Asm. Tasha Boerner

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The missions and functions of these segments are set forth in the Donahoe Higher Education Act. The Student Voter Registration Act of 2003 requires the Secretary of State to annually provide every high school and University of California campus, and authorizes the Secretary of State to annually provide every community college and California State University campus, with voter registration forms, as specified. The act also requires the California State University and the California Community Colleges to implement a process and the infrastructure to allow a person who enrolls online at the institution to submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the internet website of the Secretary of State. The act encourages the University of California to comply with this provision. This bill would establish the Student Civic and Voter Empowerment Program to be conducted by the Secretary of State, in partnership with the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California. The bill would require each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and request each campus of the University of California, (1) to distribute, in consultation with the Secretary of State, campuswide emails to all students with specified voting- and election-related dates and information, and to include specified dates on all print and online academic calendars, (2) to post on social media reminders to students of specified voter-related dates and information, and (3) to designate one person per campus as the Civic and Voter Empowerment Coordinator with specified responsibilities, including developing a Civic and Voter Empowerment Action Plan. The bill would require the Secretary of State to evaluate the program each year, and to report to the Legislature the results of the evaluation on or before January 1, 2021, and annually thereafter. The bill would require the Secretary of State to develop a Students Vote Project to implement these requirements. By imposing additional duties on community college districts, 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.

Existing law requires the airport manager of an airport operated by a city, county, city and county, or airport district that conducts commercial operations and that has more than one million enplanements a year, or upon new terminal construction or the replacement, expansion, or renovation of an existing terminal, to provide a room or other location at each airport terminal behind the airport security screening area for members of the public to express breast milk in private. Existing law imposes various requirements on transit operators and on buildings open to the public. This bill would require specific multimodal transit stations, and multimodal transit stations that meet certain criteria, that begin construction or a renovation on or after January 1, 2021, to include a lactation room. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on a local agency, 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.

(1) Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, to provide that if an enrollee, insured, or subscriber (individual) receives covered services from a noncontracting air ambulance provider, the individual shall pay no more than the same cost sharing that the individual would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting air ambulance provider, referred to as the in-network cost-sharing amount. The bill would provide that an individual would not owe the noncontracting provider more than the in-network cost-sharing amount for services. The bill would authorize a noncontracting provider to advance to collections only the in-network cost-sharing amount that the individual has failed to pay. The bill would authorize a health care service plan, health insurer, or provider to seek relief in any court for the purpose of resolving a payment dispute, and would not prohibit a provider from using a health care service plan's or health insurer's existing dispute resolution processes. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, effective until January 1, 2022, imposes a penalty of $4 until January 1, 2020, upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. The act requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to that act to the Treasurer for deposit into the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund. Under the act, moneys in the fund are made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for children's health care coverage and administrative costs relating to emergency medical air transportation provider payments. Existing law requires the assessed penalty to continue to be collected, administered, and distributed until exhausted or until June 30, 2021, whichever occurs first, and requires any remaining unexpended and unencumbered moneys in the fund to be transferred to the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including funding children's health care coverage. This bill would impose the penalty until July 1, 2020, and would extend the above-specified dates by six months. (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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law establishes the California State University under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, the University of California under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, and independent institutions of higher education as 3 of the segments of postsecondary education in the state. Existing law, the Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards, the Cal Grant C Awards, and the Cal Grant T Awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying postsecondary educational institutions. Existing law requires each participating postsecondary educational institution to annually report specified information regarding its undergraduate programs in order to be a qualifying institution. This bill would require, on or before June 30, 2020, and on or before June 30 of every year thereafter through 2024, the trustees, the regents, and the appropriate governing bodies of each independent institution of higher education that is a qualifying institution as defined under the Cal Grant Program to report to the appropriate budget subcommittees and policy committees of the Legislature whether their respective institutions provide any manner of preferential treatment in admission to applicants on the basis of their relationships to donors or alumni of the institution. If the institution provides such preferential treatment, the bill would require the institution to also report specified admissions and enrollment information regarding these applicants for the academic year commencing in the previous calendar year.

Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which is permitted to adjudge certain children to be dependents of the court under certain circumstances, and prescribes various hearings and other procedures for these purposes. Existing law prohibits the court from terminating dependency jurisdiction over a nonminor who has reached 18 years of age until a hearing is conducted and the county welfare department has submitted a report verifying that specified information, documents, and services have been provided to the nonminor. This bill would revise and recast these provisions to, among other things, require the county welfare department to submit reports at the first regularly scheduled review hearing after a dependent child has attained 16 years of age and at the last regularly scheduled review hearing before a dependent child attains 18 years of age, and at every regularly scheduled review hearing thereafter, verifying that the county has provided certain of the above-described information, documents, and services, and additional financial literacy information, to the child. By increasing the reporting duties of county welfare 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , the State Air Resources Board, electrical corporations, and the motor vehicle industry, to evaluate policies to develop infrastructure sufficient to overcome any barriers to the widespread deployment and use of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission and the State Air Resources Board, to direct electrical corporations to file applications for programs and investments to accelerate widespread transportation electrification to achieve specified results. Existing law requires the PUC to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including those that deploy charging infrastructure, through a reasonable cost recovery mechanism, under certain circumstances. Existing law requires the PUC to consider facilitating the development of technologies that promote grid integration. This bill would require the PUC, by December 31, 2020, in an existing proceeding, to establish strategies and quantifiable metrics to maximize the use of feasible and cost-effective electric vehicle grid integration by January 1, 2030, as specified. The bill would require the PUC to reference the electric vehicle grid integration strategies in relevant ongoing and subsequent proceedings that address issues of transportation electrification in any part and to identify how programs and investments that the PUC may approve will advance the achievement of the strategies. The bill would require the PUC, when executing its transportation electrification responsibilities, to consider how, or if, electric vehicle grid integration can mitigate any generation, transmission, or distribution costs, or increase the economic, social, or environmental benefits associated with transportation electrification, and to not foreclose future utilization of electric vehicle grid integration. The bill would require electrical corporations and community choice aggregators to provide to the PUC certain information relating to the electric vehicle integration strategies. The bill would require each local publicly owned electric utility serving more than 700 gigawatthours of annual electrical demand, in each integrated resource plan update adopted on and after January 1, 2020, to consider establishing electric vehicle grid integration strategies and evaluating how its existing and planned programs further those strategies. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the above provisions amend the Public Utilities Act, and the PUC would be required to issue an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement to implement those provisions, a violation of any of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Further, because the bill would impose additional duties on local publicly owned electric utilities and community choice aggregators, which are local agencies, 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 specified reasons.

The Personal Income Tax Law provides for various exclusions from gross income, including an exclusion for the amount of student loan indebtedness repaid or canceled pursuant to a specified federal law. This bill would exclude from gross income the amount of student loan indebtedness discharged on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2024, for an eligible individual who is granted a discharge under specified conditions, as provided, including that the individual attended a Brightwood College school or a location of The Art Institute of California. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law provides for the out-of-home placement, including foster care placement, of children who are unable to remain in the custody and care of their parents, and imposes various requirements on the county child welfare agency in regard to arranging and overseeing the foster care placement. Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state that all minors and nonminors in foster care have specified rights, including, among others, the right to receive medical, dental, vision, and mental health services, the right to be placed in out-of-home care according to their gender identity, regardless of the gender or sex listed in their court or child welfare records, the right to review their own case plan and plan for permanent placement if the child is 12 years of age or older and in a permanent placement, and the right to attend Independent Living Program classes and activities if the child meets applicable age requirements. This bill would instead require all children and nonminor dependents in foster care to have these rights and would revise various rights, including providing the right to review their own case plan and plan for permanent placement to children 10 years of age or older regardless of whether they are in a permanent placement and the right to not be prevented from attending Independent Living Program classes by the caregiver as a punishment. The bill would include additional rights, including, among others, the right to be referred to by the child's preferred name and gender pronoun, the right to maintain the privacy of the child's sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, except as provided, and the right to have reasonable access to computer technology and the internet. To the extent that the bill would impose additional duties on counties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson within the State Department of Social Services and sets forth the duties of the office, including disseminating information on the services provided by the office and rights of children and youth in foster care, developing standardized information explaining those rights, and compiling and making available to the Legislature all data collected by the office, including specified data regarding complaints made to the office and investigations conducted by the office. This bill would additionally require the office to provide training and technical assistance to foster youth, social workers, and child welfare organizations, among others, on the rights of children and youth in foster care, reasonable and prudent parent standards, and services provided by the office. The bill would require the office to review amendments to laws applicable to foster youth at the end of every two-year legislative session and determine whether updates to the foster care rights should be recommended in the compilation of data prepared by the office and made available to the Legislature. Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensing and regulation of community care facilities, including foster family homes and group homes, by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires certain community care facilities that provide care to foster children to either provide each schooolage child and the child's authorized representative with an orientation that includes an explanation of the rights of the child or post a listing of the above-described rights. This bill would require the department to ensure that those facilities accord children and nonminor dependents in foster care with their personal rights, including the above-described rights. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to implement these provisions, and would authorize the department to implement these provisions by written directives until regulations are adopted. 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.

Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and under the supervision of the Director of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or human-made disasters and emergencies. Existing law defines the terms "political subdivision" and "emergency plans" for purposes of emergency services provided by local governments. Existing law requires a county, upon the next update to its emergency plan, to integrate access and functional needs into its emergency plan, as specified. This bill would require a county to integrate cultural competence, as defined, into its emergency plan upon the next update to its emergency plan, as specified. The bill would also require a county to provide a forum for community engagement in geographically diverse locations in order to engage with culturally diverse communities, as defined, within its jurisdiction. The bill would authorize a county to establish a community advisory board for the purpose of cohosting, coordinating, and conducting outreach for the community engagement forums. By increasing the duties of local officials, 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.

(1) Existing law establishes the State Coastal Conservancy, and prescribes the membership and functions and duties of the conservancy with regard to the protection, preservation, and enhancement of specified coastal lands in the state. Existing law authorizes the conservancy to address the impacts and potential impacts of climate change on resources within its jurisdiction, and to undertake certain projects within that designated area. Existing law authorizes the conservancy to award grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations for certain projects that address the effects of climate change, and, to the extent allowed, to prioritize projects that maximize public benefits, including, but not limited to, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, reducing hazards to harbors and ports, preserving and enhancing coastal wetlands and natural lands, conserving biodiversity, and providing recreational opportunities. The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary direct election as Proposition 68, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,000,000,000 for the purpose of financing a drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all program. The act authorizes, upon appropriation by the Legislature, $40,000,000 of those bond funds for projects that assist coastal communities, including those reliant on commercial fisheries, with adaption to climate change, including projects that address ocean acidification, sea level rise, or habitat restoration and protection, among other things. Existing law requires the Office of Planning and Research, in coordination with appropriate entities, to establish a clearinghouse for climate adaption information, as provided. This bill would require specified things of the conservancy when it allocates any funding appropriated pursuant to the act, including that it prioritize projects that use natural infrastructure, as defined, in coastal communities to help adapt to climate change. The bill would require the conservancy to provide information to the Office of Planning and Research on any projects funded pursuant to the above provision to be considered for inclusion into the clearinghouse for climate adaption information. The bill would authorize the conservancy to provide technical assistance to coastal communities to better assist them with their projects that use natural infrastructure. (2) Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency every 3 years to update the state's climate adaptation strategy, known as the plan. As part of the update, existing law requires the agency to coordinate with other state agencies to identify a lead agency or group of agencies to lead adaptation efforts in each sector. Existing law requires state agencies to work to maximize specified objectives, including the objective of promoting the use of the plan to inform planning decisions and ensure that state investments consider climate change impacts, as well as promote the use of natural systems and natural infrastructure, when developing physical infrastructure to address adaptation. Existing law defines natural infrastructure for these purposes. This bill would revise the definition of natural infrastructure. (3) Existing law requires each local planning agency to prepare and the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and of any land outside its boundaries that in the planning agency's judgment bears relation to its planning. Existing law requires the plan to contain specified elements, including a safety element, which existing law requires to be reviewed and updated as necessary to address climate adaption and resiliency strategies, as provided. Existing law requires the review to include specified things, including a set of feasible implementation measures designed to carry out goals, policies, and objectives, as provided, including the identification of natural infrastructure that may be used in adaption projects. Existing law defines natural infrastructure for these purposes. This bill would revise the definition of natural infrastructure. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on a local planning agency, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65302 of the Government Code proposed by SB 99 and SB 182 to be operative only if this bill and SB 99 or SB 182, or both, are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 31113 of the Public Resources Code proposed by SB 576 to be operative only if this bill and SB 576 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (6) 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.