Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate community care facilities, including foster family homes, certified family homes of licensed foster family agencies, and group homes. Existing law requires that persons providing care or services at these homes or facilities obtain either a criminal record clearance or an exemption from disqualification from the department, as prescribed. Existing law authorizes a child welfare agency to secure from an appropriate governmental criminal justice agency the state summary criminal history information for specified purposes, including an assessment of the appropriateness of placing a child subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court with a relative or nonrelative extended family member. Existing law also requires the Department of Justice to provide information contained in the Child Abuse Central Index to the State Department of Social Services, or to any county licensing agency that has contracted with the state for the performance of licensing duties. This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services and county child welfare agencies to share information with respect to applicants, licensees, certificates, or individuals who have been the subject of any administrative action resulting in the denial, suspension, probation, or revocation of a license, permit, or certificate, or in the exclusion of a person from a facility who is subject to a background check. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to provide, upon the request of a county child welfare agency, a list of each person who has received a criminal records exemption related to a licensed or certified foster home, so that the county may assess the appropriateness of placing a child in the foster home with which the individual is associated. The bill would also authorize the department to share with the county child welfare agency summary information, as defined, related to a criminal record clearance or exemption granted by the department, except as otherwise limited by state or federal law. The bill would prohibit the department from disclosing the names of individuals who are not the subject of the exemption request or disclosing more information than is necessary, as determined by the department and in accordance with state and federal law, to assess the appropriateness of placing a child in a licensed or certified foster home. The bill would require the department to issue an all-county letter on or before March 1, 2015, that specifies the process by which a county may request summary information, how the information will be issued by the department, and how the information may be used by a county.
Sponsored bills
The California Public Records Act requires public records to be open to inspection at all times during the office hours of the state or local agency that retains those records, and provides that every person has a right to inspect any public record, except as provided. Existing law requires a business to take reasonable steps to protect unintended disclosure of customer information and limits the way personal information on customers can be used and disseminated. This bill would prohibit a person, as defined, who publishes a booking photograph, as defined, via print or electronic means from soliciting, requiring, or accepting a fee or other consideration from a subject individual, as defined, to remove, correct, modify, or to refrain from publishing or otherwise disseminating that photograph, as specified. The bill would authorize a subject individual who is aggrieved by a violation of these provisions to bring a civil suit to recover the greater of actual damages or a $1,000 penalty for each violation, as specified.
This measure would state the Legislature's support for the memorandum of understanding for establishing strategic partnerships between California and Israel.
This measure would recognize the 50th anniversary of the state's leadership and innovation in coastal planning and management and would proclaim February 16, 2015, and each 3rd Monday of February thereafter, as "Safeguard Our Coast Day."
This measure would declare the month of May 2014 as Foster Care Month.
This bill would call a special election to be consolidated with the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit to the voters at the November 4, 2014, consolidated election an advisory question asking whether the Congress of the United States should propose, and the California Legislature should ratify, an amendment or amendments to the United States Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) 558 U.S. 310, and other applicable judicial precedents, as specified. The bill would require the Secretary of State to communicate the results of this election to the Congress of the United States. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an act calling an election.
An existing provision of the California Constitution, which has been held unenforceable, states that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in this state. An existing statutory provision likewise provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in this state. This bill would repeal that statutory provision. Existing statutory law provides that marriage is a personal relationship arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman. Under existing law, a marriage contracted outside this state that would be valid by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the marriage was contracted is valid in this state, except that a marriage between 2 persons of the same sex contracted outside this state is valid in this state only if the marriage was contracted prior to November 5, 2008. This bill would instead provide that marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between 2 persons, and would make conforming changes with regard to the consent to, and solemnization of, marriage. The bill would also delete the limitation on the validity of marriages contracted outside this state between 2 persons of the same sex. Under existing law, a reference to "husband" and "wife," "spouses," or "married persons," or a comparable term, includes persons who are lawfully married to each other and persons who were previously lawfully married to each other, as is appropriate under the circumstances of the particular case. The bill would delete references to "husband" or "wife" in the Family Code and would instead refer to a "spouse," and would make other related changes. Existing law establishes, except as specified, a rebuttable presumption of decreased need for spousal support if the supported party is cohabiting with a person of the opposite sex. This bill would make that rebuttable presumption of decreased need for spousal support applicable if the supported party is cohabitating with a "nonmarital partner." This bill would declare that the purpose of the act is to clarify that laws relating to marriage and the rights and responsibilities of spouses apply equally to opposite-sex and same-sex spouses and that the changes are not intended to affect existing decisional law otherwise interpreting the laws amended in the act.
Existing law authorizes a court to punish for acts of contempt, including authorizing a court to direct the incarceration of a defendant until he or she complies with the court's order. Existing law prohibits a court from imprisoning or otherwise taking into custody the victim of a sexual assault or domestic violence crime for contempt of court if the contempt consists of refusing to testify about the sexual assault or domestic violence crime. This bill would additionally prohibit a court from imprisoning, holding in physical confinement, as defined, or otherwise taking into custody persistently or habitually truant minors for contempt of court if the contempt consists of the minor's failure to comply with a court order to attend school. The bill would authorize a court, if those minors are found to be in contempt of court for that reason, to issue any other lawful order, as necessary, to secure the minor's attendance at school. Existing law subjects a person who is under 18 years of age who engages in certain noncriminal behavior, including, among other things, persistent or habitual truancy or failure to obey the reasonable and proper orders or directions of school authorities to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court. Existing law prohibits a minor from being detained in a secure facility, as defined, if he or she is taken into custody solely upon the ground that he or she is a person described above or adjudged a ward of the juvenile court solely upon that ground, except as provided. This bill would prohibit a minor from being detained in a secure facility, as defined, solely upon the ground that he or she is in willful disobedience or interference with any lawful order of the juvenile court, if the basis of the order of contempt is persistent or habitual truancy, and would authorize a court to issue any other lawful order, as necessary, to secure the minor's school attendance. The bill would make a related declaration of legislative intent.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to enact legislation that would establish reasonable deadlines for the prohibition of the testing and marketing of cosmetic products that have been tested on animals. The measure would also urge the federal government to mandate alternative methods to animal testing of cosmetic products and to prioritize the validation and acceptance of additional nonanimal tests.