Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for the establishment of local educational agencies to operate these schools and provide instruction to pupils. Existing law states the policy of the State of California to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other specified characteristic, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state. Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying, as specified, and has publicized that policy to pupils, parents, employees, agents of the governing board, and the general public. This bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has provided to certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning pupils, as specified.
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Existing law regulates the payment of compensation to employees by employers and prohibits an employer from conditioning employment on requiring an employee to refrain from disclosing the amount of his or her wages, signing a waiver of the right to disclose the amount of those wages, or discriminating against an employee for making such a disclosure. Existing law generally prohibits an employer from paying an employee at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions. Existing law establishes exceptions to that prohibition where the payment is made pursuant to a seniority system, a merit system, a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a differential based on any bona fide factor other than sex. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer or other person acting either individually or as an officer, agent, or employee of another person to pay or cause to be paid to any employee a wage less than the rate paid to an employee of the opposite sex as required by these provisions, or who reduces the wages of any employee in order to comply with these provisions. This bill would revise that prohibition to eliminate the requirement that the wage differential be within the same establishment, and instead would prohibit an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than those paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, as specified. The bill would revise and recast the exceptions to require the employer to affirmatively demonstrate that a wage differential is based upon one or more specified factors, including a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a bona fide factor other than sex, as specified. The bill would also require the employer to demonstrate that each factor relied upon is applied reasonably, and that the one or more factors relied upon account for the entire differential. The bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, any employee by reason of any action taken by the employee to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of these provisions. The bill would authorize an employee who has been discharged or discriminated or retaliated against, in the terms and conditions of his or her employment because the employee engaged in any conduct delineated in these provisions, to recover in a civil action reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits caused by the acts of the employer, including interest thereon, as well as appropriate equitable relief. The bill would prohibit an employer from prohibiting an employee from disclosing the employee's own wages, discussing the wages of others, inquiring about another employee's wages, or aiding or encouraging any other employee to exercise his or her rights under these provisions. The bill would also increase the duration of employer recordkeeping requirements from 2 years to 3 years. By changing the definition of 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.
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing a state-mandated local program, and a final attestation for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon, or affected by, a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide a person, except as provided, immunity from civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug, or the person assisted the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug so long as the person did not assist with the ingestion of the drug, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct of a health care provider provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would also authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life, to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request, or to administer an aid-in-dying drug to an individual without their knowledge or consent. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to update those forms and would require the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to annually review a sample of certain information and records, make a statistical report of the information collected, and post that report to its Internet Web site. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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, the State Bar Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation. Existing law requires an attorney or law firm that receives or disburses trust funds to establish an interest-bearing demand trust account and to deposit in the account all client deposits that are nominal in amount or are on deposit for a short period of time. Existing law creates the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program, which is administered by the Student Aid Commission, to provide loan repayment assistance for licensed attorneys who practice or agree to practice in public interest areas of the law in California. Existing law provides for the escheat of property to the state. Existing law requires all property that escheats to the state to be deposited into the Abandoned Property Account in the Unclaimed Property Fund, which is continuously appropriated for specified purposes. Existing law establishes procedures for submitting a claim for property that has escheated. This bill would require funds in Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) that escheat to the state to be deposited into the Abandoned IOLTA Property Account, which would be established within the Unclaimed Property Fund. The bill would establish the IOLTA Claims Reserve Subaccount within the account and would require that 25% of IOLTA escheated funds be deposited into the subaccount to be used by the Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of paying refunds, claims, and costs associated with escheated IOLTA funds. The bill would require the balance of the escheated IOLTA funds to be transferred annually into the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Account to be established by this bill within the State Treasury for the purposes of providing, upon appropriation by the Legislature, additional funding to the Student Aid Commission for the administration of, and provision of loan assistance pursuant to, the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program.
Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) . Existing law requires POST to include in its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or both. Existing law also requires POST to establish and keep updated a continuing education classroom training course relating to law enforcement interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally ill persons. This bill would require POST to review the training module relating to persons with a mental illness, intellectual disability, or substance abuse disorder in its basic training course, and develop additional training to better prepare law enforcement officers to recognize, deescalate, and appropriately respond to persons with mental illness, intellectual disability, or substance use disorders. The bill would require that this training be at least 15 hours, address issues relating to stigma, be culturally relevant and appropriate, include training scenarios and facilitated learning activities, and be included in the current hour requirement of the regular basic course. The bill would also require POST to establish and keep updated a classroom-based continuing training course that includes instructor-led active learning relating to behavioral health and law enforcement interaction with persons with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, and substance use disorders. The bill would require that this continuing training course be at least 3 consecutive hours. The bill would require this course be made available to each law enforcement officer with a rank of supervisor or below and who is assigned to patrol duties or to supervise officers who are assigned to patrol duties. This bill would require implementation of the training module and continuing training course no later than August 1, 2016.
Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) . Existing law requires POST to include in its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or both. Existing law also requires POST to establish and keep updated a continuing education classroom training course relating to law enforcement interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally ill persons. This bill would require POST to require field training officers who are instructors for the field training program to have at least 8 hours of crisis intervention behavioral health training, as specified. The bill would also require POST to require as part of its existing field training officer course, at least 4 hours of training relating to competencies of the field training program and police training program that addresses how to interact with persons with mental illness or intellectual disability, to be completed as specified. By requiring local law enforcement field training officers to have at least 8 additional hours of training and imposing additional training costs on local law enforcement agencies, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law generally requires the Board of Parole Hearings to conduct youth offender parole hearings to consider the release of offenders who committed specified crimes when they were under 18 years of age and who were sentenced to state prison. This bill would change the dates by which the board is required to complete certain youth offender parole hearings. The bill would become operative only if SB 261 is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2016.
