Existing law classifies controlled substances into 5 schedules and places the greatest restrictions and penalties on the use of those substances placed in Schedule I. Existing law classifies the drug fentanyl in Schedule II. Existing law prohibits a person from possessing for sale or purchasing for purposes of sale, specified controlled substances, including fentanyl, and provides for imprisonment in a county jail for 2, 3, or 4 years for a violation of this provision. Existing law also imposes an additional term, and authorizes a trial court to impose a specified fine, upon a person who is convicted of a violation of, or of a conspiracy to violate, specified provisions of law with respect to a substance containing heroin, cocaine base, and cocaine, if the substance exceeds a specified weight. This bill would impose that additional term upon, and authorize a fine against, a defendant who violates those laws with respect to a substance containing fentanyl. By imposing additional incarceration costs on local 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Sponsored bills
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities, including a district formed pursuant to the Irrigation District Law, are under the direction of their governing boards. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, defined as including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. The program additionally requires each local publicly owned electric utility to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to achieve the procurement requirements established by the program. For these purposes, eligible renewable energy resources include the incremental increase in the amount of electricity generated from a hydroelectric generation facility as a result of efficiency improvements at the facility, without regard to the electrical output of the facility, if specified conditions are met. This bill would authorize a local publicly owned electric utility that is an irrigation district to elect to credit its share of the total electricity generated by the Don Pedro Hydroelectric Project, commensurate with its ownership share of that project, as meeting its renewables portfolio standard procurement requirements. The bill would require that an election by an irrigation district to apply its proportionate share of the electricity generated by the Don Pedro Hydroelectric Project to meet its renewables portfolio standard procurement requirements would be for all of its proportionate share of the generation, including any portion of the electricity that is an eligible renewable energy resource because it results from efficiency improvements at the project. The bill would prohibit any portion of that electricity to be unbundled from any renewable energy credit associated with the electricity. The bill would require an irrigation district making the election to ensure that there is no double counting for electricity that is an eligible renewable energy resource resulting from efficiency improvements at the project. If an irrigation district elects to apply any generation from the Don Pedro Hydroelectric Project to meet its renewables portfolio standard procurement requirements, the bill would (1) prohibit any quantity of eligible renewable energy resources procured under ownership or contract by the district to be resold and require that all associated renewable energy credits be retired solely on behalf of customers of the district, and (2) require the district to procure energy storage systems commensurate with 1% of the district's 2020 annual peak load, as specified, with project installation to be completed no later than December 31, 2030. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to report to the Legislature by February 1, 2020, and by February 1 of every year thereafter, on the progress of an irrigation district subject to these provisions towards satisfying its renewable portfolio standard obligations. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity for special legislation.
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 that federally qualified health center (FQHC) services and rural health clinic (RHC) services, as defined, are covered benefits under the Medi-Cal program, to be reimbursed, in accordance with Medicare reasonable cost principles, and to the extent that federal financial participation is obtained, to providers on a per-visit basis that is unique to each facility. Existing law prescribes the reimbursement rate methodology for establishing and adjusting the per-visit rate. Under existing law, if an FQHC or RHC is partially reimbursed by a 3rd-party payer, such as a managed care entity, the department is required to reimburse the FQHC or RHC for the difference between its per-visit rate programs on a contract-by-contract basis. Existing law authorizes an FQHC or RHC to apply for an adjustment to its rate based on a change in the scope of service that it provides within 150 days following the beginning of the FQHC's or RHC's fiscal year. Existing law provides that the department's implementation of FQHC and RHC services is subject to federal approval and the availability of federal financial participation. This bill would require the methodology of the adjusted per-visit rate to exclude, among other things, a provider productivity standard. The bill would authorize an FQHC or RHC to apply for a rate adjustment for the adoption, implementation, or upgrade of a certified electronic health record system as a change in the scope of service. The bill would clarify specified terms, including the meaning of "scope of "service," would expand the meaning of "visit" to include FQHC and RHC services rendered outside of the facility location, and would modify how the department reimburses an FQHC or RHC that is partially reimbursed by a 3rd-party payer. The bill would require a health care provider who contracts with an FQHC or RHC to provide services outside of the facility on behalf of the facility, and for which the facility bills for those services, to comply with specified requirements, including actively serving patients in the same county as, or a county adjacent to, the physical location of the billing FQHC or RHC. The bill would repeal the provisions authorizing an FQHC or RHC to apply for an adjustment to its rate based on a change in the scope of service that it provides within 150 days following the beginning of the FQHC's or RHC's fiscal year, and would instead extend the time frame for an FQHC or RHC to file a scope of service rate change to any time during the fiscal year. The bill would require the department to ensure that department staff conducting audits related to FQHC and RHC services receive appropriate training on federal and state laws governing those facilities, and would make various conforming and technical changes.
