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 prohibits a health care service plan from expending for administrative costs, as defined, an excessive amount of the payments the plan receives for providing health care services to its subscribers and enrollees. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. The Insurance Commissioner is required to withdraw approval of an individual or mass-marketed health insurance policy if the commissioner finds that the benefits provided under the policy are unreasonable in relation to the premium charged, as specified. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits a health insurance issuer issuing health insurance coverage from establishing lifetime limits or unreasonable annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for any participant or beneficiary, as specified. The act also requires a health insurance issuer issuing health insurance coverage to comply with minimum medical loss ratios and to provide an annual rebate to each insured if the medical loss ratio of the amount of the revenue expended by the issuer on costs to the total amount of premium revenue is less than a certain percentage, as specified. This bill would require health care service plans and health insurers to comply with the requirements imposed under those federal provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care and the Insurance Commissioner to promulgate regulations and emergency regulations to implement requirements relating to medical loss ratios, as specified. Because a willful violation of those requirements with respect to health care service plans would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
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Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement one of several specified interventions for a school not identified as a persistently lowest-achieving school that, after one full school year, fails to meet specified criteria and has a specified percentage of parents and legal guardians of pupils sign a petition requesting the local educational agency to implement at least one of 5 specified interventions. Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement the intervention option requested by the petition unless the agency makes a specified finding in a regularly scheduled public hearing. Existing law limits the number of schools subject to a petition pursuant to these provisions to 75. This bill would require interventions to be implemented also for a school that is identified as persistently lowest-achieving but does not receive specified school improvement grant funding. The bill would require a governing board of a local educational agency to allow parents and legal guardians to provide testimony at the regularly scheduled public hearing. To the extent these provisions would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would prohibit more than one parent or legal guardian per pupil from signing a petition, and would require the petition, and, if the petition includes a specific charter school operator, a summary of the charter petition, to meet specified language requirements. The bill would require, if the petition includes a specific charter school operator, that the charter petition include specified elements. The bill would require that, if paid signature gatherers are being used, the petition include a statement indicating that some signature gatherers may be paid. The bill would require all parties involved in the signature gathering process to adhere to specified school procedures. The bill would require the State Department of Education to provide specified information on its Internet Web site, in easy to understand terms, regarding the petition process, the 5 intervention options that parents and legal guardians may request, a sample petition that meets specified requirements, and an up-to-date list of schools that have implemented an intervention pursuant to these provisions. The bill also would make clarifying changes to, and provide definitions for, those intervention petition provisions. The bill would require the schoolsite council at each school that is eligible for a petition to be submitted pursuant to these provisions to provide, at its next scheduled meeting, or a meeting within 90 days, whichever is sooner, information regarding the petition process, including the intervention options available and the process for submitting a petition. By imposing new duties on school districts, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (the Greene Act) , requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition, and requires the board to adopt rules and regulations for the administration of the Greene Act. The Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 (the 2006 Bond Act) sets aside $100,000,000 of the proceeds of the bonds sold under that act for incentive grants under the Greene Act to promote the use of design and materials in new construction and modernization projects that include the attributes of high-performance schools. Existing law authorizes a modernization apportionment to be used for an improvement to extend the useful life of, or to enhance the physical environment of, the school, and specifies the types of costs that may be included in the improvement. This bill would add the cost of designs and materials that support the characteristics of high-performance schools to the types of costs that may be included in the improvement. Existing law establishes the Career Technical Education Facilities Program to provide new construction and modernization grants to qualified local educational agencies for career technical education program facilities, and establishes a maximum grant amount per project. This bill also would make those new construction and modernization projects eligible for an incentive grant if the project meets the criteria prescribed in the 2006 Bond Act for incentive grants to high-performance schools. By allowing an existing appropriation to be spent for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.
