Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of professional engineers and land surveyors by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law prohibits a person from representing himself or herself as an engineer, as described by various titles, unless the person is licensed as an engineer. Existing law makes a violation of those prohibitions a misdemeanor. This bill would additionally prohibit a person from using the title "environmental engineer" unless the person is licensed as an engineer. The bill would provide legislative findings and declarations in support of the licensure of environmental engineers in California. The bill would set forth the intent of the Legislature that the board be responsible for defining environmental engineering through rulemaking and that the board adopt standardized examination materials applicable to environmental engineering, as specified. By expanding the scope of an existing 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 contains legislative findings and declarations stating that advanced placement courses, among other things, help to improve the overall curriculum at schools where they are provided and provide a cost-effective means for high school pupils to obtain college-level coursework experience. This bill would establish the Advanced Placement STEM Access Grant Program, to be administered by the State Department of Education, for purposes of awarding grants of up to $8,000 to eligible school districts to cover the costs of establishing or expanding a high school advanced placement STEM curriculum, as defined. The bill would specify that the program is to be implemented only if moneys are made available to the department from state and nonstate funding sources for purposes of the program. The bill would establish the Advanced Placement STEM Access Grant Program Account within the State Treasury for purposes of awarding grants pursuant to the program. The bill's provisions would be repealed on January 1, 2022.
Existing law prohibits the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing a commercial driver's license to any person to operate a commercial motor vehicle unless the person has passed a written and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with the minimum standards established by the federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 and specified federal regulations, and has satisfied all other requirements of that act as well as any other requirements imposed by state law. This bill, commencing January 1, 2018, would also require a person to successfully complete a course of instruction from a commercial driver training institution or program offered by an employer with an approved course of instruction that has been certified by the department before he or she is issued a commercial driver's license, except as specified. The bill would require the course of instruction to include, at a minimum, standards necessary to ensure a driver is proficient in safely operating a commercial vehicle. This bill would also require a commercial driver's license applicant to successfully complete a written and driving test, as specified. Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides for the regulation of private postsecondary educational institutions by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act exempts an institution from its provision if any of a list of specific criteria are met. This bill, commencing January 1, 2018, would remove the exemption from the provisions of the act for an institution that is certified by the Department of Motor Vehicles to offer a course of instruction to prepare students to obtain a commercial driver's license, thereby making the act applicable to the institution.
Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and authorizes local educational agencies throughout the state to operate schools and provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing regulations require schools to have their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems inspected at least annually. This bill would require the most recent date of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system inspection report and information on how the report may be obtained to be posted on the Internet Web site of certain local educational agencies. The bill would also state related findings and declarations of the Legislature. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
Existing law authorizes various state entities to adopt, amend, or repeal regulations for various specified purposes. The Administrative Procedure Act requires the Office of Administrative Law and a state agency proposing to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation to review the proposed changes for, among other things, consistency with existing state regulations. This bill would, until January 1, 2019, require each state agency to, on or before January 1, 2018, review that agency's regulations, identify any regulations that are duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date, to revise those identified regulations, as provided, and report to the Legislature and Governor, as specified.
The School Safety Violence Protection Act establishes the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program, which is administered by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the purpose of providing grant funding to schools and school districts to promote school safety and violence prevention programs among children and youth in the public schools. This bill would authorize the Superintendent to consult with the Board of State and Community Corrections, the State Department of Social Services, and the State Department of Public Health on school violence prevention and intervention in order to carry out one or more of the purposes of the programs established under the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program. Existing law authorizes a state agency to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and requires the department to issue specialized license plates for that program, if the state agency complies with specified requirements. This bill would require the State Department of Education to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of creating a specialized license plate program. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles, after deducting its administrative costs, to deposit the fees collected from the sale of the specialized license plates in the School Violence Prevention Fund, which the bill would establish, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the State Department of Education in order to carry out one or more of the purposes of the programs established under the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program, or as determined by the State Department of Education for purposes of school violence prevention. The bill would require moneys allocated from the fund to the State Department of Education to be available for both charter and noncharter public schools.
The California Constitution requires that a person reside within the legislative district for which he or she seeks election as a Member of the Legislature for one year immediately preceding the election. This bill would permit a candidate for Member of the Legislature to file a statement with the Secretary of State in which the candidate voluntarily agrees that, if elected, he or she will continue to reside within the district from which he or she was elected during his or her term of office. The bill would authorize the Secretary of State to post on his or her Internet Web site voluntary statements of continuing residency filed with the secretary, as described above.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law establishes a financial and professional development grant funding program, which authorizes the governing board of a community college district to apply to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges for, and requires the chancellor to distribute, multiyear financial and professional development grant funding to community colleges within the district. Existing law requires colleges receiving these funds to adopt or expand the use of evidence-based models of academic assessment and placement, remediation, and student support that accelerate the progress of underprepared students toward achieving postsecondary educational and career goals, as specified. Existing law requires recipient community colleges to report specified information to the chancellor's office on program outcomes. Existing law makes the chancellor's office responsible for administering the grant program and distributing and monitoring awards to recipient community college districts, developing application criteria, administrative guidelines, and other requirements for purposes of administering the grant program, and providing the information submitted by community college districts to the Legislative Analyst's Office. Existing law requires the Legislative Analyst's Office to report to the Legislature on the progress of the grant program in achieving its prescribed purpose, as specified. This bill would require a community college district, in order to receive grant funding, to submit a plan to the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges that details the strategy of a college or colleges within the district for achieving the goals of the program. The bill would require a district to specify in the plan, at a minimum, the number of students to be served, strategies to be employed, and projected results for the plan's implementation. The bill would also require the chancellor's office to determine levels of funding to be awarded to grant recipients, and would authorize the chancellor's office to contract with technical assistance providers to assist applicant and recipient colleges in developing and implementing these evidence-based models of academic assessment and placement, remediation, and student support, as specified.
