Sen. Elaine Alquist

Existing law permits the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water, milk, and, in middle and junior high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill, commencing July 1, 2013, would recast those provisions and would restrict the sale of electrolyte replacement beverages in middle schools and high schools to specified times before and after school.

Under existing law, the state, through the State Department of Social Services and county welfare departments, is required to establish and support a public system of statewide child welfare services for the protection of children. Existing law requires the department to establish the California Child and Family Service Review System to review all county child welfare systems. Existing law requires the California Health and Human Services Agency to convene a workgroup, as specified, to establish a workplan by which child and family service reviews shall be conducted. Existing law requires the workgroup to consider, among other things, measurable outcome indicators. Existing law requires the department to identify and promote the replication of best practices in child welfare service delivery to achieve these outcomes. Existing law requires the department to provide prescribed information to legislative committees relating to child welfare system improvements, as specified. This bill would require the workgroup described above to examine outcome indicators for each racial and ethnic population served within a county. This bill would require a county to address in its self-assessment and system improvement plan, among other things, its efforts to eliminate disparities in services and outcomes for children of color in, and to provide adequate and culturally appropriate services within, its child welfare system. This bill would require the department to identify and promote best practices for increasing cultural competency in the provision of services and eliminating inequities in service delivery to racial and ethnic communities. This bill would authorize the director of the department to take various actions if he or she determines a county substantially failed to comply with the requirements of its system improvement plan, as specified. This bill would require the department to report prescribed information to the Legislature by January 1, 2015. By requiring counties to address additional matters in its self-assessment and system improvement plan, 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.

(1) Existing law generally requires an action for recovery of damages against a person suffered as a result of childhood sexual abuse to be commenced within 8 years of the date the plaintiff attains the age of majority or within 3 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse, whichever occurs later. Under existing law, certain actions may not be brought against a person or entity on or after the plaintiff's 26th birthday. This bill would instead provide that any of those actions may be commenced until the plaintiff attains the age of 35 or within 3 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered the psychological injury or illness after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse, whichever occurs later, and would delete the provisions prohibiting certain actions from being brought on or after the plaintiff's 26th birthday. (2) Existing law prohibits a confidential settlement agreement in a civil action the factual foundation for which establishes a cause of action for an act that may be prosecuted as a felony sex offense, and further makes those provisions inapplicable to a settlement agreement or stipulated agreement that requires the nondisclosure of the amount of any money paid in a settlement of a claim. This bill would delete those provisions and instead would prohibit any confidential settlement in a civil action seeking damages that is based in whole or in part on an act of childhood sexual abuse. The bill would make an agreement entered into on or after January 1, 2013, containing a confidential settlement provision void as a matter of law and against public policy. The bill would also specify that an attorney who demands a confidential settlement agreement as set forth above shall be subject to disciplinary action by the State Bar. (3) Existing law, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, requires a mandated reporter, as defined, to report whenever he or she, in his or her professional capacity or within the scope of his or her employment, has knowledge of or observed a child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. Failure to report an incident is a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of 6 months, a fine of up to $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine. Existing law prohibits a supervisor or administrator from inhibiting a mandated reporter from making a report, authorizes supervisors and administrators of mandated reporters to implement procedures to facilitate the reporting of child abuse and neglect, and prohibits a person from being sanctioned for making the report. This bill would require any private entity conducting business in the state that has employees, members, agents, licensees, or representatives who are either mandated reporters or who work directly in an unaccompanied setting with minor children on more than an incidental and occasional basis or have supervisory or disciplinary power over minor children to designate an employee to receive complaints of suspected child abuse, and to implement an internal procedure for employees, members, agencies, licensees, or representatives of the private entity to report any incident of suspected child abuse to the designated employee. The bill would specify that the private entity is prohibited from sanctioning a person for making a report, and would also require the private entity to perform enhanced background checks, as specified, on the employees, members, agents, licensees, or representatives described above. The bill would make a violation of those provisions a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months confinement in a county jail or by a fine of $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine. Because the bill would create a new crime, the bill would impose 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which health care benefits are provided to qualified low-income individuals. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. This bill, commencing January 1, 2014, to the extent federal financial participation is available and to the extent required by federal law, would extend Medi-Cal eligibility to youths who were formerly in foster care and who are under 26 years of age, pursuant to prescribed provisions of federal law. Because each county is responsible for making Medi-Cal eligibility determinations, by expanding Medi-Cal eligibility 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 provides that under specified conditions the statements of witnesses, victims, or perpetrators of specified crimes may be recorded and preserved by means of videotape. This bill would require the electronic recordation of the entire custodial interrogation of an individual who is in a fixed place of detention, as defined, and who, at the time of the interrogation, is suspected of committing or accused of committing a serious or violent felony. The bill would set forth various exceptions from this requirement, including if the law enforcement officer conducting the interrogation or his or her superior reasonably believes that electronic recording would disclose the identity of a confidential informant or jeopardize the safety of an officer, the individual being interrogated, or another individual. The bill would require the prosecution to show by clear and convincing evidence that an exception applies to justify the failure to make that electronic recording. The bill would also require the interrogating entity to maintain the original or an exact copy of an electronic recording made of the interrogation until the final conclusion of the proceedings, as specified. The bill would require the Judicial Council to develop related jury instructions. The bill would also require the Judicial Council to develop forms to survey interrogations and outcomes in order to ensure compliance with these provisions, as specified. The bill would also require the Department of Justice to develop forms to be submitted to the department in each case of an unrecorded interrogation in order to identify patterns of noncompliance. The bill would make these provisions applicable to juvenile court proceedings, as specified. By imposing these new requirements on local law enforcement, 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, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed train capital projects and other associated purposes. Existing law makes $950 million of the proceeds of those bonds available for capital improvements to intercity and commuter rail lines and urban rail systems that provide direct connectivity to the high-speed train system and its facilities, or that are part of the construction of the high-speed train system, as specified, or that provide capacity enhancements and safety improvements. Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission to allocate those funds to eligible recipients, as defined, and to develop guidelines to implement those provisions. This bill would appropriate $523,400,000 from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund to the Department of Transportation for allocation by the California Transportation Commission as provided for in specified guidelines adopted by the commission.

