation of single or multifamily residential units on specified properties. The bill would require the claimant seeking an exemption pursuant to the bill's provisions to provide to the county assessor any additional documents and materials requested by the county assessor necessary to evaluate the claimant's eligibility for the exemption. The bill would also provide that the claimant is liable for property tax for the years for which the property received the bill's tax benefit if single or multifamily residential units were not constructed or rehabilitated or were not in the course of construction or rehabilitation by specified dates, as specified. By expanding the crime of perjury and imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include findings and reporting requirements in compliance with this requirement. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

This bill urges the United States Congress to set a limit on deferred compensation, which allows high-income earners to postpone receiving money and potentially avoid state taxes on those funds. The proposal is driven by concerns that the current system creates tax inequality, citing a specific baseball player's contract as an example of how large sums can be deferred to reduce tax liability. By requesting a federal cap, the measure aims to ensure a more balanced tax structure for all income levels while maintaining state revenue. The resolution does not change California law directly but instead asks the federal government to address the issue through new legislation.

The California Constitution declares that all property is taxable and establishes or authorizes various exemptions from tax for real property, including a homeowners' exemption in the amount of $7,000 of the full value of a dwelling that may be applied unless the dwelling receives another real property exemption. The California Constitution and existing property tax law establish a veterans' exemption in the amount of $4,000, as specified, for a veteran who meets certain military service requirements, and generally exempts from property taxation the same value of property of a deceased veteran's unmarried spouse and parents. The California Constitution and existing property tax law establish a disabled veterans' exemption in the amount of $100,000 or $150,000 for the principal place of residence of a veteran or a veteran's spouse, as specified. Existing property tax law establishing the homeowners' exemption specifies that the exemption may not be applied to a property on which the owner receives the veterans' exemption. This bill would provide that if Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 is approved by the voters at the statewide general election scheduled for November 5, 2024, then commencing January 1, 2025, notwithstanding that prohibition, the homeowners' exemption also applies to property on which an owner receives the veterans' exemption or the disabled veterans' exemption. By imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy. Existing law contains provisions related to elections and voting, including a requirement that a constitutional amendment submitted to the people by the Legislature shall appear on the ballot of the first statewide election occurring at least 131 days after the adoption of the proposal by the Legislature and that the Secretary of State mail state voter information guides to voters. This bill would require the Secretary of State, notwithstanding specified provisions of existing law relating to elections and voting, to submit Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 of the 2023–24 Regular Session to the voters for their approval at the statewide general election scheduled for November 5, 2024.

Existing law establishes the practices and procedures for the issuance of an original or a renewal of a driver's license. The federal Military Selective Service Act requires specified persons to register with the United States Selective Service System. This bill would, commencing at the completion of the Digital eXperience Platform Project or on January 1, 2027, whichever is later, require a person who is required to be registered under the federal act and who submits an application for a driver's license, identification card, or renewal to be deemed to have consented to registration with the United States Selective Service System, as provided. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to include specified notices on an application for a driver's license, identification card, or renewal and would require the department to forward the necessary personal information required for registration to the United States Selective Service System in an electronic format. The bill would prohibit the department from making or distributing a list of individuals who did not consent to registration with the United States Selective Service System, as specified. This bill would require the department to solicit federal funds to implement these provisions and, if it receives that funding, to report to the Legislature and post specific information on its internet website, as specified.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations. This bill would require each electrical corporation to provide distribution planning data, as defined, to development project applicants, energizing entities, as defined, and public entities in a timely and efficient manner. The bill would require the PUC to require each electrical corporation to develop and make publicly available uniform technical standards and requirements for the energization of electrical load on the distribution system and information about its distribution system interconnection queue necessary for the energization of electrical load. The bill would require each electrical corporation that has filed a wholesale distribution tariff with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to offer service under that tariff to the state, an agency, authority, or instrumentality of the state, or a political subdivision to transmit electricity that those public entities consume or sell directly to an ultimate consumer, as provided. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because a violation of a PUC action implementing the bill would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law, the State Aeronautics Act, governs various matters relative to aviation in the state, and authorizes the Department of Transportation to adopt, administer, and enforce rules and regulations for the administration of the act. A violation of the State Aeronautics Act is a crime. This bill would prohibit a public airport that provides commercial services from entering into an agreement that authorizes a private third-party vendor that provides expedited security screening to use the standard security lane or the Transportation Security Administration PreCheck security lane. The bill would provide that this prohibition does not apply if there was an agreement between the public airport and the private third-party vendor that was entered into before January 1, 2025. The bill would also provide that the prohibition does not apply to an agreement between a public airport and a private third-party vendor if the private third-party vendor has obtained dedicated Transportation Security Administration security lanes solely for use by the private third-party vendor at that public airport. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.