Existing law creates 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. Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to provide to the Director of Finance, the State Board of Education, and the Legislature preliminary reports on or before October 30 following each fiscal year for which funds are appropriated for the program and final reports on or before February 1 of the following year about the use of specified funds and outcomes for adults statewide and in each adult education region. Existing law requires those reports to include, among other things, any recommendations related to delivery or education and workforce services for adults. Existing law establishes the Statewide Director of Immigrant Integration in the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, appointed by the Governor, for the purpose of developing a comprehensive statewide report on programs and services that serve immigrants and programs and services currently managed by a state agency or department to support California immigrants. This bill would require the reports prepared by the chancellor and the Superintendent to be additionally provided to the director. The bill would require those reports to also include any recommendations related to delivery of immigrant integration for adults. Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to establish a menu of common assessments and policies regarding placement of adults seeking education and workforce services into adult education programs to be used by each consortium, as specified. This bill would require the chancellor and the Superintendent, with input from the director and adult education program providers, to identify common measures for meeting the needs of immigrant and refugee adults seeking integration, and, at a minimum, would require the chancellor and the Superintendent, with input from the director, to both define the specific data each consortium may collect and establish a menu of common assessments and policies regarding placement of adults seeking immigrant integration into adult education programs to be used by each consortium to measure educational needs of adults and the effectiveness of providers in addressing those needs. Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to identify, no later than January 1, 2016, measures for assessing the effectiveness of each consortium, which include, among other things, how many adults have demonstrated specified benefits from the services of a consortium, including, among other things, improved literacy skills and wages. This bill instead would extend the January 1, 2016, deadline to July 1, 2019, and would require the chancellor and Superintendent, with input from the director and adult education program providers, as applicable, to identify additional measures for assessing the effectiveness of consortia that will be used in the report described above, including how many adults served by the consortium have demonstrated immigrant integration in specified areas, including increased participation in civic and community life.
Sponsored bills
The California Constitution requires members of the retirement board of a public pension or retirement system to discharge their duties with respect to the system solely in the interest of, and for the exclusive purposes of providing benefits to, participants and their beneficiaries, minimizing employer contributions thereto, and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system. Existing statutory law establishes various public employee retirement systems and provides for the administration of the State Teachers' Retirement System by the Teachers' Retirement Board and for the administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System, among other public employee retirement systems, by the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System. This bill would, until January 31, 2035, require climate-related financial risk, as defined, to be analyzed to the extent the boards identify the risk as a material risk to the Public Employees' Retirement Fund or the Teachers' Retirement Fund. The bill, by January 1, 2020, and every 3 years thereafter, would require each board to publicly report on the climate-related financial risk of its public market portfolio, including alignment of the Public Employees' Retirement Fund and the Teachers' Retirement Fund with a specified climate agreement and California climate policy goals and the exposure of the fund to long-term risks, as specified. The bill would provide that it does not require either board to take action unless the board determines in good faith that the action is consistent with its fiduciary responsibilities. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.
Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations and creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within it. Existing law commits to the division the general responsibility for enforcing provisions of the Labor Code not specifically vested in any other officer, board, or commission, which includes a variety of provisions relating to wages and hours of employment. This bill would require the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and maintain a Domestic Work Enforcement Pilot Program in collaboration with qualified organizations, as defined. The bill would require the program to increase the capacity and expertise of the division to improve education and enforcement of labor standards in the domestic work industry. Among other things, the program would be required to address the education of employees and employers regarding minimum wage, overtime, sick leave, recordkeeping, retaliation, and wage adjudication. The bill would require qualified organizations that collaborate with the division in connection with the program to issue reports and meet quarterly with the division to review the implementation and success of the program.
