Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for the establishment of local educational agencies to operate these schools and provide instruction to pupils. Existing law states the policy of the State of California to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other specified characteristic, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state. 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, as specified, and has publicized that policy to pupils, parents, employees, agents of the governing board, and the general public. This bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has provided to 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 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning pupils, as specified.
Sponsored bills
Existing federal law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments to tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, executed on September 2, 2015. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions are not projects for the purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing a state-mandated local program, and a final attestation for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon, or affected by, a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide a person, except as provided, immunity from civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug, or the person assisted the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug so long as the person did not assist with the ingestion of the drug, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct of a health care provider provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would also authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life, to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request, or to administer an aid-in-dying drug to an individual without their knowledge or consent. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to update those forms and would require the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to annually review a sample of certain information and records, make a statistical report of the information collected, and post that report to its Internet Web site. 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. 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 provides it is the continuing duty of the Industrial Welfare Commission to ascertain the wages paid to all employees in this state, to ascertain the hours and conditions of labor and employment in the various occupations, trades, and industries in which employees are employed in this state, and to investigate the health, safety, and welfare of those employees. Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations for the enforcement of labor laws, including orders of the commission. Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work more than 5 hours per day without providing a meal period and, notwithstanding that provision, authorizes the commission to adopt a working condition order permitting a meal period to commence after 6 hours of work if the order is consistent with the health and welfare of affected employees. Existing law, except as provided in that described meal period provision, authorizes the commission to adopt or amend working condition orders with respect to break periods, meal periods, and days of rest for any workers in California consistent with the health and welfare of those workers. Existing law requires the commission, by July 1, 2000, to adopt wage, hours, and working condition orders necessary to ensure fairness in the establishment of employee workweek schedules. Existing law further requires the commission, by July 1, 2000, to conduct reviews of wages, hours, and working conditions in specified industries and to adopt or modify regulations necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of workers in those industries. Existing wage orders of the commission provide that employees in the health care industry who work shifts in excess of 8 total hours in a workday may voluntarily waive their right to 1 of their 2 meal periods in a prescribed manner. Existing law prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work during a meal or rest or recovery period mandated by an applicable statute, or applicable regulation, standard, or order of the commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and establishes penalties for an employer's failure to provide a mandated meal or rest or recovery period. This bill would provide that the health care employee meal period waiver provisions in those existing wage orders were valid and enforceable on and after October 1, 2000, and continue to be valid and enforceable. The bill would state that the bill is declarative of, and clarifies, existing law. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law makes it a crime to import into the state for commercial purposes, to possess with intent to sell, or to sell within the state, the dead body, or any part or product thereof, of an elephant. Existing law exempts the possession with intent to sell, or sale of the dead body, or any part or product thereof, of any elephant before June 1, 1977, or the possession with intent to sell or the sale of any such item on or after June 1, 1977, if the item was imported before January 1, 1977. This bill would delete this exemption. By changing the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make it unlawful to purchase, sell, offer for sale, possess with intent to sell, or import with intent to sell ivory or rhinoceros horn, except as specified, and would make this prohibition enforceable by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The bill would make a violation of this provision or any rule, regulation, or order adopted pursuant to this provision a misdemeanor subject to specified criminal penalties. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. In addition to the specified criminal penalties, the bill would authorize the department to impose an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 for a violation of this provision or any rule, regulation, or order adopted pursuant to this provision. This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable. This bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2016. 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 specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) . Existing law requires POST to include in its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or both. Existing law also requires POST to establish and keep updated a continuing education classroom training course relating to law enforcement interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally ill persons. This bill would require POST to review the training module relating to persons with a mental illness, intellectual disability, or substance abuse disorder in its basic training course, and develop additional training to better prepare law enforcement officers to recognize, deescalate, and appropriately respond to persons with mental illness, intellectual disability, or substance use disorders. The bill would require that this training be at least 15 hours, address issues relating to stigma, be culturally relevant and appropriate, include training scenarios and facilitated learning activities, and be included in the current hour requirement of the regular basic course. The bill would also require POST to establish and keep updated a classroom-based continuing training course that includes instructor-led active learning relating to behavioral health and law enforcement interaction with persons with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, and substance use disorders. The bill would require that this continuing training course be at least 3 consecutive hours. The bill would require this course be made available to each law enforcement officer with a rank of supervisor or below and who is assigned to patrol duties or to supervise officers who are assigned to patrol duties. This bill would require implementation of the training module and continuing training course no later than August 1, 2016.
Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) . Existing law requires POST to include in its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or both. Existing law also requires POST to establish and keep updated a continuing education classroom training course relating to law enforcement interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally ill persons. This bill would require POST to require field training officers who are instructors for the field training program to have at least 8 hours of crisis intervention behavioral health training, as specified. The bill would also require POST to require as part of its existing field training officer course, at least 4 hours of training relating to competencies of the field training program and police training program that addresses how to interact with persons with mental illness or intellectual disability, to be completed as specified. By requiring local law enforcement field training officers to have at least 8 additional hours of training and imposing additional training costs on local law enforcement agencies, 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.
Existing law, the Visually Impaired Voter Assistance Act of 1989, requires the Secretary of State to establish a Visually Impaired Voter Assistance Board and prescribes the composition of the board, as specified. Under existing law the board is required to, among other things, make recommendations to the Secretary of State for improving the availability and accessibility of ballot pamphlet audio recordings and their delivery to visually impaired voters. Existing law also requires the Secretary of State to make available the complete state ballot pamphlet over the Internet, which is required to include specified information. Existing law further authorizes county and city elections officials to establish procedures designed to permit a voter to opt out of receiving his or her sample ballot, voter pamphlet, notice of polling place, and associated materials by mail, and instead obtain them electronically via email or by accessing them on the county's or city's Internet Web site, as specified. This bill would rename the board as the Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee and would instead require the committee to advise the Secretary of State on improving the accessibility of elections, including election materials, as specified, for all voters with disabilities, and would revise the composition of the committee, as specified. The bill would require the Secretary of State to consult with the committee and consider the committee's recommendations, which the Secretary of State could implement at his or her discretion. The bill would also require the committee to make additional recommendations to the Secretary of State for improving the accessibility of election materials made available over the Internet, and would require the elections materials made available over the Internet to meet or exceed certain standards and guidelines, as specified. The bill would further require the committee to make recommendations for providing voters with disabilities the same access and participation as is provided to other voters who are not disabled, including the ability to vote privately and independently.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would designate November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and would encourage the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children.