Sen. Jim Beall

Existing law prohibits a court from granting probation or suspending the execution or imposition of a sentence if a person is convicted of violating specified provisions of law, including rape by force, pandering, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and others. This bill would prohibit a court from granting probation or suspending the execution or imposition of a sentence if a person is convicted of rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object, or oral copulation if the victim was either unconscious or incapable of giving consent due to intoxication.

Existing law defines rape and spousal rape as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished under specified circumstances indicating a lack of consent, force, or duress, as specified. Existing law additionally makes various acts, including sodomy and oral copulation without consent or sexual intercourse with a minor, unlawful as sexual assault. This bill would state the findings of the Legislature that all forms of nonconsensual sexual assault may be considered rape for purposes of the gravity of the offense and the support of survivors and would state that this is declarative of existing law.

Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, among other things provides for the licensure and regulation of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California. Under existing law, the board's responsibilities include enforcement of the disciplinary and criminal provisions of the act. 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, including early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment for any individual under 21 years of age. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law establishes a statewide system of child welfare services, administered by the State Department of Social Services, with the intent that all children are entitled to be safe and free from abuse and neglect. This bill would, until January 1, 2027, require the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Social Services, pursuant to a specified data-sharing agreement, to provide the Medical Board of California with information regarding Medi-Cal physicians and their prescribing patterns of psychotropic medications and related services for specified children and minors placed in foster care using data provided by the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Social Services, as prescribed. The bill would require that the data concerning psychotropic medications and related services be drawn from existing data sources maintained by the departments and shared pursuant to a data-sharing agreement and would require that, every 5 years, the board, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Social Services consult and revise the methodology, if determined to be necessary. The bill would require the board to contract for consulting services from, if available, a psychiatrist who has expertise and specializes in pediatric care for the purpose of reviewing the data provided to the board. Commencing July 1, 2017, the bill would require the board to report annually to the Legislature, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Social Services the results of the analysis of the data. The bill would, until January 1, 2027, require the board to review the data in order to determine if any potential violations of law or excessive prescribing of psychotropic medications inconsistent with the standard of care exist and conduct an investigation, if warranted, and would require the board to take disciplinary action, as specified. The bill would require the board, on or before January 1, 2022, to conduct an internal review of those activities and to revise procedures relating to those activities, if determined to be necessary. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to disseminate treatment guidelines on an annual basis through its existing communications with Medi-Cal providers, as specified. The bill would require the board to handle on a priority basis investigations of repeated acts of excessive prescribing, furnishing, or administering psychotropic medications to a minor, as specified.

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, including specialty mental health services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, specialty mental health services are provided by mental health plans and the department is responsible for conducting investigations and audits of claims and reimbursements for expenditures for specialty mental health services provided by mental health plans to Medi-Cal eligible individuals. This bill would require annual mental health plan reviews to be conducted by an external quality review organization (EQRO) and, commencing July 1, 2018, would require those reviews to include specific data for Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care, including the number of Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care served each year. The bill would require the department to share data with county boards of supervisors, including data that will assist in the development of mental health service plans and performance outcome system data and metrics, as specified. This bill would require the department to post any corrective action plan prepared by the mental health plan to address deficiencies identified by the EQRO review and the EQRO data on its Internet Web site, as specified. The bill would also require the department to notify the mental health plan of any deficiencies and would require the mental health plan to provide a written corrective action plan to the department.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer the special education provisions of the Education Code and ensure provision of, and supervise, education and related services to individuals with exceptional needs, as required pursuant to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Existing law provides for the establishment of Family Empowerment Centers on Disability to, among other things, ensure that children and young adults with disabilities receive the necessary educational support and services they need to complete their education. Existing law separately requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance, the State Department of Education, and specified other entities, to propose the content of an audit guide for purposes of carrying out financial and compliance audits for local educational agencies. This bill would require the audit guide to include audit procedures to review whether specified funding, which the bill would subject to existing state and federal audit requirements, for educationally related mental health services required by an individualized education program received by local educational agencies was used for its intended purpose in the 2016–17 fiscal year, and would require these audit procedures to be included in future fiscal years if recommended by the Controller, as specified. The bill would require the State Department of Education to include a link on the sample procedural safeguards maintained on its Internet Web site to the page on its Internet Web site that lists family empowerment centers and to include the link on specified forms. The bill would require the department to submit 2 reports, as specified, relating to the provision of mental health services to pupils through an individualized education program to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature by June 30, 2017.

