Asm. Joaquin Arambula

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Pursuant to authority delegated by the Federal Communications Commission to state regulatory bodies and its existing statutory authority, the Public Utilities Commission has established procedures for implementing 2-1-1 dialing in California. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, authorized the commission, if it determined that doing so was an appropriate use of funds collected from ratepayers, to expend up to $1,500,000 from the California Teleconnect Fund Administrative Committee Fund to help close 2-1-1 service gaps in counties lacking access to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery information and referral services, where technically feasible, through available 2-1-1 service. Existing law establishes various public social services programs, administered by the State Department of Social services. This bill would, upon appropriation, require the department to establish, develop, implement, and administer the 2-1-1 Support Services Grant Program. The bill would require the department to allocate 85% of funds for grants to fund core activities of 2-1-1 agencies, including, among others, contact handling, as specified, and improving the statewide ability to manage resource and user needs data to support data sharing and delivery to health systems, government agencies and other key partners, and shared capacity for analytics and systems. The bill would also require the department to allocate 15% of funds to create a Statewide Innovation Program for the purpose of collective 2-1-1 statewide network coordination with a focus on, among others, building shared strategies and project management of state and regional initiatives and related information and services, and scaling up and assisting with the operations of 2-1-1 services in specified rural counties. This bill would require a grant recipient to adhere to the principles of Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS) standards and guidelines for information and referral services. The bill would also require a grant recipient to prepare and submit an annual report to the department, which would include the activities or services funded by the grant, the number of individuals served, and specified measures of system performance. This bill would make related findings and declarations.

Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of child daycare facilities, daycare centers, and family daycare homes by the State Department of Social Services. The act exempts from its provisions certain types of these facilities and certain programs, including, among others, a California state preschool program operated by a local educational agency under contract with the State Department of Education and that meets specified conditions and operates in a school building. Existing law requires the governing board of any school district to, among other things, repair its school property. This bill, the School Extreme Heat Action Plan Act of 2023, would, among other things, require all schoolsites, as defined, the next time outdoor surfaces are resurfaced or replaced at the schoolsite, to replace low specific heat surfaces, such as cement, asphalt, brick, pebbles, sand, aggregates, rubber, and synthetic turf, with high specific heat surfaces, such as cool pavement technologies, natural grass, shrubs, trees, wood chips, or other natural systems that mitigate heat and pollution, as provided. The bill would require all schoolsite decisionmaking personnel involved in the replacement or resurfacing of outdoor surfaces at a schoolsite to be trained in extreme heat mitigation measures. By imposing additional duties on local educational entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the State Department of Education, in consultation with the State Department of Social Services, as appropriate, to develop a template for an extreme heat action plan to be used by schoolsites, and to make a model program guidebook available to schoolsites and establish a process for systematically updating the guidebook and supporting documentation. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to identify a liaison for child daycare facilities, as defined, for these purposes. This bill would, on or before January 1, 2025, require all schoolsites, as defined, to develop an extreme heat action plan, as specified. The bill would require the plan to address the installation or planting of (1) shade trees or mini-forests, positioned on schoolsites where pupils can access them when in attendance, (2) school garden infrastructure and plantings, and (3) green barriers between the schoolsite and any adjacent high-polluting streets or commercial projects. By imposing additional duties on local educational entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2027, schoolsites to begin implementation of their extreme heat action plan. The bill would make implementation of the plan contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature. By imposing additional duties on local educational entities, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law requires instruction to be given in the elementary and secondary schools by appropriately trained instructors on drug education and the effects of the use of tobacco, alcohol, narcotics, dangerous drugs, as defined, and other dangerous substances. Existing law authorizes a public or private elementary or secondary school to determine whether or not to make emergency naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist and trained personnel available at its school, and to designate one or more volunteers to receive related training to address an opioid overdose, as specified. This bill would require those school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that voluntarily determine to make naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist available on campus to ensure that the naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist is placed in an appropriate location that is widely known and easily accessible, both during school hours and after school hours. The bill would require the naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist to be located on campus grounds in at least one of several specified locations. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to develop an opioid overdose training program and program toolkit, as defined, to be made available to public high schools for public high school pupils to be trained on how to identify and respond to an opioid overdose, including by administering a federally approved opioid overdose reversal medication, as provided. The bill would require the department, by April 1, 2025, to notify public high schools of the availability of the program toolkit. The bill would require the department to provide the program toolkit upon request to those public high schools that opt to host the program on their campuses and to consider making its representatives available to provide the training onsite at public schools upon request. The bill would require the department to collaborate with local, state, and national organizations, as provided, to provide pupils with integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased educational materials on opioid and drug overdose prevention, opioid and drug safety, and stigma reduction. The bill would require the department to collect, on an annual basis, data on the number of pupils participating in the program and to share this information with the Legislature and the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Education, Health, and Human Services, as provided.

