This measure would declare March 2012 to be Campus Safety Month, and would encourage citizens to visit the Internet Web site of the national nonprofit organization Security On Campus, Inc., to view public safety information about public and private colleges and universities.
This measure would recognize the month of February 2012 as American Heart Month in California and recognize February 3, 2012, as Wear Red Day in California.
Existing law establishes the pupil retention block grant, school safety consolidated competitive grant, teacher credentialing block grant, professional development block grant, targeted instructional improvement block grant, and school and library improvement block grant. Existing law authorizes a school district or county office of education to expend in a fiscal year up to 15% of the amount apportioned for the school safety consolidated competitive grant, professional development block grant, targeted instructional improvement block grant, or school and library improvement block grant for any other programs for which the school district or county office of education is eligible for funding, not to exceed 120% of the amount of state funding allocated in a fiscal year to the school district or county office of education for purposes of the program to which funds are transferred. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would simplify school finance by consolidating funding for categorical programs into targeted block grants to promote greater equity, increase local control, and improve instruction. The bill would also make the above-described provision relating to the expenditure of block grant funds inoperative on July 1, 2014.
The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop the Academic Performance Index (API) consisting of a variety of indicators currently reported to the State Department of Education to track the achievement of schools and their pupils. Existing law requires the API to be used for specified purposes, including, but not limited to, ranking all public schools in the state. The Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program, the High Priority Schools Program, and the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006 are intended to provide support to schools ranked in the lower deciles of the API. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires the state accountability system to ensure that all local educational agencies and public schools make adequate yearly progress, as defined. The State Department of Education is required to identify local educational agencies that are in danger of being identified within 2 years as program improvement local educational agencies under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to identify the persistently lowest achieving schools, as defined, for purposes of implementing the federal Race to the Top program established by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) . Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish an advisory committee to advise on all appropriate matters relative to the creation of the API and the implementation of the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program and the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. Existing law requires the committee to make recommendations to the Superintendent on the appropriateness and feasibility of a methodology for generating a measurement of academic performance by using unique pupil identifiers and annual academic achievement growth to provide a more accurate measure of a school's academic achievement growth over time. This bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to convene a working group to identify a single formula that defines, to the greatest extent possible, persistently lowest performing schools and that can be used in both state and federal accountability programs. The bill would require the working group to include representatives from the Legislative Analyst's Office, the Department of Finance, the State Department of Education, the advisory committee described above, the state board, the staffs of the fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, and stakeholder groups. The bill would require the working group to develop and report its recommendations to the state board and the education policy committees of the Legislature by July 1, 2012.
Existing law establishes an adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive. Existing law establishes the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission and requires the commission to recommend to the State Board of Education the adoption of minimum standards for courses of study in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and secondary schools. This bill would require the state board and the commission to include suicide prevention instruction and mental illness awareness instruction in the health education framework for pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, during the next revision of that framework. The bill would also require the state board and the commission to include suicide prevention instruction and mental health illness awareness instruction in the health education evaluation criteria for pupils in grades 7 and 8 during that revision. The bill would authorize a school district, commencing with the 2012–13 school year, to provide suicide prevention instruction and mental illness awareness instruction to pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive.
Existing law provides that, when a child is removed from his or her family by the juvenile court, placement of the child in foster care should secure, as nearly as possible, the custody, care, and discipline equivalent to that which should have been given the child by his or her parents. Existing law provides enumerated rights for children who are placed in foster care. Existing law establishes the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson to disseminate specified information, including the stated rights of foster youth, and to investigate and attempt to resolve complaints made by or on behalf of children placed in foster care, related to their care, placement, or services. This bill would enumerate rights for foster youth relating to mental health services. The bill would require the office, in consultation with various entities, to develop, no later than July 1, 2012, standardized information explaining the rights specified and to distribute this information to foster youth.
