Asm. Shirley N. Weber

Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. Existing law generally requires a recipient of CalWORKs benefits to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility for aid. Existing law requires that necessary supportive services be available to participants in welfare-to-work activities, including child care, personal counseling, transportation costs, and ancillary expenses. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

Existing law, until January 1, 2022, requires the court to select the term which, in the court's discretion, best serves the interests of justice, when a judgment of imprisonment is to be imposed and the statute specifies three possible terms. Commencing January 1, 2022, existing law requires the court to impose the middle term, unless there are circumstances in aggravation or mitigation of the crime. Existing law requires the fact that the intended victim of an attempted life term crime was a peace officer to be considered a circumstance in aggravation of the crime in imposing a term. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

(1) Under the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1986, the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1988, and the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of June 1992, the issuance, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, of bonds in an amount not to exceed $400,000,000, $600,000,000, and $900,000,000, respectively, and the expenditure of the revenues therefrom, were authorized for the purpose of aid to the University of California and the California State University for, among other things, the construction and equipping of educational facilities, as specified. Existing law establishes the Higher Education Facilities Finance Committee to administer those acts, and to authorize the issuance and sale of bonds to the extent necessary to fund the education facilities construction apportionments expressly authorized by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. More recently, the Class Size Reduction Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 1998, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2002, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004, and the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 authorized the issuance of bonds and the expenditure of revenues therefrom for the University of California and the California State University, as well as for the California Community Colleges and public elementary and secondary schools. Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds, and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 2020 which, upon approval by the state electorate, would authorize the issuance of state general obligation bonds in the total amount of $7,000,000,000. The proceeds of the bonds issued and sold under the bill would be available for the construction, reconstruction, and remodeling of existing or new facilities, as specified, at the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University in specified proportions, including $3,000,000,000 for the construction of new campuses of the California State University. (2) This bill would provide for the submission of the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 2020 to the voters at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election.

The Mental Health Services Act, an initiative statute enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election, funds a system of county mental health plans for the provision of mental health services. Among other provisions, the act declares the intent to establish a program with dedicated funding to remedy the shortage of qualified individuals to provide services to address severe mental illnesses. Existing law requires each county mental health plan to submit to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (office) a needs assessment identifying professional and occupational shortages in the county mental health programs, as specified. Existing law requires the office, in coordination with the California Behavioral Health Planning Council, to develop a 5-year education and training development plan, including expansion plans for loan forgiveness and scholarship programs offered to current and prospective public mental health system employees. Under existing law, the Health Professions Education Foundation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation established by the office, with various duties relating to the provision of scholarships and other types of financial assistance to students in the health professions from underrepresented groups with an interest in practicing in medically underserved areas. This bill would appropriate $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the office for the purpose of reducing the shortage of, and disparity in, mental health services across the state by performing one or more of specified actions, including the recruitment and support of students enrolled in a postsecondary educational institution, who are from both an underrepresented group and a mental health professional shortage area, as defined, to pursue mental health careers.

Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state. Under this system, local educational agencies, which include school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, at schoolsites throughout the state. 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 (LCFF) , as specified. This bill would, for each fiscal year, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to make an apportionment to local educational agencies that would equal the amounts apportioned in the supplemental grant provisions of the LCFF that are attributable to the number of reengaged opportunity youth, as defined, enrolled in that agency. The bill would require the funds apportioned pursuant to the bill to be used to serve the reengaged opportunity youth under the Opportunity Youth Reengagement Program, which the bill would establish. The bill would also authorize the expenditure of the above-referenced LCFF supplemental grant funds for purposes of the program. The bill would provide that a youth who is eligible to participate in the program funded under the bill would include a high school pupil formerly identified as a dropout, an expelled pupil, or a pupil who has not been enrolled for at least 90 days irrespective of designation, including, but not necessarily limited to, a pupil identified as a transfer pupil who has not reenrolled in a public elementary or secondary school for at least 90 days and a pupil who has been involved with the justice system, as specified. The bill would specify the reengagement services that could be provided to eligible youth by local educational agencies entering into agreements for provision of these services. The bill would require a local educational agency that receives funding under the bill to provide specified outcome data in its annual local control and accountability plan.

Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. The California State University comprises 23 institutions of higher education located throughout the state. This bill would require each campus of the California State University to make the purchase price of each student parking permit lower than the purchase price of any campus employee parking permit that is valid for the same date or dates, time period or periods, and general location or locations on campus as the student permit. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the parking rates set pursuant to this bill be implemented no later than the 2022–23 academic year.

Existing law generally provides for the compensation of victims and derivative victims of specified types of crimes by the California Victim Compensation Board from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for specified losses suffered as a result of those crimes. Existing law sets forth eligibility requirements and limits on the amount of compensation the board may award, and requires the application for compensation to be verified under penalty of perjury. This bill would require the board to provide reimbursement from the fund to any exonerated individual, as defined, for mental health services, as specified. By expanding the authorizations for use of moneys in the continuously appropriated Restitution Fund, this bill would make an appropriation.

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, as specified. Under the local control funding formula, an important component is the number of "unduplicated pupils," as defined to be pupils classified as English learners, as eligible for free or reduced-price meals, or as foster youth, for purposes of supplemental grants. This bill would, commencing with the 2019–20 fiscal year, adjust the definition of "unduplicated pupils" to include pupils who are included in the lowest performing subgroup or subgroups, as defined, based on the most recently available mathematics or language arts results on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually identify the lowest performing pupil subgroup or subgroups. The bill would require that implementation of these provisions be contingent upon the appropriation of funds for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or other statute.

Existing law establishes the Office of Farm to Fork within the Department of Food and Agriculture, and requires the office, to the extent that resources are available, to work with various entities, including, among others, the agricultural industry and other organizations involved in promoting food access, to increase the amount of agricultural products available to underserved communities and schools in the state. This bill would create the California Organic-to-School Pilot Program, to be administered by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, through the Office of Farm to Fork. The bill would require the secretary to expend moneys allocated for the program to provide grants for school food authorities to purchase California organic food products for school meals, as specified. The bill would require the secretary to consult with the State Department of Education to determine the recipients and amounts of grants awarded under the program. The bill would require a school food authority that receives a grant under the program to submit a report to the secretary containing specified information and would require the secretary to report to the Legislature on the outcomes of the program. The bill would make the implementation of its provisions contingent on a one-time appropriation being made for its purposes by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute.

Existing law requires, if the average daily attendance of the schools and classes maintained by a county superintendent of schools is 250 or more, each person who, after being employed for 2 complete consecutive school years by a county superintendent of schools in a teaching position in schools or classes maintained by the county superintendent of schools requiring certification qualifications, is reelected for the next succeeding school year to a teaching position to be classified as a permanent employee of the county superintendent of schools. Existing law requires an employee of a school district with an average daily attendance of 250 or more who, after having been employed by the school district for 2 complete consecutive school years in a position or positions requiring certification qualifications, is reelected for the next succeeding school year to a position requiring certification qualifications, at the commencement of the succeeding school year, to be classified as a permanent employee of the school district. This bill would instead require an employee of a county superintendent of schools, and an employee of the governing board of a school district, who, after being employed for 3 complete consecutive school years in a position or positions requiring certification qualifications, is reelected for the next succeeding school year to a position requiring certification qualifications, to be classified as a permanent employee of the county superintendent of schools or the school district. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that, to the extent these provisions conflict with any provision of a collective bargaining agreement entered into before January 1, 2020, by a public school employer and an exclusive bargaining representative, these provisions shall not apply until the expiration or renewal of that collective bargaining agreement. The bill would also make conforming changes and various other nonsubstantive changes. 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.