Asm. Leticia Castillo

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the commission to establish an expedited utility distribution infrastructure undergrounding program for large electrical corporations. In order to participate in the program, existing law requires a large electrical corporation to submit to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety a distribution infrastructure undergrounding plan, as provided. Upon approval of the plan by the office, existing law requires the large electrical corporation to submit to the commission an application requesting review and conditional approval of the plan's costs and other specified information. This bill would specify that the approval of a distribution infrastructure undergrounding plan is not a project for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act, as specified.

Existing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of various specified personal characteristics, including disability. Existing law imposes minimum statutory damages for construction-related accessibility claims if the violation of a construction-related accessibility standard denied the plaintiff full and equal access to the place of public accommodation on a particular occasion, as specified. Existing law imposes various limits on a defendant's liability for statutory damages under specified sets of conditions, including if the defendant, among other things, corrects the construction-related violations within a specified time. This bill would prohibit a construction-related accessibility claim for statutory damages from being initiated in a legal proceeding against a defendant who employs 50 or fewer individuals, as specified, unless the defendant has been served with a letter specifying each alleged violation, and the alleged violations have not been corrected within 120 days of service of the letter. The bill would provide that a defendant is not liable for statutory damages, plaintiff's attorney's fees, or costs for an alleged violation that is corrected within 120 days of service of a letter alleging the violation. The bill would also prohibit a plaintiff from avoiding the notice and opportunity to correct provisions and the liability limitations by claiming they are seeking general discrimination damages based on a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 if the underlying claim is based on a defendant's failure to comply with physical accessibility standards under California law.

Existing law prohibits local governments from enacting or enforcing any charter provision, ordinance, or regulation requiring a person to present identification for the purpose of voting or submitting a ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted. This bill would repeal that prohibition.

Under existing law, a vote-by-mail ballot is timely cast if it is postmarked or otherwise time-stamped on or before election day and received in the mail no later than 7 days after election day. This bill would instead require a vote-by-mail ballot to be returned to the applicable elections official no later than the close of the polls on election day, except that the bill would require a vote-by-mail ballot cast by a military or overseas voter to be counted if it is postmarked on or before election day and received no later than 7 days after election day.

Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish an online, automated computer system designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing persons. Existing law requires the online missing persons registry to accept and generate specified information on a missing person. Existing law also requires the Attorney General to establish a separate and confidential historic database relating to missing children and at-risk adults, for statistical and research purposes, as specified. This bill would require the Attorney General to establish, in consultation with specified groups, agencies, and organizations, an electronic database and support system, as specified, for the public to report and search for missing children, as specified. The bill would require that parents reunified with children be offered free DNA testing to confirm parentage.

Existing law authorizes the State Air Resources Board to designate public fire protection agencies or other equivalent agencies to issue permits, subject to the rules and regulations of the state board, for agricultural burning, which includes wildland vegetation management burning, as specified. This bill would revise those provisions to also require the state board to designate those agencies to oversee agricultural burning activities and to adopt rules and regulations to ensure those activities are conducted safely and effectively. The bill would exempt wildland vegetation management burning from the above-described permit requirement if that activity is conducted by, or under the supervision of, the applicable agency designated by the state board. The bill would require the state board to develop guidelines and best practices for wildland vegetation management burning to ensure public safety and environmental protection. By expanding the duties of local 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would allow a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, to a qualified taxpayer, as defined, in an amount equal to 40% of the taxpayer's qualified expenses, as defined, not to exceed $400 per taxable year, or $2,000 cumulatively. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax credit to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill would also include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law establishes the California State University and the University of California as 2 of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires the California State University, and requests the University of California, to publicly provide labor market outcome information relating to the graduates of their undergraduate programs. This bill would require the California State University, and would request the University of California, to include in admission notifications (1) a hyperlink to the university's internet website that contains the labor market outcome information described above, and (2) information on student loans, as specified.

(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with, and subject to the approval of, the executive director of the State Board of Education, to develop and maintain the California School Dashboard, a web-based system for publicly reporting performance data on the state and local indicators included in the evaluation rubrics. The department, pursuant to the requirement of developing the California School Dashboard, has included as one of several state indicators, the College/Career Indicator (CCI) , which represents the percentage of high school graduates who are prepared for college or a career. This bill would require the state board to, upon the next revision of the California School Dashboard, consider for inclusion, for purposes of the CCI, the percentage of pupils who intend to enroll in college and the percentage of pupils who intend to enter or be employed through a registered apprenticeship program, skilled trade, or industry-aligned career pathway, as provided. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of each county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) and to update its LCAP before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires an LCAP to include, among other things, a description of the annual goals to be achieved for each state priority, as specified, for all pupils and certain subgroups of pupils. The state's delineated priorities include, among others, school climate, as measured by, pupil suspension rates, pupil expulsion rates, and other local measures, including surveys of pupils, parents, and teachers on the sense of safety and school connectedness. This bill would add as a local measurement for determining school climate, for purposes of the LCAP adopted and updated by each county board of education, the percentage of pupils who intend to enroll in college and the percentage of pupils who intend to enter or be employed through a registered apprenticeship program, skilled trade, or industry-aligned career pathway, as provided. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies or local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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 establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Education, with the purpose of encouraging, maintaining, and strengthening the delivery of high-quality career technical education programs. Existing law requires, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, $300,000,000 to be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. Existing law requires a grant applicant to demonstrate a proportional dollar-for-dollar match and sets that amount at $2 for every $1 received from the program. Existing law prohibits an applicant from being awarded an amount higher than the amount that the allocation formula determines them to be eligible to receive under the program. Existing law authorizes a grant recipient under the program to consist of one or more, or any combination, of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or regional occupational centers or programs operated by joint powers authorities or county offices of education, as provided. Existing law provides that an applicant receiving a grant from the program in a prior fiscal year is eligible to apply to receive a renewal grant if the applicant's career technical education program continues to meet specified requirements, as provided. This bill would delete the prohibition against an applicant being awarded more than the amount determined by the allocation formula and would provide, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, that the amount to be made available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program to be the amount appropriated in the prior fiscal year as adjusted by a specified percentage, as provided. The bill would instead provide that an applicant receiving a grant from the program in a prior fiscal year is required to receive a renewal grant for 3 additional years, as provided. The bill would require, beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, up to 90% of the grants awarded pursuant to the program to be designated for renewal grants and up to 10% to be designated for grants for new applicants, unless otherwise determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. The bill would require the Superintendent to cease distribution of funding and recover previously distributed funding if certain conditions occur, including, among others, that the grant recipient did not implement the program substantively as was initially proposed, as provided.