(1) Existing law, the California Constitution, prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (A) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (B) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (C) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (D) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2012, a state general obligation bond act that would provide funds to construct and modernize education facilities, to become operative only if approved by the voters at the next statewide general election, and to provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at that election. (2) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (Greene Act) requires the State Allocation Board (board) to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. Existing law requires the Director of General Services to administer the Greene Act and authorizes the board to appoint an assistant executive officer, employ additional staff members and secure office space and furnishings to support the assistant executive officer, and fix the salary and compensation of the assistant executive officer. This bill instead would require the Director of General Services to administer the Greene Act at the direction of the board and pursuant to regulations adopted by the board and would authorize the board to appoint its legal counsel, employ additional staff members and secure office space and furnishings to support the legal counsel, and fix the salary and compensation of the legal counsel. (3) Existing law requires a school district, in consultation with the local career technical education advisory committee, to certify it has considered the need for vocational and career technical facilities to adequately meet its program needs and requires the committee to provide written confirmation that the need for vocational and career technical facilities is being adequately met within the district. This bill would exempt elementary school construction and modernization projects from the requirements regarding the adequacy of vocational and career technical facilities described above. (4) Existing law requires a school district that applies to receive funding for new construction to determine projected enrollment for the 5th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made and authorizes a school district to submit an enrollment projection for the 5th or 10th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made. This bill would allow the school district to calculate projected enrollment for the 5th or 10th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made. (5) Existing law requires the ongoing eligibility of a school district for new construction funding to be determined by making specified calculations, one of which is to add the number of pupils that may be adequately housed in the existing school building capacity of a school district to the number of pupils for whom facilities were provided from any state or local funding source after the existing school building capacity was determined. This bill would revise the calculation described above by specifying that the 2nd addend is the number of pupils for whom permanent facilities were provided from any state source or permanent facilities provided entirely from a local funding source after the existing school building capacity was determined. (6) Existing law requires that funding for an approved new construction school facilities project be released equal to the amount of the local match when the school district certifies that it has entered into a binding contract for completion of the project. The same certification is required to be made in connection with the release of disbursements for modernization projects. This bill would require the school district instead to certify that it has entered into a binding contract for professional services or for construction, or both, in order to complete the approved project. (7) This bill would correct an erroneous cross-reference and make other technical, nonsubstantive changes.
Existing law provides for the creation of various programs to provide health care services to persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, and the Medi‑Cal program administered by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Commencing January 1, 2014, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires every individual to be covered under minimum essential coverage, as specified, and requires every health insurance issuer issuing individual or group health insurance coverage to accept every employer and individual who applies for coverage. Existing law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and small employers by January 1, 2014. This bill would establish the California Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Healthcare Agency under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. The bill would create the Healthcare Policy Board to establish policy on medical issues and various other matters relating to the system. The bill would create the Office of Patient Advocacy within the agency to represent the interests of health care consumers relative to the system. The bill would create within the agency the Office of Health Planning to plan for the health care needs of the population, and the Office of Health Care Quality, headed by a chief medical officer, to support the delivery of high-quality care and promote provider and patient satisfaction. The bill would create the Office of Inspector General for the California Healthcare System within the Attorney General's office, which would have various oversight powers. The bill would prohibit health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies from being issued for services covered by the California Healthcare System, subject to appropriation by the Legislature, and would authorize the collection of penalty moneys for deposit into the Healthcare Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would create the Payments Board to administer the finances of the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the California Healthcare Premium Commission (Premium Commission) to determine the cost of the California Healthcare System and to develop a premium structure for the system that complies with specified standards. The bill would require the Premium Commission to recommend a premium structure to the Governor and the Legislature on or before January 1, 2014, and to make a draft recommendation to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public 90 days before submitting its final premium structure recommendation. The bill would specify that only its provisions relating to the Premium Commission would become operative on January 1, 2013, with its remaining provisions becoming operative on the earlier of the date the Secretary of California Health and Human Services notifies the Legislature, as specified, that sufficient funding exists to implement the California Healthcare System and the date the secretary receives the necessary federal waiver under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill would extend the application of certain insurance fraud laws to providers of services and products under the system, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by revising the definition of a crime. The bill would enact other related provisions relative to budgeting, regional entities, federal preemption, subrogation, collective bargaining agreements, compensation of health care providers, conflict of interest, patient grievances, and independent medical review. 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.