The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity to federal income tax law, authorizes a credit for household and dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment, as provided. This bill would require, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, for a taxpayer with an allowable credit for household and dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment in excess of tax liability, a payment from the Tax Relief and Refund Account, a continuously appropriated account, to the taxpayer equal to the amount of the allowable credit that is in excess of tax liability, as provided. By authorizing additional payments from this account, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law, the State Housing Law, establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation, including energy conservation and fire prevention requirements relating to energy efficiency and the installation of interior sprinklers. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt homes that meet specified requirements and are being rebuilt after wildfires or specified emergency events that occurred on or after January 1, 2017, from meeting certain current building standards.
(1) The Personal Income Tax Law, beginning on or after January 1, 2015, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows an earned income tax credit against personal income tax, and a payment from the Tax Relief and Refund Account for an allowable credit in excess of tax liability, to an eligible individual that is equal to that portion of the earned income tax credit allowed by federal law as determined by the earned income tax credit adjustment factor, as specified. The law provides that the amount of the credit is calculated as a percentage of the eligible individual's earned income and is phased out above a specified amount as income increases. The law deems, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2019, the California Consumer Price Index as the greater of 3.1% or the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index for the recomputation of specified earned income amounts, phaseout amounts, and the amount of disqualified income that would disallow this credit. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2020, would deem the California Consumer Price Index as the greater of 3.5% or the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index for the recomputation of those specified amounts. The bill, for taxable years on and after January 1, 2019, would revise the calculation factors to increase the credit amount for specified taxpayers. The bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and until and including the taxable year in which the minimum wage is set at $15 per hour, would require specified, revised calculation factors to be recomputed annually in the same manner as the recomputation of income tax brackets for eligible individuals, but would require the Franchise Tax Board to recalculate the revised phaseout percentage in a manner that any eligible individual with an earned income of $30,000 per year would get credit equal to $0. This bill would allow a refundable young child tax credit against the taxes imposed under the Personal Income Tax Law, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2019, in an amount equal to $1,176 multiplied by the earned income tax credit adjustment factor, not to exceed $1,000 per each qualified taxpayer per taxable year. The bill would require amounts of this credit in excess of the qualified taxpayer's tax liability to be paid to the qualified taxpayer from the Tax Relief and Refund Account. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account, including any amount to be paid as an earned income tax credit in excess of any tax liabilities. By increasing the amount of the California Earned Income Tax Credit and allowing a refundable young child tax credit to be paid with funds from the Tax Relief and Refund Account, and thus, authorizing new payments from that account for additional amounts in excess of personal income tax liabilities, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing federal law, the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) , for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, encourages and assists individuals and families to save private funds for the purpose of supporting persons with disabilities to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life by excluding from gross income distributions used for qualified disability expenses by a beneficiary of a qualified ABLE program established and maintained by a state, as specified. Existing federal law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, increases the amount of contributions allowed to an ABLE account, adds special rules for the increased contribution limit, and exempts from taxation distributions from a qualified tuition program, as defined, rolled into an ABLE account for taxable years beginning on or after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026. Existing federal law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 expanded the definitions of "qualified higher educational expenses" and "qualified ABLE program." Existing law, the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, conforms to the exclusions from gross income provided under federal income tax law provisions relating to the ABLE Act, as those exclusions read prior to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. Existing law creates the California ABLE Act Board and requires the board to provide an annual listing of distributions to individuals that have an interest in an ABLE account to the Franchise Tax Board, as provided. This bill would conform state tax law to those changes relating to qualified ABLE accounts made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. The bill would make a legislative finding and declaration that providing ABLE account beneficiaries the ability to contribute their own earnings to the ABLE account up to the federal poverty level and allowing Section 529 plan accounts to roll over to ABLE accounts eliminates differences in the qualification criteria for ABLE accounts under federal tax law and California tax law, and thus serves a public purpose and does not