Sen. Andy Vidak

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides for a schedule of benefits provided under the Medi-Cal program, which includes certain dental services that are referred to as Denti-Cal. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to increase Denti-Cal provider reimbursement rates for the 15 most common prevention, treatment, and oral evaluation services to the regional average commercial rates, effective January 1, 2017.

Under existing law, the Department of Food and Agriculture has various duties relating to the prevention and control of damage caused by citrus pests and diseases. The Legislature has expressed a finding and declaration that the citrus killing diseases, Huanglongbing, citrus leprosis, citrus variegated chlorosis, and citrus canker, and the associated vectors present a clear and present danger to California's citrus industry, as well as to other commodities and plant life. This bill would require the department, upon the appropriation of funds for that purpose, to support specified research activities relating to the Asian citrus psyllid and Huanglongbing. The bill would also require the department, upon the appropriation of funds for that purpose, to work with county agricultural commissioners, pest control advisors, researchers, the Citrus Research Board, or any or all of them, to establish a process for voluntary tracking of best practices for managing Asian citrus psyllid-infested and Huanglongbing-infected groves, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law authorizes a person holding a valid credential authorizing substitute teaching to serve as a substitute for an appropriately credentialed special education teacher, as specified. Existing law prohibits an employer from employing an inappropriately credentialed substitute teacher for a period of more than 20 cumulative school days for each special education teacher absent during each school year. Existing law authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve an extension beyond 20 cumulative schooldays, as provided. Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to perform various duties with respect to the schools of his or her county, including a duty to monitor and review their certificated employee assignment practices. This bill instead would prohibit an employer from employing an inappropriately credentialed substitute teacher for a period of more than 20 cumulative school days for each special education teacher absent, or if there is a vacancy, during each school year. This bill would, until January 1, 2022, additionally authorize, subject to the issuance of specified federal guidance, a person holding a valid emergency 30-day substitute teacher permit to serve as a substitute in a special education classroom for up to 40 cumulative schooldays per vacancy when specified conditions are met. The bill would require an employing authority to report annually to its county office of education, as part of the monitoring and review of certificated employee assignment practices, the number of permitholders employed pursuant to these provisions and the length of time they were employed. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make conforming changes and nonsubstantive changes. 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 requires a pupil to be excused from school for specified types of absences and prohibits those excused absences from generating state apportionment payments by deeming them as absences in computing average daily attendance. This bill would include attending the pupil's naturalization ceremony to become a United States citizen as another type of excused absence.

This bill would recognize the month of June 2016 as Portuguese National Heritage Month.

Existing law establishes various state water policies, including that the protection of the public interest in the development of the water resources of the state is of vital concern to the people of the state and that the state shall determine in what way the water of the state, both surface and underground, should be developed for the greatest public benefit. This bill would require the Department of Water Resources to develop a state water policy that gives priority to the formation of joint powers authorities that are formed to address critical surface water storage needs and to funding of the joint powers authorities' surface water projects. The bill would make findings and declarations of the Legislature, including, but not limited to, that, of the water storage projects available, the Temperance Flat Dam and Sites Reservoir will meet statewide goals and provide specified public benefits to the greatest extent.

Existing law designates particular days each year as having special significance, and encourages all public schools and educational institutions to observe those days and to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on those days. This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the Asian Lunar New Year. The bill would require the Governor, each year, to designate the date corresponding with the start of the Asian lunar calendar as Asian Lunar New Year's Day, a day having special significance. The bill would also encourage all public schools and educational institutions to conduct exercises observing the Asian Lunar New Year with appropriate activities and programs.

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations established by the United States or the State of California, to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of that person. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act provides that nothing in that act relating to discrimination on account of sex affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in employee selection or to give special consideration to Vietnam-era veterans. This bill would enact the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans' preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring or retaining a veteran over another qualified applicant or employee. The bill would provide that the granting of a veterans' preference pursuant to the bill, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, the antidiscrimination provisions of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. The bill would revise the existing veteran status provision in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to remove references to discrimination on account of sex and to Vietnam-era veterans, and would, instead, provide that nothing in that act relating to discrimination affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in hiring decisions if the employer maintains a veterans' preference employment policy established in accordance with the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act. The bill would prohibit a veterans' preference employment policy from being established or applied for the purpose of discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of a protected classification, as specified.

This act would commend the meaningful contributions that Latino customs, such as the celebration of La Virgen de Guadalupe, make to the diverse heritage of American society.

This measure would recognize May 24, 2016, as Slavic Heritage Day.