(1) The California Emergency Services Act requires the Office of Emergency Services, among other things, to develop in collaboration with specified entities a comprehensive statewide earthquake early warning system in California through a public-private partnership, as specified. The act requires the office to identify funding for the system through single or multiple sources of revenue, and requires those sources to exclude the General Fund and to be limited to federal funds, funds from revenue bonds, local funds, and funds from private sources. Under the act, the requirement that the office develop the system is not operative until funding is identified, and is repealed if funding is not identified by July 1, 2016. The act establishes the California Earthquake Safety Fund in the State Treasury to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for seismic safety and earthquake-related programs, including the statewide earthquake early warning system. This bill would discontinue the requirement that the funding sources for the system exclude the General Fund and be limited to federal funds, funds from revenue bonds, local funds, and funds from private sources. The bill would delete the provisions providing for the repeal and the contingent operation of the requirement that the office develop the system. This bill would establish, within the office, the California Earthquake Early Warning Program and the California Earthquake Early Warning Advisory Board to support the development of the statewide earthquake early warning system, as specified. The bill would require the board to include 7 voting members, as specified, and the Chancellor of the California State University, or his or her designee, who would serve as a nonvoting member. The bill would authorize the President of the University of California, or his or her designee, to serve as an additional nonvoting member of the board. The bill would require all members to serve without compensation, but would require reimbursement for actual and reasonable travel and meal expenses to attend board meetings. The bill would require the board to comply with existing state open meeting and public record disclosure laws and would prohibit the disclosure of any information in a public record that is a trade secret, as defined, of a private entity cooperating with the board or participating in the statewide earthquake early warning system or the program. The bill would make legislative findings in support of its provisions. (2) 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 federal law provides for tax-qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts or individual retirement annuities by which private citizens may save money for retirement. Existing law, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, establishes the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, administered by the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board, contingent on specified funding and interest criteria being met. Existing law prescribes the composition of the board and its duties and provides that it acts as trustee in entering contracts and accepting moneys, among other things. Existing law prohibits the board from permitting enrollment in the program until enactment of a statute expressing legislative approval of program implementation. The program requires specified eligible employers, as defined, to offer a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement and requires eligible employees, as defined, who do not opt out of the program, to contribute a portion of their salary or wages to a retirement savings account in the program, as specified. Existing law requires contributions from the wages of employees participating in the program to be deposited in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which is continuously appropriated and administered by the board. Existing law authorizes the board to adjust the employee contribution amount between 2% and 4%, inclusive, of the employee's annual salary or wages, as specified. This bill would express legislative approval of the program and its implementation on January 1, 2017. The bill would require the board, prior to opening the program for enrollment, to make a report to the Governor and Legislature affirming that certain requirements have been met, including that the program is structured to meet a United States Department of Labor regulation, as specified. The bill would require the board to design and implement the program and would prescribe certain parameters that the board is to consider and utilize in establishing the design. The bill would require the board, for up to 3 years following implementation, to establish managed accounts invested in United States Treasury securities, in myRAs, as defined, or in similar investments and would make conforming changes in this connection in provisions related to mitigating risk in the investment portfolio and payment of the costs of administration. The bill would require the board, after this period, to annually prepare and adopt a written statement of investment policy containing specified elements. The bill would require the board to consider the statement and any changes in the investment policy at a public hearing. The bill would specify that funding and first year administrative costs may be appropriated in the annual budget from the General Fund and would require the board to repay the amount appropriated, plus interest, as specified. On and after 6 years from the date the program is implemented, the bill would prohibit expenditures for the purpose of paying operative costs and administering the trust from exceeding 1% of the total program fund. The bill would revise the purposes for which administrative and program funds may be expended. The bill would provide that investment policy decisions, including asset allocation and investment options, are entrusted to the board as a fiduciary, and would revise certain principles that the board is to consider in connection with investment policy. The bill would exempt the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust from specified provisions regarding the qualification of securities for sale. The bill would make various changes to existing duties of the board, including those regarding dissemination of information and the entities with which the board is to collaborate and cooperate. The bill would require the Treasurer to appoint an executive director of the board, to serve at its pleasure, and to determine the duties of the office and its compensation. The bill would eliminate the duty of the board to ensure that insurance or some other mechanism is in place to protect the value of individual accounts and would eliminate the requirement to secure private underwriting and reinsurance, as specified. The bill would repeal the duty of the board to conduct an initial market analysis to determine if the condition for the implementation of the program can be met and associated provisions. The bill would eliminate the authority of the board to establish certain investment options. This bill would require eligible employers that do not offer specified retirement plans or accounts to have a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement so that employees may participate in the program within specified time periods based on the number of eligible employees that the employer has, and the bill would authorize the board to extend these time periods. The bill would provide that employers retain the right at all times to set up and offer their own qualified retirement plans. The bill would define an employer of a provider of in-home supportive services as an employer if a specified determination and certification are made and would require the state or a county that makes a direct payment to a provider to assume obligations regarding retirement savings accounts, including payroll deposit IRA arrangements offered under the program. The bill would authorize the board to adjust the employee contribution amount described above up to 5% and would prescribe other limits on increasing employee contributions. The bill would authorize the board to make annual, automatic escalations of employee contributions subject to certain limitations, including that the employee may opt out, as specified. By authorizing the board to increase moneys that are deposited into the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which is continuously appropriated, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would authorize the board to adopt regulations to implement the program and would provide that the adoption, amendment, repeal, or readoption of a regulation authorized by this section is deemed to address an emergency. The bill would make various conforming changes.

Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge children to be dependents or wards of the court under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes only a juvenile court judicial officer to make orders regarding the administration of psychotropic medications for a dependent or delinquent child who has been removed from the physical custody of his or her parent. Existing law requires that court authorization for the administration of psychotropic medication to a child be based on a request from a physician, indicating the reasons for the request, a description of the child's diagnosis and behavior, the expected results of the medication, and a description of any side effects of the medication. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to adopt rules of court and develop appropriate forms for the implementation of these provisions, as specified. This bill, commencing January 1, 2018, would require that an order authorizing the administration of psychotropic medications to a dependent child or a delinquent child in foster care be granted only upon the court's determination that the administration of the medication is in the best interest of the child and that specified requirements have been met, including a requirement that the prescribing physician confirms that all appropriate laboratory screenings or tests have been performed or ordered for the child, as specified. Under specified circumstances, the bill would prohibit the court from authorizing the administration of psychotropic medications to a child under those provisions, unless a preauthorization review is obtained from a child psychiatrist or behavioral pediatrician, as specified. The bill would impose additional requirements on the court to implement these provisions and to conduct review hearings, as specified. The bill would require the child's social worker to submit a report to the court prior to any review hearing, to include information from the child, the child's caregiver, the public health nurse, and the court-appointed special advocate. By increasing the duties of county social workers, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize psychotropic medication to be administered in an emergency without court authorization. The bill would require court authorization to be sought as soon as practical thereafter, but in no case more than 2 court days after emergency administration of the psychotropic medication. The bill would require the Judicial Council to adopt rules of court and develop appropriate forms to implement these provisions by January 1, 2018. This bill would also require the State Department of Health Care Services, in collaboration with the Judicial Council, to identify resources to assist courts in securing preauthorization reviews in those counties in which there are fewer than 10 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in order to avoid undue delays in the authorization of psychotropic medications. This bill would incorporate changes to Section 4064.5 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by both this bill and SB 999, which would become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2017, and this bill is chaptered last. 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 school districts, county offices of education, and special education local plan areas (SELPAs) to comply with state laws that conform to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in order that the state may qualify for federal funds available for the education of individuals with exceptional needs. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and SELPAs to identify, locate, and assess individuals with exceptional needs and to provide those pupils with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and with special education and related services, including mental health services, as reflected in an individualized education program. Existing law contains provisions governing the operation and financing of community mental health services for the mentally disordered in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs. This bill would specifically authorize a county, or a qualified provider operating as part of the county mental health plan network, and a local educational agency to enter into a partnership that includes, among other things, an agreement between the county mental health plan, or the qualified provider, and the local educational agency that establishes a Medi-Cal mental health provider that is county operated or county contracted for the provision of mental health services to pupils of the local educational agency and in which there are provisions for the delivery of campus-based mental health services through qualified providers or qualified professionals to provide on-campus support to identify pupils with a specified education plan and pupils not in special education who a teacher believes may require those services and, with parental consent, to provide mental health services to those pupils. The bill would create the County and Local Educational Agency Partnership Fund in the State Treasury, which would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Education for the purpose of funding these partnerships, as specified, and would require the State Department of Education to fund these partnerships through a competitive grant program. The bill would require funds made available in the annual Budget Act for the purpose of providing educationally related mental health services required by an individualized education program to be used only for that purpose and would prohibit those funds from being deposited into the County and Local Educational Agency Partnership Fund.

Existing law generally requires that the prosecution of a felony sex offense be commenced within 10 years after the commission of the offense. Under existing law, prosecution for the crimes of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, if committed against a victim who was under 18 years of age, may be commenced at any time prior to the victim's 40th birthday. Existing law allows prosecution of an offense punishable by death or by imprisonment for life or for life without the possibility of parole, or for the embezzlement of public money, to be commenced at any time. This bill would allow the prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, that are committed under certain circumstances, as specified, to be commenced at any time. The bill would apply to these crimes committed after January 1, 2017, and to crimes for which the statute of limitations that was in effect prior to January 1, 2017, has not run as of January 1, 2017. This bill would incorporate changes to Section 803 of the Penal Code proposed by both this bill and SB 1088, which would become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2017, and this bill is chaptered last.