constitute a prohibited gift of public funds. (3) The Personal Income Tax Law provides an exclusion from gross income for the amount of student loan indebtedness repaid or canceled pursuant to a specified federal law. This bill would exclude from an individual's gross income the amount of student loan indebtedness discharged on or after December 31, 2011 due to the death or disability of the student, as provided. (4) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allow various deductions from gross income in computing adjusted gross income under those laws, including a deduction, as trade or business expense, of the premiums paid pursuant to an assessment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This bill would conform to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, by disallowing or limiting the amount specified taxpayers may deduct for these premiums depending on the amount of total consolidated assets, as defined, of the taxpayer. (5) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allow a deduction from gross income in computing adjusted gross income of ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business. Existing law prohibits a deduction from being allowed with respect to any covered employee of a publicly held corporation if the amount of applicable employee remuneration exceeds $1,000,000. This bill would conform to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, by revising the definitions of covered employee and publicly held corporation to limit the amount those specified taxpayers may deduct for ordinary and necessary expenses. The bill would also disallow the performance-based compensation and commission exceptions with respect to the deduction limitation relating to covered employees. (6) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow net operating losses attributable to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, to be carrybacks to each of the preceding 2 taxable years, as provided. This bill would disallow the use of net operating loss carrybacks by individual and corporate taxpayers. (7) The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allows a small business to use the cash method of accounting if its average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year do not exceed $25,000,000. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allows a small business to use the cash method of accounting if its average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year do not exceed $5,000,000. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, would conform the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to the increase to $25,000,000 made by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the allowable amount of annual gross receipts of a small business allowed to use the cash method of accounting. The bill would allow a taxpayer to elect to have this conformity apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2019. (8) The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act exempts a corporation engaged in farming that has average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year not exceeding $25,000,000 from computing its taxable income by using the accrual method of accounting. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law exempt a corporation engaged in farming that has average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year not exceeding $5,000,000 from computing taxable income by using the accrual method of accounting. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, would conform the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to the increase to $25,000,000 made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the amount of average annual gross receipts of a farming corporation that is exempt from using the accrual method of accounting. The bill would allow a taxpayer to elect to have this conformity apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2019. The bill would also make conforming changes related to suspense allowances, as provided. (9) The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act exempts a taxpayer with average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year of $25,000,000 or less from the provisions that preclude the deduction of certain direct and indirect costs and determine whether those property costs are inventory costs or are capitalized. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law exempts a taxpayer with average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year of $10,000,000 or less from the provisions that preclude the deduction of certain direct and indirect costs and determine whether those property costs are inventory costs or are capitalized. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, would conform the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to the increase to $25,000,000 made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the amount of average annual gross receipts of a taxpayer exempt from those provisions precluding the deductibility of certain property costs and determining whether those costs are inventory costs or are capitalized. The bill would allow a taxpayer to elect to have this conformity apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2019. (10) The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act exempts a small business with average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year not exceeding $25,000,000 from the provisions that require a taxpayer to take inventories to clearly determine their income. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law conforms to the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code relating to the requirement that a taxpayer take inventories to clearly determine their income, but does not allow an exemption. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, would conform the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to the exemption in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of a small business with average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year not exceeding $25,000,000 from the provisions that require a taxpayer to take inventories to clearly determine their income. The bill would allow a taxpayer to elect to have this conformity apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2019. (11) The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act exempts construction contracts entered into by a taxpayer with average annual gross receipts not exceeding $25,000,000 from the requirement that the taxable income from a long-term contract be determined by the percentage of completion method. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law exempts construction contracts entered into by a taxpayer with average annual gross receipts for the 3 taxable years ending with the prior taxable year not exceeding $10,000,000 from the requirement that the taxable income from a long-term contract be determined by the percentage of completion method. This bill would conform the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law to the exemption in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of construction contracts entered into by a taxpayer with average annual gross receipts not exceeding $25,000,000 from the requirement that the taxable income from a long-term contract be determined by the percentage of completion method. This conformity would apply to contracts entered into on or after the effective date of this act, as provided, and would allow, where applicable, a taxpayer to elect to have the conformity apply to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2018, and before the effective date of this act. (12) The Personal Income Tax Law generally allows a noncorporate taxpayer to deduct business losses from a pass through entity, like an "S" corporation. Under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026, excess business losses, as defined, of a noncorporate taxpayer are not allowed as a deduction and instead those losses must be carried forward and treated as a net operating loss in subsequent taxable years, as provided. This bill, for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2018, would provide modified conformity to the above-described limitation, including not conforming to the federal sunset date. (13) The Personal Income Tax Law conforms as of a specified date to federal income tax laws, January 1, 2015, and therefore allows for the termination of a partnership by the sale or exchange of 50% or more of the interest in a partnership within a 12-month period. The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed that provision of federal income tax law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018. This bill would conform to federal income tax law with regard to the termination of partnerships described above and would additionally allow a partnership to elect to have this conformity apply to partnership taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2019. This bill would make findings as to the public purpose served by the bill in this regard. (14) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, exclude the recognition of any gain or loss on the exchange of property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment, if that property is exchanged solely for property of a like kind that is to be held either for productive use in a trade or business or for investment, unless an exception applies. This bill would conform to federal income tax law, as amended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, by limiting that exclusion to the recognition of any gain or loss on the exchange of real property, except as otherwise provided. (15) The Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax laws, and when a taxpayer does not elect otherwise for purposes of state income tax law, allows a purchasing corporation to make an election that its qualified stock purchase, as defined, from a target corporation may be treated as an asset acquisition resulting in a step up in the basis of the stock. This bill would provide that if the above-described election for federal income tax purposes has been made or deemed to have been made, or not made or not deemed to have been made, by a taxpayer, a separate state election shall not be allowed. (16) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. This bill would establish the Safe Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury and would provide that moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the state board. The bill would require the state board to administer the fund to assist community water systems in disadvantaged communities that are chronically noncompliant relative to the federal and state drinking water standards and do not have the financial capacity to pay for operation and maintenance costs to comply with those standards, as specified. The bill would authorize the state board to provide for the deposit into the fund of federal contributions, voluntary contributions, gifts, grants, and bequests, transfers by the Legislature from the General Fund and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, funding from authorized general obligation bond acts, and net revenue from the Safe Drinking Water Trust that this bill would create. The bill would require the state board to expend moneys in the fund for grants, loans, contracts, or services to assist eligible applicants. The bill by July 1, 2021, and by July 1 of each year thereafter, would require the state board to adopt, working with a multistakeholder advisory group, after a public workshop and a public hearing, an annual fund implementation plan. The bill would require the state board annually to prepare and make publicly available a report of expenditures of the fund and to adopt annually, after a public hearing, an annual update to a specified needs analysis. By creating a new continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires a trustee to administer a trust with reasonable care, skill, and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity would use, as specified. The existing Uniform Prudent Investor Act requires a trustee to invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, by considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. This bill would create in the State Treasury the Safe Drinking Water Trust Fund, to hold the trust property of the Safe Drinking Water Trust. The bill would create the Safe Drinking Water Trust Commission, consisting