The Dental Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of dentists and associated professions by the Dental Board of California within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires an applicant for a license to practice dentistry to complete various examinations, including the National Board Dental Examination, an examination in California law and ethics developed by the board, and a clinical and written examination administered either by the board or the Western Regional Examining Board. Existing law prescribes the maximum amount of fees to be charged for examination, licensure, and renewal, for deposit into the State Dentistry Fund. This bill would abolish the clinical and written examination administered by the board. The bill would instead replace that examination with a portfolio examination of an applicant's competence to enter the practice of dentistry, which would be conducted while the applicant is enrolled in a dental school program at a board-approved dental school. The bill would require this examination to utilize uniform standards of clinical experiences and competencies, as approved by the board. At the end of that dental school program, the bill would then require the passage of a final assessment of the applicant's portfolio, subject to certification by his or her dean and payment of a $350 fee. Under the bill, the portfolio examination would not be conducted until the board adopts regulations to implement the portfolio examination. The bill would require the board to provide specified notice on its Internet Web site and to the Legislature and the Legislative Counsel when these regulations have been adopted by the board. The bill would require the board to oversee the portfolio examination and final assessment process, and would require the board to biennially review each dental school with regard to the standardization of the portfolio examination. The bill would also set forth specified examination standards. The bill would also, as part of the ongoing implementation of the portfolio examination, require the board, by December 1, 2016, to review the examination to ensure compliance with certain requirements applicable to all board examinations under the department's jurisdiction. The bill would provide that the examination shall cease to be an option for applicants if the board determines the examination fails to meet those requirements. The bill would require the board to submit its review and certification or determination to the Legislature and the department, by December 1, 2016.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, prescribes various quality, reporting, and labeling standards for bottled water and private water sources and limits the levels of certain contaminants that may be contained in those water products. Violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to perform various duties under these provisions. This bill would require each applicant for a license as a water-bottling plant or a private water source to provide to the department specified information and would require the department to annually compile a listing of this information and make it available to the public, as provided. The bill would also make specified findings and declarations. Because this bill would create a new crime, it imposes 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 health care practitioner to disclose, while working, his or her name and practitioner's license status on a name tag in at least 18-point type or to prominently display his or her license in his or her office, except as specified. This bill would require each of those health care practitioners to disclose the type of license and, except as specified, the highest level of academic degree he or she holds either in a prominent display in his or her office or in writing, in a specified format given to a patient on his or her initial office visit. The bill would require a physician and surgeon, and an osteopathic physician and surgeon, who is certified in a medical specialty, as specified, to also disclose, in either of those manners the name of the certifying board or association. The bill would exempt specified health care practitioners, including, without limitation, persons working in certain licensed laboratories and health care facilities, as specified, from these requirements.
Provisions relating to the administration of personal income taxes allow individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds. This bill would allow taxpayers to designate on their tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the California Police Activities League (CALPAL) Fund, which would be created by this bill. However, the bill would provide that a voluntary contribution designation for this fund may not be added on the tax return until another voluntary contribution designation is removed from that return. This bill would require that all moneys contributed to the fund pursuant to these provisions, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and to the Controller for allocation to the CALPAL, as provided. This bill would provide that these voluntary contribution provisions are repealed on January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the taxable year the fund first appears on the tax return. The bill would further provide that these provisions are repealed for taxable years beginning on or after January 1 of the calendar year in which the Franchise Tax Board estimates by September 1 that the contributions made on returns filed in that calendar year will be less than $250,000, or an adjusted amount for subsequent taxable years.
Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of pharmacy by the California State Board of Pharmacy within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The department is under the control of the Director of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes the board to appoint a person exempt from civil service designated as the executive officer who performs the duties delegated by the board. This bill would instead authorize the board to appoint the executive officer with the approval of the director.
Existing law authorizes private organizations, including veterans' organizations, to participate in special interest license plate programs in which the Department of Motor Vehicles issues license plates with a participating organization's distinctive design or decal, and specifies the various fees concerning the issuance, renewal, registration, and replacement of damaged or unserviceable plates and decals. Existing law permits an eligible person who is a former American prisoner of war to apply for specially designed license plates for his or her vehicle that include distinctive lettering indicating "POW" and "Ex-Prisoner of War" and generally exempts that vehicle from registration and vehicle license fees (VLF) . This bill would additionally require the department, in consultation with the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans' service organizations, to design and make available for issuance a special environmental design license plate for former American prisoners of war who prefer not to have their former status as a "POW" or "Ex-Prisoner of War" identified by words or other markings or symbols. The bill would require specified design criteria for these special interest license plates.
Existing law requires the Governor to proclaim certain days each year for specified reasons. Existing law also designates particular days each year as having special significance in public schools and educational institutions and encourages those entities to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on those dates. This bill would require the Governor annually to proclaim January 30 as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, would designate that date of each year as having special significance in public schools and educational institutions, and would encourage those entities to observe that date by conducting exercises remembering the life of Fred Korematsu and recognizing the importance of preserving civil liberties.
Existing law provides for the regulation of various professions and vocations, including those of an athlete agent. This bill would make it unlawful for any person to hold himself or herself out as a certified athletic trainer unless he or she has been certified by the Board of Certification, Inc., and has either graduated from a college or university, after completing an accredited athletic training education program, as specified, or completed requirements for certification by the Board of Certification, Inc., prior to January 1, 2004. The bill would make it an unfair business practice to violate these provisions.
Existing law states that it is the policy of the state that the workweek of the state employee shall be 40 hours, and the workday of state employees 8 hours, except that workweeks and workdays of a different number of hours may be established in order to meet the varying needs of the different state agencies. Executive Order Nos. S-16-08 and S-13-09 imposed 3 unpaid furlough days on state employees. This bill would prohibit a state employee from being furloughed when the unemployment rate in California during the previous month reached or exceeded 8.5%, and the employee's position is at least 95% funded by the federal government, performs services that combat the state's recession, and works for the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board or the Employment Development Department. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
This measure would recognize March 31, 2010, as the anniversary of the birth of César Chávez, and would call upon all Californians to participate in appropriate observances to remember César Chávez as a symbol of hope and justice to all persons.