The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 authorizes an aggrieved employee to bring a civil action to recover specified civil penalties, that would otherwise be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, on behalf of the employee and other current or former employees for the violation of certain provisions affecting employees. The act provides the employer with the right to cure certain violations before the employee may bring a civil action, as specified. For other violations, the act requires the employee to follow specified procedures before bringing an action. Existing law requires an employer to provide its employees with specified information regarding their wages, including, among others, the inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is paid and the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer, either semimonthly or at the time of each wage payment and provides that the employer does not have the right to cure a violation of that requirement before an employee may bring a civil action under the act. This bill would provide an employer with the right to cure a violation of the requirement that an employer provide its employees with the inclusive dates of the pay period and the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer before an employee may bring a civil action under the act. The bill would provide that a violation of that requirement shall only be considered cured upon a showing that the employer has provided a fully compliant, itemized wage statement to each aggrieved employee, as specified. The bill would limit the employer's right to cure with respect to alleged violations of these provisions to once in a 12-month period, as specified. The bill would also delete references to obsolete provisions of law. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides that a person who (1) has been convicted of a felony and imprisoned in the state prison or incarcerated in a county jail for that conviction, (2) is granted a pardon by the Governor for specified reasons, and (3) has served the term or any part thereof for which he or she was imprisoned, may present a claim against the state to the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board for the pecuniary injury sustained by him or her through the erroneous conviction and imprisonment, as specified. Existing law provides an opportunity for the Attorney General to respond to a claim, and for a hearing on the claim, as specified. Existing law provides that if the evidence shows that the crime with which the claimant was charged was either not committed at all, or, if committed, was not committed by the claimant, and that the claimant has sustained pecuniary injury through his or her erroneous conviction and imprisonment, the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board shall report the facts of the case and its conclusions to the Legislature, with a recommendation that an appropriation be made by the Legislature for the purpose of indemnifying the claimant for the pecuniary injury. Existing law provides that the amount of the recommended appropriation shall be a sum equivalent to $100 per day of incarceration served after the claimant was convicted. This bill would expand the scope of a compensable injury to include nonpecuniary injuries. The bill would increase the amount of the recommended appropriation to $140 per day of incarceration served after the claimant was convicted, as specified. This bill would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes.
(1) Existing law authorizes certain persons, including, among others, any person 16 years of age or older, to have his or her proficiency in basic skills taught in public high schools verified according to criteria established by the State Department of Education. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to award a certificate of proficiency to persons who demonstrate that proficiency. Existing law requires the department to develop standards of competency in basic skills taught in public high schools and to provide for the administration of examinations prepared by, or with the approval of, the department to verify competency. Existing law authorizes the department to charge a fee for each examination application in an amount sufficient to recover the costs of administering the requirements of these provisions, but prohibits the fee from exceeding an amount equal to the cost of test renewal and administration per examination application. This bill would prohibit the department from charging the fee to a homeless child or youth who is under 25 years of age and can verify his or her status as a homeless child or youth. The bill would authorize a homeless services provider, as defined, that has knowledge of the examinee's housing status to verify the examinee's status for purposes of these provisions. The bill would provide that no additional state funds shall be appropriated for purposes of implementing the above provisions. The bill would authorize the state board to adopt emergency regulations for purposes of these provisions. (2) Existing law separately requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to issue a high school equivalency certificate and an official score report, or an official score report only, to a person who has not completed high school and who meets specified requirements, including, among others, having taken all or a portion of a general education development test that has been approved by the state board and administered by a testing center approved by the department, with a score determined by the state board to be equal to the standard of performance expected from high school graduates. Existing law authorizes the Superintendent to charge an examinee a one-time fee to pay costs related to administering these provisions and issuing a certificate, as specified. Existing law limits the amount of the fee to $20 per person and requires each scoring contractor to forward that fee to the Superintendent. This bill would, for purposes of those provisions, prohibit a contractor or testing center that charges its own separate fee from charging that separate fee to a homeless child or youth who is under 25 years of age and can verify his or her status as a homeless child or youth. The bill would authorize a homeless services provider, as defined, that has knowledge of the examinee's housing status to verify the examinee's status for purposes of these provisions. The bill would provide that no additional state funds shall be appropriated for purposes of implementing these provisions, and would authorize the Superintendent to adopt emergency regulations for purposes of these provisions. (3) Existing law establishes in the State Treasury a Special Deposit Fund Account, which consists of certain fees, and is continuously appropriated for the support of the department to be used for purposes of the provisions above relating to high school equivalency tests. This bill would authorize the Superintendent, until July 1, 2019, to use surplus funds, as defined, in the Special Deposit Fund Account to reimburse contractors for the loss of fees, if any, pursuant to provisions above relating to high school equivalency tests. By authorizing the expenditure of money in a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require a contract executed by the department for the provision of those tests to require a contracting party to accept all examinees, including those entitled to a fee waiver pursuant to those provisions. The bill also would require the department to include a provision in all memorandums of understanding with contractors for purposes of providing a high school equivalency test, that if the surplus funds in the Special Deposit Fund Account are depleted, the ongoing costs of a fee waiver for an examinee deemed eligible for a waiver shall be absorbed by the contractor. (4) This bill also would require the department, on or before December 1, 2018, to submit 2 reports to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, one relating to high school proficiency tests, and one relating to high school equivalency tests, that each include, among other things, the number of homeless youth that took a high school proficiency or equivalency test in each of the 2016, 2017, and 2018 calendar years, and the impact of the opportunity to take a high school proficiency or equivalency test at no cost on the number and percentage of homeless youth taking a high school proficiency or equivalency test.