(1) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. The act requires a state plan submitted for the receipt of the grant to include assurances that local educational agencies will designate an appropriate staff person to act as a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths and a description of how the state will ensure that local educational agencies and their liaisons will comply with specified requirements of the act, including the identification of homeless children and youths. Under existing state law, public schools, including charter schools, and county offices of education are required to immediately enroll a homeless child or youth seeking enrollment, except as specified. Existing law requires a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths is disseminated in schools within the liaison's local educational agency that provide services pursuant to the act. This bill would require a local educational agency to ensure that each school within the local educational agency identifies all homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths enrolled at the school, create a housing questionnaire, as specified, for purposes of identifying homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths, and annually provide the housing questionnaire to all parents or guardians of pupils and unaccompanied youths of the local educational agency. The bill would require a local educational agency to collect the completed housing questionnaires and report the data from those questionnaires to the State Department of Education in a format determined by the department. The bill would also require the local educational agency to annually report to the department the number of homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths enrolled. The bill would require a local educational agency to ensure that its school personnel who provide services to youth experiencing homelessness receive training about the homeless education program at least annually. This bill would require a school district or county office of education to create an internet web page or post on its internet website a list of the local educational agency liaisons for homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths in that school district or county, respectively, the contact information for those liaisons, and specific information regarding the educational rights and resources available to persons experiencing homelessness. The bill would require a school to post on its internet website the contact information for the liaison, if available. The bill would also require, if a school has an employee or person under contract whose duties include assisting the liaison in completing the liaison's duties under the federal act, the school to post on its internet website the contact information for that employee or person under contract. The bill would require data collected by the State Department of Education or by a local educational agency under these provisions to only be used for purposes of implementing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and related state agency programs. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would appropriate the sum of $1,500,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education, to be equally allocated to 3 county offices of education in different regions throughout the state for purposes of establishing technical assistance centers to foster relationships with community partners and other local educational agencies in each region, as provided. The bill would require the department to determine which county offices of education to allocate those funds to through a competitive process, as provided, and to take into account geographic diversity and concentrations of homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths. (2) Existing law requires the department to provide, among other things, informational and training materials to local educational agency liaisons regarding the educational rights of homeless children and youths and the responsibilities of the liaisons. This bill would require the department to develop, as specified, best practices and a model housing questionnaire that a local educational agency may use to identify and obtain accurate data on all homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths enrolled in schools of the local educational agency. The bill would require the department to post the best practices and model housing questionnaire on its internet website. (3) 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.
Asm. James Ramos
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes a statewide system of public elementary and secondary education under which local educational agencies throughout the state provide instruction and other services to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law establishes the State Department of Education, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and assigns to that department numerous duties and responsibilities with respect to the funding and governance of this system. The California State Lottery Act of 1984, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the November 6, 1984, statewide general election, authorizes a California State Lottery and provides for its operation and administration by the California State Lottery Commission and the Director of the California State Lottery, with certain limitations. The act requires all revenues from the imposition of the lottery after accrual of all obligations for prizes and expenses to be deposited in the California State Lottery Education Fund. The act continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund for the benefit of public education, as specified. Following the end of each fiscal year, existing law requires the commission to calculate and report to the Controller and the Legislature the amount of total net revenues allocated to the benefit of public education from that fund. This bill would require the department, commencing on or before October 1, 2021, and on or before October 1 of each year thereafter, to submit a report of the total amount of lottery funds allocated to public elementary and secondary schools in the school year ending the preceding July 1. The bill would require the report to specify the amount received by each school and to describe how each school expended these funds. The bill would require the report to be submitted to the Governor and to the respective chairpersons of the Committees on Budget and Education of the Assembly and the Senate. This bill would amend the California State Lottery Act to specify that revenues of the California State Lottery are to be allocated so as to ensure that the relationship between increases in the net revenue of the California State Lottery and increases in funding allocated to public education is directly proportional. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes of the California State Lottery Act.
Existing law authorizes the Department of General Services to perform various duties relating to state real property, including leasing a building located at Patton State Hospital to a nonprofit corporation or local government, for a period not to exceed 20 years, for the purpose of providing services to elderly persons. This bill would authorize the department to lease the above-described building for the purpose of providing services to elderly persons and transitional housing services.
(1) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. The act requires a state plan submitted for the receipt of the grant to include assurances that local educational agencies will designate an appropriate staff person to act as a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths and a description of how the state will ensure that local educational agencies and their liaisons will comply with specified requirements of the act, including the identification of homeless children and youths. Under existing state law, public schools, including charter schools, and county offices of education are required to immediately enroll a homeless child or youth seeking enrollment, except as specified. Existing law requires a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths is disseminated in schools within the liaison's local educational agency that provide services pursuant to the act. This bill would require a local educational agency, as defined to include a school district, county office of education, charter school, or special education local plan area, to establish homeless education program policies that are consistent with specified state laws, and would further require the local educational agency to update these policies at intervals not exceeding 3 years. The bill would require local educational agencies to provide training at least annually on designated subjects to its classified and certificated employees who work with pupils, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide, among other things, informational and training materials to local educational agency liaisons regarding the educational rights of homeless children and youths and the responsibilities of the liaisons. This bill would require the department to develop and implement a plan for monitoring the compliance of local educational agencies with state laws relating to youth experiencing homelessness. The bill would require the monitoring plan to include reviews of the local educational agencies including, but not limited to, schoolsite inspections to ensure that the state is not underestimating the number of youth experiencing homelessness. (3) 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.
This measure would declare March 5, 2020, as Family Justice Center Day in California and would recognize the lifesaving and hope-giving work of the California Family Justice Center Network and its member Family Justice Centers as they work with rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, human trafficking agencies, prosecutors' offices, law enforcement agencies, and other professionals and community-based organizations to ensure that adult and child survivors of trauma can access all of their services in one setting.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an innkeeper or common carrier of passengers to refuse to receive or entertain any guest or to refuse to receive or carry any passenger without just cause or excuse. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to deny admittance to accommodations to a blind, deaf, or disabled person and that person's specially trained guide dog, signal dog, or service dog. This bill would make it unlawful for an establishment serving the public to prohibit or otherwise restrict a peace officer from carrying a weapon on the establishment's premises that the peace officer is authorized to carry, regardless of whether the peace officer is engaged in the actual discharge of the officer's duties while carrying the weapon. The bill would make a first offense punishable as an infraction by a fine not exceeding $500, and as a misdemeanor for a 2nd or subsequent violation, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding 6 months, by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. By creating a new crime, 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.
This measure would recognize March 7, 2020, as California Arbor Day, and would urge California residents to observe the day with appropriate tree-planting activities and programs.
This measure would memorialize the achievements of Rosa Parks in the Civil Rights Movement and would commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Rosa Parks Day in California on February 4, 2020.