Existing law authorizes a state agency to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and requires the DMV to issue those license plates if the agency receives 7,500 applications within a 12-month period, among other requirements. Existing law requires those license plates to have a design or contain a message that publicizes or promotes the state agency, or the official policy, mission, or work of the state agency. Existing law requires the DMV to charge certain additional fees for specialized license plates and deposit those fees in the Specialized License Plate Fund for allocation to the sponsoring agency, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to apply to the DMV to sponsor a license plate program for the issuance of license plates bearing the officially licensed logo, emblem, or trademark provided by a California professional sports franchise, upon entering into a memorandum of understanding with the franchise to participate in the program. The bill would authorize the department to increase the additional fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of the specialized license plate for each specialized license plate program sponsored pursuant to these provisions, and would require the revenue generated from the license plates to be deposited, as specified, into the California State Parks Account created by the bill in the Specialized License Plate Fund, for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the California State Parks Office of Grants and Local Services, for funding local parks and recreation grant programs, and into the California Professional Sports Franchise Nonprofit Organization Account created by the bill in the Specialized License Plate Fund, for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the nonprofit organization identified in the memorandum of understanding, for funding charitable purposes of the nonprofit organization.
Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and under the supervision of the Director of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies. Existing law requires the office to serve as the central point of state government for the emergency reporting of spills, unauthorized releases, or other accidental releases of hazardous materials and to coordinate the notification of the appropriate state and local administering agencies that may be required to respond to those spills, unauthorized releases, or other accidental releases. Existing law also establishes the Curriculum Development Advisory Committee to provide advice on the development of specified course curricula and response training. This bill would require, upon a specified appropriation by the Legislature, the Curriculum Development Advisory Committee to review the curriculum and courses of instruction offered by public and private programs that train firefighters in response methods for oil-by-rail spills, require the Office of Emergency Services to compile a list of those curriculum and courses of instruction and make that list available to all fire departments, and establish a program to reimburse fire departments for costs incurred by those departments in sending firefighters to trainings, as provided.
Existing law establishes the Adult Education Block Grant Program under the administration of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The program requires the chancellor and the Superintendent, with the advice of the Executive Director of the State Board of Education, to divide the state into adult education regions and approve one adult education consortium in each adult education region, as specified. The program also requires the chancellor and the Superintendent, with the advice of the executive director, to certify, no later than July 31, 2015, the amount of state funds required to be expended for adult education by a school district and county office of education, as specified. The program further requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to apportion funds appropriated for the program in the Budget Act of 2015 to each school district and county office of education by August 30, 2015, in accordance with a specified formula and, by October 30, 2015, to allocate the funds that remain after the apportionment to each consortium, as specified. This bill would also require the chancellor and the Superintendent to certify, upon the request of a joint powers authority consisting of community college districts, school districts, or county offices of education, or a combination of these, the amount of state funds expended for adult career technical education by that joint powers authority in the 2012–13 fiscal year and to apportion an amount equal to the amount certified directly to that joint powers authority. As a condition of receipt of this apportionment, the bill would require the joint powers authority to be a member of an adult education consortium. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires, on or before July 1, 2014, the governing boards of school districts and county boards of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan using a state template adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the local control and accountability plan to include, among other things, a description of annual goals for all pupils and specified subgroups of pupils to be achieved for each state priority, as specified, and a description of the specific actions the school district or county superintendent of schools will take to achieve those goals. Existing law requires the state board, on or before October 1, 2015, to adopt evaluation rubrics for purposes of, among other things, assisting a school district, county office of education, or charter school in evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and areas that require improvement. This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2017, the state board to consider a revision to the template to include a section or appendix sufficient to monitor actual progress on certain outcomes. Existing law requires governing boards of school districts and county boards of education to annually adopt or revise local control and accountability plans that align with the annual budget and contain specified elements. Existing law requires the superintendent of a school district and a county superintendent of schools to post on the Internet Web site of his or her school district or county office of education, as applicable, the local control and accountability plan approved by the governing board of the school district or the county board of education, as applicable, and any updates or revisions to the local control and accountability plan approved by the applicable governing bodies. This bill would additionally require school districts and county superintendents of schools to post their respective populated evaluation rubric on their respective Internet Web sites, except as specified. By imposing additional duties on school district and county office of education 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