Existing law, the State Civil Service Act, regulates employment with the state and vests in the Department of Human Resources all powers, duties, and authority necessary to operate the state civil service system. Existing law permits the use of personal services contracts for purposes of cost savings when specified conditions are met, including when the potential economic advantage of contracting is not outweighed by the public's interest in having a particular function performed directly by the state government. Existing law establishes the State Department of State Hospitals within the California Health and Human Services Agency, and provides the department with jurisdiction over specified facilities for the care and treatment of persons with mental health disorders, including the Patton State Hospital. This bill would require the State Department of State Hospitals to establish, by January 1, 2025, a physician registry for the Patton State Hospital to be composed of members of State Bargaining Unit 16, under a 3-year pilot program. The bill would require the department to conduct and post on its internet website a semiannual survey of managers and employees to determine the efficacy of the registry. By January 10, 2026, and each year thereafter for the duration of the pilot program, the bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature that includes a study of the effectiveness of the registry to determine if the registry compensation rates were successful in addressing the operational needs for flexible services at a lower cost than contract registries. The bill would make the implementation of its provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or other statute, and would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2029.

Existing law requires the Office of the Surgeon General to, among other things, raise public awareness and coordinate policies governing scientific screening and treatment for toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) . This bill would, subject to an appropriation and until January 1, 2027, require the office and the State Department of Health Care Services, while administering the ACEs Aware initiative and in collaboration with subject matter experts, to review available literature on ACEs, as defined, and ancestry or ethnicity-based data disaggregation practices in ACEs screenings, develop guidance for culturally and linguistically competent ACEs screenings through improved data collection methods, post the guidance on the department's internet website and the ACEs Aware internet website, and make the guidance accessible, as specified. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations.

Existing law establishes within the Department of Industrial Relations the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, headed by the Labor Commissioner, for the purposes of enforcing labor laws. This bill would establish within the division the Labor Trafficking Unit, which would be required to coordinate with the Labor Enforcement Task Force, the Criminal Investigation Unit, the Department of Justice, and the Civil Rights Department to combat labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit to receive and investigate complaints alleging labor trafficking and take steps to prevent labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit to coordinate with or refer cases to the Labor Enforcement Task Force or the Civil Rights Department for potential civil actions, and to coordinate with or refer cases to the Department of Justice for potential criminal actions. The bill would require the unit to follow protocols to ensure survivors of labor trafficking are not victimized by the process of prosecuting traffickers and are informed of the services available to them. The bill would authorize the unit to coordinate with state and local agencies for specified purposes relating to the investigation and prosecution of labor trafficking. The bill would require the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to notify the unit when, upon investigating businesses under their purview, there is evidence of labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit, beginning January 1, 2026, until January 1, 2036, to annually submit a report to the Legislature with specified information relating to labor trafficking complaints, including the number, types, and outcomes of complaints.

This measure would declare that the Legislature should pass laws that halt the importation of cobalt or any product using cobalt mined in Africa using child slave labor and encourage the production of cobalt and other critical minerals ethically sourced from within the United States.

This measure would recognize July 17, 2023, to July 23, 2023, as Outdoor Worker Appreciation Week.

This measure would declare the month of October 2023 as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month.