Existing law establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. In order to be eligible for AFDC-FC, existing law requires, in pertinent part, a child to be placed in one of several specified placements. Existing law sets forth the rights of a minor in foster care, including, among other rights, the right to be involved in the development of and to review his or her own case plan and plan for permanent placement, and, if he or she is 12 years of age or older and in a permanent placement, the right to receive information about his or her out-of-home placement and case plan, including the right to be told of changes to the plan. Existing law establishes the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson as an autonomous entity within the State Department of Social Services for the purpose of providing children who are placed in foster care with a means to resolve issues related to their care, placement, or services. Existing law requires the office to investigate and attempt to resolve complaints made by or on behalf of children placed in foster care, that relate to their care, placement, or services. This bill would require, prior to making a change in the placement of a dependent child, a social worker or placing agency to develop and implement a placement preservation strategy to preserve the dependent child's placement, and if a placement change is necessary, would further require a social worker or placing agency to provide 14 days prior notice of the change, as specified. The bill would prohibit placement changes from occurring during specified hours, except as specified. The bill would, if a complaint alleging that a placement change occurred in violation of these requirements is made to the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson and that complaint is investigated, require the office to provide the findings of the investigation to the county child welfare director, or his or her designee, for the purposes of training, technical assistance, and quality improvement. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature with regard to these provisions and would make certain findings and declarations. By increasing the duties of county social workers and placing 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all workers supplied by that labor contractor for the payment of wages and the failure to obtain valid workers' compensation coverage. Existing law also prohibits a client employer from shifting to the labor contractor legal duties or liabilities under workplace safety provisions with respect to workers provided by the labor contractor. Existing law defines terms for these purposes and authorizes the Labor Commissioner to adopt regulations and rules of practice and procedure necessary to administer and enforce these provisions. Existing law excludes certain types of employers from these provisions, including, but not limited to, a client employer that is not a motor carrier of property based solely on the employer's use of a third-party motor carrier of property with interstate or intrastate operating authority to ship or receive freight, and a client employer that is a motor carrier of property subcontracting with, or otherwise engaging, another motor carrier of property to provide transportation services using its own employees and commercial motor vehicles. This bill would require a customer that, as part of its business, engages or uses to perform port drayage services a port drayage motor carrier, as defined, that is on a list established by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and posted on its Internet Web site pursuant to the bill to share with the motor carrier all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for port drayage services obtained after the date the motor carrier appeared on the list, as specified. The bill would require the division to notify a port drayage motor carrier at least 15 business days before adding the port drayage motor carrier to its Internet Web site and would require a port drayage motor carrier who provides port drayage services to a customer, prior to providing those services, and within 30 business days of entry of the judgment, to furnish prescribed notice to the customer concerning unsatisfied judgments against the motor carrier for unpaid wages, damages, unreimbursed expenses, and penalties. The bill would define terms for its purposes, including defining "customer," with certain exceptions, to mean a business entity, regardless of its form, that engages or uses a port drayage motor carrier to perform port drayage services on the customer's behalf, as described. The bill would prohibit a customer and a port drayage motor carrier from taking any adverse action against a commercial driver for providing notification of violations or filing a claim or civil action. The bill would, with certain exceptions, not apply the joint and severable liability to customers who engage a drayage motor carrier whose employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement or to a customer who wishes to terminate an existing contract until the termination date or until 90 business days following the listing of the drayage motor carrier on the division's Internet Web site, whichever is shorter. The bill would require a customer or port drayage motor carrier to provide to the Labor Commissioner, and make available for copying, information within its possession, custody, or control required to verify compliance with applicable state laws. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner and the Employment Development Department to adopt necessary regulations and rules to administer and enforce the bill's provisions. The bill would provide that waiver of its provisions is contrary to public policy, void, and unenforceable. The bill would provide that its provisions are severable.
Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the state agency primarily responsible for the administration and coordination of student financial aid programs at California postsecondary educational institutions. Existing federal law establishes the Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers program for the purposes of providing financial aid to current and former foster youth who are attending qualifying postsecondary educational institutions. Existing law provides that the Student Aid Commission, through an interagency agreement with the State Department of Social Services, currently operates the program in California, and, commencing with the 2017–18 award year, requires the commission to make a new Chafee grant award to a student only if the student attends specified qualifying institutions. Commencing with the 2018–19 award year, and contingent upon an appropriation of sufficient funds in the annual Budget Act for this purpose, existing law adds the condition that the student not be 26 years of age or older by July 1 of the award year in order to receive a Chafee grant award. Existing law requires the commission to annually report to the Legislature specified information regarding Chafee grant awards for the preceding award year, including the number of students that apply to receive the Chafee grant award, and the number of, and age of, students paid through the program. Commencing with the 2018–19 award year, this bill would authorize the commission and the State Department of Social Services to expend up to $80,000, of any moneys appropriated by the Legislature to expand the Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers Program age eligibility of former foster youth up to 26 years of age, for specified outreach purposes to newly eligible former foster youth who are at least 23 years of age, but are not yet 26 years of age for the 2018–19 to 2020–21, inclusive, fiscal years. By authorizing moneys previously appropriated to be expended for a different purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the commission to include as part of its annual report to the Legislature the amount spent on outreach and education efforts and the types of activities that were funded, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires that every individual with exceptional needs who is eligible to receive special education instruction and related services receive that instruction and those services at no cost to his or her parents or, as appropriate, to him or her. Existing law requires that a special education teacher who provides special education instruction and educational services meet the same "highly qualified" requirements and personnel qualifications as are provided in specified federal law. This bill would require the establishment of a statewide framework and training and support network for the purpose of training and supporting qualified mentor teachers who will be supporting the new statewide influx of special education teachers in California to be contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or other legislation for this purpose. The bill would require the State Department of Education to award grants on a competitive basis using criteria it establishes. The bill would require the department to allocate a one-time grant of $500,000, upon the appropriation of funds for the above-described purposes, to an eligible entity, as defined, with demonstrated expertise in the area of teacher retention at elementary and secondary schools. The bill would require the department to offer $1,500,000, upon the appropriation of funds for the above-described purposes, as grants to local educational agencies, as defined, to create or expand local and regional infrastructure to support special education teacher mentoring for the purpose of supporting the retention of new special education teachers.