of 3 members, to serve as the trustee of the trust and would require the trustee to abide by the act and have all of the fiduciary duties, responsibilities, and obligations consistent with serving as a trustee of a trust. The bill would require the trustee to transfer the net income from the trust fund to the Safe Drinking Water Fund for expenditure, as prescribed. The bill would authorize funding of the trust principal, subject to transfer by the Legislature. The bill would require the trustee to accept donations that shall be deemed trust property and increase the principal of the trust. The bill would require the trustee to meet, not less than quarterly, to review the investment of the trust principal and administer the trust. The bill would require the trustee to provide the state board annually with an accounting of the investments and a forecast of the projected income to be distributed from the funds in future fiscal years. The bill would require the trust to be deemed a charitable trust subject to the supervision of the Attorney General.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to import into the state for commercial purposes, to possess with intent to sell, or to sell within the state, the dead body, or a part or product thereof, of a polar bear, leopard, ocelot, tiger, cheetah, jaguar, sable antelope, wolf, zebra, whale, cobra, python, sea turtle, colobus monkey, kangaroo, vicuna, sea otter, free-roaming feral horse, dolphin, porpoise, Spanish lynx, or elephant. Existing law, commencing January 1, 2020, makes it a misdemeanor to import into the state for commercial purposes, to possess with intent to sell, or to sell within the state, the dead body, or a part or product thereof, of a crocodile or alligator. This bill would delay the commencement of the prohibition on importing into the state for commercial purposes, possessing with intent to sell, or selling within the state, the dead body, or a part or product thereof, of a crocodile or alligator until January 1, 2030. The bill would also require a specified disclosure on all products sold in the state prior to January 1, 2030, failure to do so being punishable as a misdemeanor. By creating a new 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 requires the driver of any vehicle, upon meeting or overtaking any schoolbus equipped with required signs that is stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading any schoolchildren and displaying a flashing red light signal and stop signal arm, if equipped with a stop signal arm, to bring the vehicle to a stop immediately before passing the schoolbus and to not proceed past the schoolbus until the flashing red light signal and stop signal arm cease operation. A violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would authorize a school district to install and operate an automated schoolbus video enforcement system, as defined, for the purpose of enforcing the prohibition described above. The bill would require additional signage on schoolbuses relative to the video enforcement system. The bill would prohibit a school district from using automated schoolbus video enforcement systems or information gathered from those systems for any purpose other than those authorized by these provisions and would specifically prohibit the use of video or images captured by a system for employee surveillance or discipline. The bill would require the video enforcement system images to capture only the vehicle make and model, color, and license plate displayed, and not any person in the vehicle or any other vehicles or persons in the vicinity of the vehicle. The bill would make any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the automated video enforcement system confidential, and unless demanded by court order, available only to the law enforcement agency or offender for limited purposes. The bill would create a procedure for the issuance of citations based upon evidence captured by an automated schoolbus video enforcement system, and would provide that a law enforcement agency is not required to, but may, participate in the enforcement of the previously described prohibition for a school district that adopts an automated schoolbus video enforcement system. Existing law requires every schoolbus, when operated for the transportation of schoolchildren, to be equipped with a stop signal arm, among other things. This bill would authorize a school district to equip its schoolbuses with an extended secondary stop signal arm that extends between 3 to 6 feet from the side of the schoolbus, and would provide that a schoolbus equipped with an extended secondary stop signal arm shall only be driven on 2-lane highways and highways in rural areas of the state. 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.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Education, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state. Existing law authorizes a school district to employ and compensate psychologists and social workers who meet specified qualifications. This bill, subject to an appropriation of moneys by the Legislature, would establish the School Social Worker Pilot Program, under the administration of the department, to provide a multiyear grant award to one school district or the governing body of a charter school in each of the Counties of Alameda, Riverside, San Benito, San Joaquin, and Shasta to fund a social worker at each eligible school, as defined, within the school district or charter school, as applicable, for the 2021–22 fiscal year to the 2025–26 fiscal year, inclusive. The bill would require the department to develop an application process and criteria for determining grant recipients on a competitive basis, as provided. The bill would require each governing board of a school district and governing body of a charter school receiving a grant award to report to the department, and would require the department, on or before January 1, 2027, to report to the Legislature, changes in pupil outcomes at the schools participating in the pilot program, including, among others, changes in chronic absenteeism and changes in rates of suspension and expulsion. The bill would make the pilot program inoperative on July 1, 2027, and would repeal it on January 1, 2028.