Sen. Aisha Wahab

This measure would proclaim August 2023 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2023 in California. The measure would recognize the unique benefits that breastfeeding provides, as specified, and would affirm that Californians should work to ensure that barriers to initiation and continuation of breastfeeding are removed. The measure would encourage Californians to work together to explore ways to, among other things, improve women's access to breastfeeding support services in medical, social, and employment settings.

Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute rape, including an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. Existing law also makes it a misdemeanor to sexually assault certain animals for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desires of a person. Existing law makes it a crime to engage in certain types of conduct against a dependent adult or dependent person, including, among others, committing certain sexual acts upon a dependent person. This bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person, 18 years of age or older, to knowingly and willfully sanction or solemnize a marriage or domestic partnership between a minor and another person. The bill would make a violation of these provisions punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year per incident. The bill would exclude a marriage or domestic partnership entered into after receiving a court order, as specified. Because a violation of the provisions would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.

(1) 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 provides, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, that $300,000,000 shall be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for 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. This bill instead would provide, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, that $450,000,000 shall be made available to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. The bill would delete the prohibition against an applicant being awarded more than the amount determined by the allocation formula. (2) Existing law requires grant applicants to meet minimum requirements, including, among other things, reporting to the Superintendent of Public Instruction data on the number of pupils completing career technical education coursework. This bill would require applicants to additionally report data on the number of pupils completing a career technical education pathway consisting of a sequence of 2 or more career technical education courses in the same career technical education subject matter discipline. (3) Existing law requires the Superintendent to take specified actions for purposes of administering the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program. This bill would require the Superintendent to establish, in collaboration with the executive director of the State Board of Education, a stakeholder workgroup, as specified, on or before June 30, 2024, to consider and provide recommendations on maximizing career technical education opportunities for pupils, as provided, and to report those recommendations to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Governor by January 31, 2025. The bill would require the Superintendent to ensure a level of professional staffing within the department that is dedicated to career technical education, sufficient to effectively administer the program and other federal and state career technical education programs, as specified. (4) Existing law requires the K–12 Workforce Pathway Coordinators and the K–14 Technical Assistance Providers to provide technical assistance and support to grant recipients, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, instead require $12,000,000 to be made available to the department, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute, to provide regional career technical education coordinators for the provision of technical assistance and support to local educational agencies in implementing all of their career technical education courses, programs, and pathways, as provided. (5) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes the Strong Workforce Program to provide funding to career technical education regional consortia made up of community college districts, as specified. Existing law also establishes a K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program. Existing law provides that, commencing with the 2018–19 fiscal year, the amount appropriated in the annual Budget Act for the K–12 component of the program is used to create, support, or expand high-quality career technical education programs at the K–12 level that are aligned with the workforce development efforts occurring through the program. This bill would, as of July 1, 2024, repeal the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program and would require the administration of any outstanding allocations for the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program to be administered by the department pursuant to the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program.

Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states. Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds received through the TANF program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits, including allowances for other purposes such as pregnancy, homeless assistance, and recurring special needs, to qualified low-income families. This bill would, beginning April 1, 2025, make a menstruating person who is qualified for aid under the CalWORKs program and between 10 and 55 years of age, inclusive, entitled to $20 per month to assist with menstrual product costs. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to work with the County Welfare Directors Association of California and the California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS) to develop and implement the necessary system changes on or before April 1, 2025. By increasing the duties of counties administering the CalWORKs program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. 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 each county to provide aid to its indigent residents not supported by other means. These county programs are known as general assistance programs. Existing law requires the board of supervisors of every county to, among other things, investigate every application for relief from the funds of the county, to supervise every person receiving that relief, and to keep full and complete records of the investigation, supervision, relief, and rehabilitation. Existing law requires those records to be confidential and not be open to examination or inspection, except as specified. This bill would provide that those provisions do not prohibit sharing of confidential information for purposes directly connected with the administration of relief or with the administration of public social services, as defined.

The California Constitution provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California, and federal law permanently enjoins the state from enforcing this constitutional provision. This measure would repeal this unenforceable constitutional provision and would instead provide that the right to marry is a fundamental right, as specified.

This measure would proclaim October 5, 2023, as Latina Equal Pay Day in California, in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all.

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 until the dependent child attains 21 years of age. Existing law also authorizes the juvenile court to resume jurisdiction over a nonminor who has attained 18 years of age, but not yet attained 21 years of age, and for whom the court has dismissed dependency, delinquency, or transition jurisdiction. Existing law, the California Fostering Connections to Success Act, revises and expands the scope of various programs relating to the provision of cash assistance and other services to and for the benefit of certain foster and adopted children, and other children who have been placed in out-of-home care, including children who receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) , Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) , California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) , and Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment (Kin-GAP) benefits. Among other provisions, the act extends specified foster care benefits to nonminor dependents up to 21 years of age, if specified conditions are met. Existing law defines a nonminor dependent for these purposes as a foster child who is a current dependent child or ward of the juvenile court, or who is a nonminor under the transition jurisdiction of the juvenile court pursuant to a voluntary reentry agreement, and in accordance with a transitional independent living case plan who has attained 18 years of age while under an order of foster care placement by the juvenile court and is not older than 21 years of age. This bill would, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, require the State Department of Social Services to administer a 3-year pilot program in at least 3 counties that choose to participate to extend foster care services to nonminor dependents up to 22 years of age if the nonminor dependent is experiencing homelessness or is at reasonable risk of homelessness if they are not under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Under the pilot program, the bill would expand the jurisdiction of the juvenile court to include, as a nonminor dependent, a nonminor who is 21 years of age and who was previously under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court if the juvenile court makes a finding on the record by a preponderance of the evidence that the nonminor is experiencing homelessness or is at reasonable risk of homelessness if they are not under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, among other requirements, would expand the eligibility of foster care by revising the definition of nonminor dependent to include a foster child who meets the above-described requirements and is 21 years of age if the court makes that same finding, and would make these nonminor dependents eligible for benefits under AFDC-FC, CalWORKs, Kin-GAP, and AAP. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.

This measure would designate May 9, 2023, as National Fentanyl Awareness Day.