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health, including, but not limited to, conducting research, studies, and demonstration projects relating to the provision of a dependable, safe supply of drinking water, enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, adopting regulations, and conducting studies and investigations to assess the quality of private domestic water wells. Existing law requires any person who owns a public water system to ensure that the system does certain things, including, but not limited to, that it will not be subject to backflow under normal operating conditions. Existing law, to ensure that testing and maintenance of backflow prevention devices are performed by persons qualified to do testing and maintenance, authorizes local health officers to maintain programs for certification of backflow prevention device testers and requires the certification program to be consistent with backflow protection regulations adopted by the state board. A violation of these provisions, or of an order by a local health officer pursuant to these provisions, is a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the state board, on or before January 1, 2020, to adopt standards for backflow protection and cross-connection control. This bill would require valid and current certifications for cross-connection inspection and testing or backflow prevention device inspection, testing, and maintenance that meet specified requirements for competency to be accepted certification tests either until the state board promulgates standards for certified backflow prevention device testers and cross-connection control specialists, or until January 1, 2020, whichever comes first. The bill would, under certain conditions, prohibit a water supplier from refusing to recognize statewide certifications that meet standards set by the state board. Because a violation of that prohibition would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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 establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, within the Department of Industrial Relations, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law prohibits a person or public or private entity who is not a party to a claim for workers' compensation benefits from obtaining individually identifiable information, as defined, that is obtained or maintained by the division regarding that claim. Existing law permits, however, various state entities to use that information to carry out their duties. This bill would permit the Office of Self-Insurance Plans of the Department of Industrial Relations to use individually identifiable information as necessary to carry out its duties, as specified. Existing law requires, for purposes of the workers' compensation system, every employer except the state to secure the payment of compensation in one or more ways, including by securing from the Director of Industrial Relations a certificate of consent to self-insure either as an individual employer, or as one employer in a group of employers. Existing law requires all self-insured employers to file a self-insurer's annual report in a form prescribed by the director. Existing law requires the director to annually prepare an aggregated summary of all self-insured employer liability to pay compensation reported on the self-insured employers' annual reports, including a separate summary for public and private employer self-insurers, and requires the aggregated summaries to be made available to the public on the self-insurance section of the department's Internet Web site. This bill would authorize the director to publish information regarding the costs of administration, workers' compensation benefit expenditures, and solvency and performance of public self-insured employers' workers' compensation programs, as specified. Existing law gives the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, within the department, the power, jurisdiction, and supervision over every employment and place of employment in this state, which is necessary to adequately enforce and administer all laws requiring that employment and places of employment be safe, and requiring the protection of the life, safety, and health of every employee in that employment or place of employment. Existing law requires the division to enforce all occupational safety and health standards, as specified, and to issue a citation for a violation relating to those standards. Existing law prohibits the division from issuing a citation more than 6 months after the occurrence of the violation. This bill would provide that an occurrence, for purposes of issuing a citation or notice for a violation of specified provisions relating to recordkeeping requirements, including any implementing related regulations, continues until it is corrected, the division discovers the violation, or the duty to comply with the requirement that was violated no longer exists. Existing law requires an employer to furnish a place of employment that is safe and healthful for employees. Existing law requires an employer to file a report of every occupational injury or occupational illness, as defined, of each employee that results in lost time beyond the date of the injury or illness, and that requires medical treatment beyond first aid, with the Department of Industrial Relations, or in the case of an insured employer, with the insurer, on a form prescribed by the department. Under existing law, an employer who violates occupational safety and health provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor, except where another penalty is specifically provided. This bill would require the division to monitor the rulemaking and implementation of the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule with respect to the electronic submission of workplace injury and illness data. The bill would also require the division, if the division determines that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has eliminated or substantially diminished this federal submission requirement, within 120 days of the determination, to convene an advisory committee, as specified, to evaluate how to implement changes necessary to protect the goals of the Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule, as specified. The bill would provide legislative findings and declarations in support of these provisions.
Existing law requires, for all contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2018, a direct contractor, as defined, making or taking a contract in the state for the erection, construction, alteration, or repair of a building, structure, or other work, to assume, and be liable for, specified debt owed to a wage claimant that is incurred by a subcontractor, at any tier, acting under, by, or for the direct contractor for the wage claimant's performance of labor included in the subject of the original contract. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to bring an action under specified statutes or in a civil action to enforce this liability, and authorizes a 3rd party owed fringe or other benefits, or a joint labor-management cooperation committee, as defined, to bring a civil action to enforce the liability against a direct contractor under these provisions, as specified. Existing law provides that the obligations and remedies under these provisions are in addition to any obligations and remedies otherwise provided by law, except that the provisions are not to be construed to impose liability on a direct contractor for anything other than unpaid wages and fringe or other benefit payments or contributions, including interest owed. This bill would repeal the provisions that state that the obligations and remedies are in addition to existing obligations and remedies provided by law, except that the provisions are not to be construed to impose liability on a direct contractor for anything other than unpaid wages and fringe or other benefit payments or contributions including interest owed. The bill, for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2019, would require a direct contractor or a subcontractor to include a specified provision in its contract that lists the specific documents or information that the direct contractor or subcontractor will require a lower tiered subcontractor to produce before the direct contractor or subcontractor is allowed to withhold any disputed payments from the lower tiered subcontractor under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.