Existing law establishes the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy in the Natural Resources Agency and prescribes the functions and duties of the conservancy with regard to the protection, preservation, and enhancement of specified areas of the Counties of Los Angeles and Orange located along the San Gabriel River and the lower Los Angeles River and tributaries along those rivers. Existing law, for purposes of those provisions, defines "territory" to mean the territory of the conservancy that consists of those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles and Orange located within the San Gabriel River and its tributaries, the lower Los Angeles River and its tributaries, and the San Gabriel Mountains, as described. This bill would additionally include the Dominguez Channel watershed and Santa Catalina Island, as described, within that definition of territory, and would make various related changes to the boundaries of that territory. Existing law requires the conservancy to prepare a San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Parkway and Open Space Plan with specified elements to be approved by specified entities. This bill would require the conservancy to update the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Parkway and Open Space Plan to include the priorities for conservation and enhanced public use within the Dominguez Channel watershed and Santa Catalina Island.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and special education local plan areas to identify, locate, and assess individuals with exceptional needs and to provide those pupils with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and with special education and related services as reflected in an individualized education program. This bill would establish the Supporting Inclusive Practices project, to be administered by the State Department of Education through the provision of grant funds, upon appropriation, to department-designated lead local educational agencies, as defined. The bill would require the project to have certain goals, including increasing opportunities for pupils with disabilities to meaningfully participate in general education. The bill would require the department, in awarding grant funds, to prioritize local educational agencies that are identified as not meeting specified standards pursuant to federal and state law. The bill would require a local educational agency that receives a grant to provide the department with specified data. The bill would require, on or before June 30 of each year until any and all funds appropriated for these purposes have been expended, the project to submit a report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. The bill would require the project to, among other requirements, create and disseminate technical assistance that includes developing and disseminating guidance on building state and local capacity to establish and sustain inclusive education practices. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2022, the department and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to develop and disseminate joint guidance clarifying the ways in which inclusive classrooms and placements may be staffed under current law, as provided. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2022, the department and the commission to submit a report to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature with recommendations for statutory or regulatory changes necessary to eliminate barriers to the staffing of inclusive placements. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, to issue guidance clarifying ways in which early education inclusive placements may be expanded and established under current law to increase access and quality across programs, as provided. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Department of Social Services, on or before January 1, 2022, to submit a report to the Legislature on any recommendations for statutory or regulatory changes to eliminate barriers to the establishment and expansion of early education inclusive placements, as provided. (2) Existing law establishes in state government the Instructional Quality Commission, which is required to be composed of, as part of its membership, 13 public members, as provided. Existing law requires at least 7 of the 13 public members to be persons who have become recognized authorities or experienced practitioners in their field, as provided. This bill would require at least one of those members to be a recognized authority or experienced practitioner in the principles and strategies of universal design for learning, as defined. Existing law requires the commission to, among other things, study and evaluate instructional materials submitted for adoption and recommend instructional materials for adoption to the State Board of Equalization. This bill would require the commission, in establishing evaluation criteria for the adoption of instructional materials, to assess the extent to which instructional materials submitted for state adoption use as a foundation the principles and strategies of universal design for learning, as defined, throughout the core instructional program designed for all pupils.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Education, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state. Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. This bill would establish the Computer Science Access Initiative to be administered by the department in consultation with the commission. The bill would require the department to award grants, on or before July 1, 2021, to eligible entities for the purpose of increasing the number of teachers authorized and trained to instruct pupils in computer science, as specified. The bill would require a grant recipient to submit to the department, in a form and manner determined by the department, a report containing certain information measuring the results of the use of grant funds. The bill would provide that the operation of these provisions is contingent on an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes.
Existing law requires the State Department of Education to award grants for the establishment of Family Empowerment Centers on Disability in 32 regions in the state to provide training and services to children and young adults with disabilities and their families. Existing law establishes a minimum base rate of $150,000 for each center awarded a grant and requires a center that receives a grant to complete specified actions related to providing that training and those services. Existing law establishes a Family Empowerment and Disability Council composed of the executive directors of the centers and certain other members, establishes a base amount of $150,000 to be made available annually to the council, and requires the council to, among other actions, develop a uniform tracking and data collection system to be used by each center. This bill would revise and recast the provisions related to Family Empowerment Centers on Disability, including requiring the department to give priority to grant applicants in those of the 32 regions in the state that do not have a center, increasing the minimum base rate for each center awarded a grant from $150,000 to $237,000 commencing with the start of the fiscal year after a center has been established in each of the 32 regions, and, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, providing for an annual cost-of-living adjustment of the grant amount, as specified. The bill would also increase the base amount to be made available annually to the council from $150,000 to $237,000. The bill would impose additional requirements on centers as a condition of receiving a grant and would require the department, among other actions, to, on or before June 30, 2022, develop a data collection template for use by centers and provide guidance to centers on how to define and report data. The bill would make implementation of the bill's provisions contingent upon an appropriation being made in the annual Budget Act or another statute for its purposes.
Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to determine the amount of funding to be provided for each special education local plan area in accordance with specified calculations. Existing law requires the Superintendent, for the 2013–14 fiscal year, to compute an equalization adjustment for each special education local plan area for purposes of increasing the funding rates for special education local plan areas with funding rates below the 90th percentile, as specified. This bill would increase that percentile to the 95th percentile and would require the Superintendent to compute that equalization adjustment commencing with the first fiscal year after funds are apportioned pursuant to a specified formula and for each fiscal year thereafter in which an equalization appropriation is made, as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent to make certain computations following each year in which an equalization appropriation is made. The bill would establish the high-cost service allowance for the purpose of providing supplemental funding to a special education local plan area on the basis of the number of pupils who are severely disabled and the number of pupils with both deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury, or multiple disabilities, and would require the Superintendent to make specified computations that would determine the high-cost service allowance for each special education local plan area. The bill would require, commencing with the first fiscal year after funds are apportioned pursuant to a specified formula, a special education local plan area that reports serving children 3 or 4 years of age who meet the definition of an "individual with exceptional needs" to count 3 times all units of average daily attendance generated by children enrolled in kindergarten less those children eligible for transitional kindergarten, for purposes of calculating units of average daily attendance, except as provided. By adding to the duties of special education local plan areas, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law defines "average daily attendance reported for the special education local plan area" for purposes of these and other provisions to mean the total number of units of average daily attendance reported in the school district or districts and in the county office of education or county offices of education, or portion of a county office of education that is a part of more than one special education local plan area, as specified. The bill would revise that definition to mean the total number of units of average daily attendance reported for the current school year or the prior school year, whichever is greater, in those same entities, as specified. 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 state that the Legislature should stop speaking of climate change and instead speak of the climate crisis.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. Pursuant to the act, the state board has adopted the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard regulations. This bill would require the state board, through a public process, to consider before January 1, 2023, allowing renewable natural gas or biogas that is delivered via a common carrier pipeline to a crude oil production or transport facility from a source that the state board determines directly reduces emissions of methane in the state to generate specified credits under the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard regulations.
(1) Existing law requires all local agency officials to receive training in ethics, at specified intervals, if the local agency provides any type of compensation, salary, or stipend to those officials. Existing law defines "local agency," for these purposes, to mean a city, county, city and county, charter city, charter county, charter city and county, or special district. Existing law also defines "local agency official" to include members of local agency legislative bodies or elected local agency officials who receive any type of compensation, salary, or stipend or reimbursement in the performance of official duties, as specified. This bill would include a school district, county office of education, and charter school in the definition of "local agency." The bill would include in the definition of "local agency official" any member of a governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school, whether or not that member receives any type of compensation, salary, or stipend or reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of official duties. The bill would also require local agency officials who serve a school district, county office of education, or charter school as of January 1, 2022, to receive the ethics training required by specified law before January 1, 2023, and at least every 2 years thereafter, except as specified. This bill would also require all local educational agency officials, as defined to include any member of a governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school, to receive training in K–12 public education governance laws, as defined, at least once every 4 years. The bill would authorize a local educational agency or an association of local educational agencies to offer these training courses or to arrange for its officials to receive this training from an outside entity, as specified. The bill would require local educational agencies to maintain specified records related to any ethics training they require of their officials. By imposing new duties on school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 Oil Trust Fund in the State Treasury and appropriates the money in the fund to the State Lands Commission commencing when specified requirements are met. Existing law requires the Controller to transfer certain oil-revenue-related moneys to the fund. Existing law requires the commission to expend the money in the fund to finance the costs of well abandonment, pipeline removal, facility removal, remediation, and other costs associated with removal of oil and gas facilities from the Long Beach tidelands. Existing law prohibits the total amount deposited in the fund from exceeding $300,000,000 and requires all interest earned on money in the fund after the balance in the fund totals $300,000,000 to be transferred to the General Fund. This bill would delete the provisions relating to the limit on the total amount deposited in the fund. By increasing the amount of money that may be deposited into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law, the Escrow Law, requires people engaging in business as escrow agents to be organized as corporations for that purpose, as specified, and appropriately licensed by the Commissioner of Business Oversight. Existing law requires an escrow agent licensed on or after January 1, 1986, to maintain a tangible net worth of $50,000, including liquid assets of at least $25,000 in excess of current liabilities. Existing law required an escrow agent licensed before January 1, 1986, to maintain an increasing tangible net worth pursuant to a prescribed schedule, the amounts of which, by 1993, matched the requirements for escrow agents licensed on and after January 1, 1986. This bill would delete obsolete provisions by deleting the tangible net worth schedule for escrow agents licensed before January 1, 1986, as described above, and the distinctions in this context based on when an agent was licensed.