Existing law provides for the regulation of long-term care insurance by the Insurance Commissioner and prescribes various requirements and conditions governing the delivery of individual or group long-term care insurance in the state. Existing law establishes the California Partnership for Long-Term Care Program to link private long-term care insurance and health care service plan contracts that cover long-term care with the In-Home Supportive Services program and Medi-Cal and to provide Medi-Cal benefits to certain individuals who have income and resources above the eligibility levels for receipt of medical assistance, but who have purchased certified private long-term care insurance policies and subsequently exhausted the benefits of these private policies. This bill would require the Insurance Commissioner to convene a task force composed of specified stakeholders and representatives of government agencies to examine the components necessary to design a statewide long-term care insurance program, as specified. The bill would require the task force to recommend options for establishing this program and to comment on their respective degrees of feasibility in a report submitted to the commissioner, the Governor, and the Legislature by January 1, 2014.

The Confidentiality of Medical Information Act requires that every provider of health care, health care service plan, pharmaceutical company, and contractor who creates, maintains, preserves, stores, abandons, destroys, or disposes of medical records do so in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of the information contained in the records, and provides that negligence in conducting these activities may result in damages or an administrative fine or civil penalty, as specified. Existing law also makes a violation of these provision that results in economic loss or personal injury to a patient punishable as a misdemeanor. This bill would require a health care provider, health care service plan, or contractor, if there is a breach in the security of a patient's social security number, driver's license number, California identification card number, or financial information and that provider, plan, or contractor is required to issue a breach notification, to offer, in the breach notification, one year of free credit monitoring services to the patient. Because a violation of this requirement that results in economic loss or personal injury to a patient would be punishable as 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.

This bill would declare the month of April 2012 as California Earthquake Preparedness Month, and would urge all Californians to engage in activities related to earthquake preparedness during the month.

Existing law makes it a public offense, punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment, or both, for a person to perform or assist in performing a surgical abortion if the person does not have a valid license to practice as a physician and surgeon, or to assist in performing a surgical abortion without a valid license or certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law that authorizes him or her to perform the functions necessary to assist in performing a surgical abortion. Existing law also makes it a public offense, punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment, or both, for a person to perform or assist in performing a nonsurgical abortion if the person does not have a valid license to practice as a physician and surgeon or does not have a valid license or certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law authorizing him or her to perform or assist in performing the functions necessary for a nonsurgical abortion. Under existing law, nonsurgical abortion includes termination of pregnancy through the use of pharmacological agents. Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of registered nurses, including nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives, by the Board of Registered Nursing. Existing law, the Physician Assistant Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of physician assistants by the Physician Assistant Committee of the Medical Board of California. Existing law authorizes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to designate experimental health workforce projects as approved projects that, among other things, teach new skills to existing categories of health care personnel. The office has designated a pilot project, known as the Access through Primary Care Project, relating to the provision of health care services involving pregnancy. This bill would authorize a nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, or physician assistant who has completed training through the pilot project described above on or before January 1, 2013, to continue, outside of that pilot project, to perform abortions by aspiration techniques.