This measure would proclaim March 18 to March 24, 2018, as California Down Syndrome Awareness Week and March 21, 2018, as California Down Syndrome Day, and would encourage all Californians to support and participate in related activities.
This bill would designate March 2018 as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in California.
Existing law generally provides for the confidentiality of information regarding a minor in proceedings in the juvenile court and related court proceedings and limits access to juvenile case files. Existing law authorizes only certain individuals to inspect a juvenile case file, including, among others, the minor, his or her parents or guardian, and the attorneys for the parties, judges, referees, other hearing officers, probation officers, and law enforcement officers who are actively participating in criminal or juvenile proceedings involving the minor. Existing law also authorizes some of those individuals to receive copies of the case file. This bill would authorize an investigator employed by a county auditor-controller, as defined, who is authorized by a county board of supervisors to investigate suspected acts of waste, fraud, or abuse, including, but not limited to, misuse of personally identifiable information or protected health information of minors, to access, inspect, and copy a juvenile case file, or portions thereof, as necessary for the performance of his or her duties. The bill would authorize access, inspection, and copying only when the investigator is conducting an investigation within the scope of his or her duties, the information contained in the juvenile case file is reasonably believed to be relevant to the investigation, and prior notice is given to the director of the county child welfare agency or the county probation department. The bill would impose restrictions on the use of the confidential information and require subsequent sealing of the confidential information. The bill would require, in the event the county auditor-controller determines a juvenile's confidential information was improperly used in a manner detrimental to the interests of the child, that the county auditor-controller inform the child's attorney so that the attorney can take appropriate action commensurate with his or her duties to protect the interests of the child.
Existing law gives control of the state parks system to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Existing law requires the department to consider certain factors when selecting park units for closure, including the extent to which park unit closure would impair firefighter access to water resources or otherwise increase fire risk. This bill would require the department, no later than January 1, 2022, in consultation with various local entities, to develop and implement a wildfire management plan for Chino Hills State Park. The bill would require the plan to include certain things, including the promotion of an interagency approach to managing fires on an ecosystem basis across agency boundaries and in conformance with the natural ecological processes and conditions characteristic of the ecosystem. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Chino Hills State Park.
Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of a person who is a danger to himself or herself or others or who is gravely disabled. Existing law also provides for a conservator of the person or estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled. Existing law, for the purposes of involuntary commitment and conservatorship, defines "gravely disabled," among other things, as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for his or her basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter. This bill would change the definition of "gravely disabled" for these purposes to read, in part, a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is incapable of making informed decisions about, or providing for, his or her own basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, or medical care without significant supervision and assistance from another person and, as a result of being incapable of making these informed decisions, the person is at risk of substantial bodily harm, dangerous worsening of a concomitant serious physical illness, significant psychiatric deterioration, or mismanagement of his or her essential needs that could result in bodily harm. By increasing the level of service required of county mental health departments, 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, 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 bill would recognize February 16, 2018, as National Caregivers Day.
