Asm. Blanca Rubio

Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services, which is required to, among other things, allocate and award funds to communities developing and providing ongoing citizen involvement and crime resistance programs. This bill would require the office, to the extent funds are available for this purpose and until January 1, 2023, to allocate and award funds to up to 11 district attorney offices that employ a vertical prosecution methodology for the prosecution of human trafficking crimes and that meet other specified criteria, including minimum staffing levels for the program. The bill would require the office, on or before January 1, 2021, to submit to the Legislature and the Governor's office a report that describes the counties that received funding pursuant to this program, the number of prosecutions for human trafficking cases filed by the counties receiving funding, the number of human trafficking convictions obtained by those counties, and the sentences imposed for human trafficking crimes in those counties. The bill would be operative only to the extent that funding is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute for the purposes of the bill.

The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity to federal income tax law, authorizes a credit for household and dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment, as provided. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2024, for a taxpayer with an allowable credit in excess of tax liability, would allow a payment to the taxpayer in excess of that credit amount, subject to the annual Budget Act or a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Act, as provided, not to exceed a specified amount.

(1) The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, requires the governing board of each school maintaining an elementary or secondary school to develop and cause to be implemented for each school in the school district a school accountability report card that includes specified information. The act prohibits any change to its provisions, except a change to further its purposes enacted by a bill passed by a vote of 23 of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. This bill would revise and recast the provisions relating to the School Accountability Report Card. The bill would revise the provisions requiring specified information to be included in the School Accountability Report Card. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop a standardized School Accountability Report Card to simplify the process and make the information more meaningful to the public. The bill would also require the Superintendent to develop a standardized template for school districts to use for certain data required to be included in the School Accountability Report Card. The bill would require the Superintendent to annually post, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, the completed and viewable School Accountability Report Card for each school on the Internet, on or before February 1. The bill would require the governing board of each school district to annually publicize the availability of the School Accountability Report Card for each school in the school district, and would require each school district that is connected to the Internet to provide a link to the information contained in the School Accountability Report Card on the school district's Internet Web site. To the extent the bill would impose additional requirements on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would state that the Legislature finds and declares that the changes made to the act by these provisions further the purposes of the act. (2) This bill would also delete obsolete provisions and make clarifying and conforming changes. (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.

Existing law provides for the implementation, by counties and foster family agencies, of the resource family approval process, which is a unified, family friendly, and child-centered approval process that replaces the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving adoptive families. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to establish and facilitate a pilot program, as specified, in up to five counties that voluntarily apply and are selected by the department, to increase placement stability for foster youth and facilitate greater resource family retention through strengths-based, skills-based, trauma-informed coaching. The bill would set forth the components of the pilot program and would require the department, by June 30, 2019, to consult with relevant stakeholders and to consider the stakeholders' recommendations to the department regarding certain parameters of the pilot program, as specified. The bill would require a county that elects to participate in the pilot program to conduct at least one evaluation of the program's impact and effectiveness on increasing placement stability for foster youth and retaining resource families in accordance with, and upon issuance of guidance from, the department, and to submit the evaluation to the department, no later than December 31, 2021. The bill would require the department to report the information provided by the counties to the Legislature, as prescribed. The provisions of the bill would be repealed on January 1, 2022.

Existing law creates the Human Trafficking Victims Assistance Fund in the State Treasury. Existing law makes the Office of Emergency Services responsible for awarding grants, based on specified criteria, to qualified nonprofit organizations that provide services to victims of human trafficking. This bill would appropriate $5,000,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Emergency Services for the purpose of awarding grants to support programs for victims of human trafficking.

This measure would mark May 6, 2018, as the 136th anniversary of the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to recognize the harm caused by racially discriminatory immigration measures, and to honor the contributions of all immigrants and refugees who have enriched our communities. The measure would also declare the opposition of the Legislature to executive orders and a presidential proclamation signed by President Trump relating to immigration, call upon the President to revoke those orders and that proclamation, condemn the expansion of deportations being undertaken under the current presidential administration, and reaffirm that the state is open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees who are integral to life in our state.

This measure would declare the intent of the Legislature to further support the housing needs of individuals with developmental disabilities by exploring models that facilitate the private donation of homes in perpetuity and would recognize the work of organizations that have developed a property donation program.

This measure would recognize the history and significance of the Eagle Staff to Native American tribes. The measure would express the Legislature's commitment to inclusiveness for all Native Americans and respect for the traditions and symbolism of the Eagle Staff and would urge state government departments to incorporate these principles into their policies and practices.