(1) The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. Provisions of the act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make a provision applicable. Existing law requires that a student, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is an alien without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act, as of January 1, 2013, to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the regents, to establish procedures and forms that enable students who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the above-described provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to apply for, and participate in, all student aid programs administered by these segments to the full extent permitted by federal law, except as provided. This provision would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable. This bill would provide that students who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the above provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, are eligible to apply for, and participate in, any student financial aid program administered by the State of California to the full extent permitted by federal law. This bill would require the Student Aid Commission to establish procedures and forms that enable those students who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the above provision to apply for, and participate in, all student financial aid programs administered by the State of California to the full extent permitted by federal law. This bill would prohibit students who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the provision described above from being eligible for Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards unless specified conditions are met. The bill would make these provisions operative as of January 1, 2013. (2) Existing federal law requires that a state may provide that an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States is eligible for any state or local public benefit for which that alien would otherwise be ineligible under a specified federal law only through enactment of a state law that affirmatively provides for that eligibility. This bill would find and declare that the amendments to the Donahoe Higher Education Act described above are state laws within the meaning of this federal provision. (3) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction, for prescribed fees, at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the waiver of these fees for, among others, students who are eligible under income standards established by the board of governors. This bill, as of January 1, 2013, would require community college districts to waive the fees of students who are exempt from nonresident tuition under the provision described in (1) above, and who otherwise qualify for a waiver under this provision, under regulations and procedures adopted by the board of governors. Because the bill would impose new duties on community college districts with respect to determining eligibility for fee waivers, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 provides for the establishment and maintenance of subject matter projects by the Regents of the University of California with the approval of the Concurrence Committee. Existing law provides that these subject matter projects are to create opportunities for researchers, higher education faculty, and elementary and secondary school faculty to work together to identify exemplary teaching practices, examine and develop research on learning, knowledge, and educational materials, and provide support to teachers to develop and enhance content knowledge and pedagogical skills. Existing law requires the Concurrence Committee to provide a final report to the Governor and to appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on or before January 1, 2011, including specified information relating to the subject matter projects. This bill would add 2 areas of emphasis for the subject matter projects. The first would provide teachers with instructional strategies for delivering career-oriented, integrated academic and technical content in a manner that is linked to high-priority industry sectors identified in the California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards as adopted by the State Board of Education. The Concurrence Committee, in consultation with specified entities, would determine the priority of industry sectors. The 2nd would provide teachers with instructional strategies for ongoing collaboration on the delivery of career-oriented, integrated academic and technical content. The bill would enlarge the Concurrence Committee by adding a representative appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and make other changes. The bill would repeal the requirement of the January 1, 2011, report and, instead, require a report on or before January 1, 2016. This provision would be inoperative on January 1, 2018. This bill would add the goal of providing teachers with support in the implementation of career-oriented, integrated academic and technical courses that meet course requirements for admission to the University of California and the California State University, and align with high-priority industry sectors, as specified. Existing law authorizes 6 topical subject matter projects. This bill would add physical education, arts, and world language, as specified, as topical subject matter areas. Existing law establishes a project advisory board within each subject matter project. This bill would make various changes to the board structure, including decreasing representation of specified groups, and adding a representative selected by the advisory board who is from an industry sector that principally utilizes the discipline addressed by the project. Existing law requires the project advisory board of each statewide subject matter project to use specified criteria in recommending funding for local project sites. This bill would add a criterion for local project sites that serve middle or high school teachers and would require the project advisory board to give special consideration to sites that utilize or are preparing to utilize instructional strategies to deliver career-oriented, integrated academic and technical content. Existing law repeals the article relating to instructional strategies on January 1, 2013, unless a later enacted statute deletes or extends the date on which it becomes inoperative. This bill would extend that date until January 1, 2018. This bill, except for a specified provision, would become operative only if an appropriation is made in the annual Budget Act, or if federal funds are appropriated, or both, for the purposes of this bill.
(1) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt basic instructional materials for use in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, for governing boards, as defined, and authorizes the state board to establish criteria for that purpose. Existing law sets forth a schedule for the submission of instructional materials to the state board for adoption. Notwithstanding this schedule, existing law prohibits the state board from adopting instructional materials or following the procedures related to that adoption until the 2015–16 school year. This bill would delete the schedule for submission of instructional materials for foreign languages and health and the exception to the requirement that criteria for the evaluation of instructional materials be approved when curriculum frameworks are approved or at least 30 months before the date that the materials are to be approved for adoption. (2) Existing law establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission and requires the commission to develop internationally benchmarked academic content standards, at least 85% of which are required to be the common core academic standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium or another specified interstate collaboration. Existing law requires the state board by August 2, 2010, to either adopt the standards proposed by the commission or reject them. This bill would require the state board to adopt revised curriculum frameworks and evaluation criteria that are aligned to the common core academic content standards developed by the consortium and adopted by the board for mathematics and English language arts no later than May 30, 2013, and May 30, 2014, respectively. The bill would require state board policies to ensure that the English language arts curriculum frameworks for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, include the English language development standards as adopted by the state board in 1997 and revised thereafter, and English language development strategies in the core subjects of mathematics, science, and history-social science. The bill also would require state board policies to ensure that curriculum frameworks for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, include strategies to address the needs of pupils with disabilities in the 4 core subjects of mathematics, science, history-social science, and English language arts. The bill would require the curriculum frameworks to describe the manner in which content can be delivered to intentionally build pupil creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication into and across each content area. (3) Existing law requires the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission to recommend curriculum frameworks for adoption by the state board, develop criteria for evaluating instructional materials, study and evaluate instructional materials submitted for adoption, recommend to the state board instructional materials that it approves for adoption, and review specified educational films or video recordings. This bill would rename the commission the Instructional Quality Commission and would make conforming changes. The bill also would delete the requirement that the commission review specified educational films or video recordings. The bill would require the criteria developed for evaluating instructional materials to include specified directions to publishers and would require the commission to perform additional prescribed functions. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to ensure that school districts are provided with as many standards-aligned instructional material options as possible. The bill would require the Superintendent to develop model professional development modules, as specified, and to report to the state board on the development of those modules. (4) Existing law, the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act (hereafter the Greene Act) , requires the Superintendent to design and implement a statewide pupil assessment program, and requires school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, certain achievement tests, including a standards-based achievement test pursuant to the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. Existing law makes the Greene Act inoperative on July 1, 2013, and repeals it on January 1, 2014. This bill would require the Superintendent to develop recommendations, to be reported to the fiscal and appropriate policy committees of both houses of the Legislature on or before November 1, 2012, for the reauthorization of the statewide pupil assessment program and would require the recommendations to include a plan for transitioning to a system of high-quality assessments. The bill would require the recommendations to consider including specified characteristics in the reauthorized assessment system. The bill would define, for purposes of the Greene Act, formative assessment, high-quality assessment, and interim assessment. The bill would make the Greene Act inoperative on July 1, 2014, and would repeal the act as of January 1, 2015. By extending the time period during which school districts are required to perform various duties relating to the administration of achievement tests, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) This bill would require the State Department of Education to use certain federal funds, and any other available state and federal funds, to implement the provisions of this bill. (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, 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 establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law provides that in the case of active firefighting members of certain fire departments and in the case of certain peace officers, a compensable injury includes cancer that develops or manifests itself during the period when the firefighter or peace officer demonstrates that he or she was exposed while in the service of the public agency to a known carcinogen, as defined. Existing law establishes a presumption that the cancer in these cases arose out of, and in the course of, employment, unless the presumption is controverted by evidence that the primary site of the cancer has been established and that the carcinogen to which the member has demonstrated exposure is not reasonably linked to the disabling cancer. This bill would extend this presumption to active firefighting members of a fire department serving a National Aeronautics and Space Administration installation who adhere to specified training standards.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would prohibit a gas corporation from recovering any fine or penalty in any rate approved by the commission. The bill would require a gas corporation to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the commission in its general rate case proceeding that the requested revenue requirements will be sufficient to enable the gas corporation to fund those projects and activities necessary to maintain safe and reliable service and to meet federal and state safety requirements applicable to its gas plant, in a cost-effective manner. The bill would require a gas corporation to file gas transmission and storage safety reports with the commission's consumer protection safety division that include certain matter and require that if the division determines that there is a deficiency in a gas corporation's prioritization or administration of the storage or pipeline capital projects or operation and maintenance activities, to bring the deficiency to the commission's immediate attention. This bill would require the commission, in any ratemaking proceeding in which the commission authorizes a gas corporation to recover expenses for a federal transmission pipeline integrity management program, or for related capital expenditures for the maintenance and repair of transmission pipelines, to require the gas corporation to establish and maintain a balancing account for the recovery of those expenses. This provision would not become operative if SB 879 is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2012, and SB 879 enacts an identical provision. (2) The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including gas corporations. Existing federal law requires the United States Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to adopt minimum safety standards for pipeline transportation and for pipeline facilities, including an interstate gas pipeline facility and intrastate gas pipeline facility, as defined. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe or enforce safety standards and practices for an intrastate pipeline facility or intrastate pipeline transportation to the extent that the safety standards and practices are regulated by a state authority that submits to the secretary annually a certification for the facilities and transportation or alternatively authorizes the secretary to make an agreement with a state authority authorizing it to take necessary action to meet certain pipeline safety requirements. Existing law prohibits a state authority from adopting or continuing in force safety standards for interstate pipeline facilities or interstate pipeline transportation. Existing law authorizes a state authority that has submitted a current certification to adopt additional or more stringent safety standards for intrastate pipeline facilities and intrastate pipeline transportation only if those standards are compatible with the minimum standards prescribed by PHMSA. This bill would require owners and operators of intrastate transmission and distribution lines for natural gas, at least once each calendar year, to meet with each local fire department having fire suppression responsibilities in the area where those lines are located to discuss and review contingency plans for emergencies involving the intrastate transmission and distribution lines within the jurisdiction of the local fire department. The bill would require the commission, unless it determines that doing so is preempted under federal law, to require the installation of automatic shutoff or remote controlled sectionalized block valves on certain intrastate transmission lines, as specified. The bill would require each gas corporation to prepare and submit to the commission a proposed comprehensive pressure testing implementation plan that includes specified elements and require that, at the conclusion of an implementation period, all intrastate transmission line segments meet specified requirements. (3) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. (4) 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 provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals providing maternity care to make available a breastfeeding consultant, or alternatively, to provide information to the mother on where to receive breastfeeding information. This bill would require all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals that have perinatal units, as defined, to have an infant-feeding policy and to clearly post that policy in the perinatal unit or on the hospital or health system Internet Web site. This bill would require that the infant-feeding policy be routinely communicated to perinatal unit staff and that the infant-feeding policy apply to all infants in a perinatal unit. This bill would become operative January 1, 2014.
Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, headed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It would require, by July 1, 2012, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to prepare recommendations, to be presented upon request to the Legislature, regarding actions that need to be taken to promote food access in the state. The bill would establish the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council and would require the council to implement the initiative, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory group, as specified. The bill would create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Fund in the State Treasury, to be comprised of federal, state, philanthropic, and private funds, for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in underserved communities and, to the extent practicable, to leverage other funding, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be expended upon appropriation by the Legislature.