Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

Existing law establishes various programs to facilitate the expansion of the health care workforce in rural and underserved communities, including, but not limited to, the Health Professions Career Opportunity Program, the California Registered Nurse Education Program, and the Steven M. Thompson Medical School Scholarship Program. This bill, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature, as specified, would create the California Medicine Scholars Program, a 5-year pilot program commencing January 1, 2023, and would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to establish and facilitate the pilot program. The bill would require the pilot program to establish a regional pipeline program for community college students to pursue premedical training and enter medical school, in an effort to address the shortage of primary care physicians in California and the widening disparities in access to care in vulnerable and underserved communities, including building a comprehensive statewide approach to increasing the number and representation of minority primary care physicians in the state. The bill would require the office to contract with a managing agency for the pilot program, as specified. The bill would require the pilot program to consist of 4 Regional Hubs of Health Care Opportunity (RHHO) to achieve its objectives, and would require each RHHO to include, at a minimum, 3 community colleges, one public or nonprofit, as defined, 4-year undergraduate institution, one public or nonprofit, as defined, medical school, and 3 local community organizations. The bill would require the managing agency to appoint an objective selection committee, with specified membership, to evaluate prospective RHHO applications and select RHHOs that meet certain requirements to participate in the pilot program. The bill would require each selected RHHO to enter into memoranda of understanding between the partnering entities setting forth participation requirements, and to perform other specified duties, including establishing an advisory board to oversee and guide the programmatic direction of the RHHO and developing partnership agreements with one or more campus-based learning communities, groups, or entities to assist with outreach, recruitment, and support of students. The bill would require the selection process to be completed by June 30, 2022. This bill would require each RHHO to recruit and select 50 California Medicine Scholars each calendar year from 2023 to 2026, inclusive, in accordance with specified criteria, and to provide, by December 31, 2023, and by that date of each year thereafter, up to and including 2026, a status report on the implementation of the pilot program to the managing agency and the office, including data and information collected by each RHHO during the applicable program year. The bill would require the managing agency and the office to jointly prepare and submit to the Legislature a final report evaluating the success of the pilot program, including the data and information provided by the RHHOs, in accordance with specified metrics. The bill would declare that its provisions are severable. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on June 30, 2027, and would repeal the provisions as of January 1, 2028.

This measure would recognize June 21, 2021, as the 2021 International Day of Yoga in California.

Existing law regulates the wages, hours, and working conditions of any worker employed in any occupation, trade, or industry, whether compensation is measured by time, piece, or otherwise, except as specified. This bill would provide that, in any instance in which an employer is required to physically post information, an employer may also distribute that information to employees by email with the document or documents attached. The bill would specify that this does not alter the employer's obligation to physically display the required posting.

This measure would recognize the month of June 2021 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month and Sunday, June 20, 2021, as The Longest Day, and would urge all Californians to commemorate the month of June 2021 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law, until July 1, 2021, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to implement a plan establishing assigned reimbursement rates to be paid by the state to provider agencies for the provision of those services. Commencing July 1, 2021, existing law transfers specified childcare programs, responsibilities, services, and systems, including those programs and duties described below, from the State Department of Education and the Superintendent to the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires the Superintendent to implement a plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service. Existing law requires the reimbursement system to be submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates that would vary with additional factors, including a quality adjustment factor to address the cost of staffing ratios. By November 10, 2022, and annually thereafter, the bill would require the reimbursement system plan, including methodology and standards, to be submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The bill would require that plan to include a formula for annually adjusting reimbursement rates. By July 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the bill would require the department to establish a reimbursement rate target for each contracting agency that meets specific quality standards based on specified elements, including quality adjustment factors for the age range of children proposed to be served by the contracting agency. The bill would also require all providers meeting quality standards, as specified, to be paid the quality adjustment factor, as specified. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2024, to develop, or hire a contractor to develop, a modernized reimbursement formula based on the components outlined in the state's Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, as specified. The bill would also require the department, by January 1, 2024, to convene a working group to assess the existing quality standards for equity and accessibility to all provider types and settings, and would require the department to develop recommendations to be implemented with the new reimbursement base rate, as specified. The bill would make the above provisions subject to an appropriation by the Legislature. (2) Existing law establishes adjustment factors for a provider agency's reported child days of enrollment in order to reflect the additional expense of serving specified children, including an adjustment factor for infants and toddlers who are 0 to 36 months of age and are served in a child daycare center or family childcare home. As of July 1, 2022, this bill would delete the above-described adjustment factor and would make conforming changes. The bill would add an adjustment factor for children who are served in a county experiencing a county state of emergency, or any county during a statewide state of emergency, based on the enrollment of children in the program, as specified. (3) Existing law requires reimbursement rates to be adjusted by specified reimbursement factors for childcare and development programs, and, for childcare and development providers serving children for less than 4 hours per day, requires the reimbursement factor to be 55% of the standard reimbursement rate. This bill would instead require the above-described reimbursement factor to be 50% of the standard reimbursement rate. The bill would also require a crisis adjustment factor of 150% for childcare and development program providers serving children in a county experiencing a county state of emergency, or any county during a statewide state of emergency, based on the enrollment of children in the program. (4) Existing law requires the cost of childcare services to be governed by regional market rates, and requires the regional market rate ceilings to be established at the 75th percentile of the 2016 regional market rate survey for that region or the regional market rate ceiling that existed in that region on December 31, 2017, whichever is greater. Existing law prohibits reimbursement to license-exempt childcare providers from exceeding 70% of the family childcare home rate. The bill would update the above formula to be based instead on the 2018 regional market rate survey. Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, for the 2021 calendar year, and for the 2021–22 fiscal year, and annually thereafter, the bill would require the annual regional market ceilings to be established at no less than the 85th percentile of the 2018 regional market rate survey for that region or the regional market rate ceiling that existed in that region on December 31, 2017, whichever is greater. The bill would provide that if there is no appropriation, the existing formula, as updated for 2018, to establish a regional market rate ceiling would apply. Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, commencing January 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the bill instead would prohibit reimbursement to license-exempt childcare providers from exceeding 70% of the commensurate rate for both full-time and part-time care. (5) The act requires the State Department of Education to contract with local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs for services provided throughout the state. Existing law requires alternative payment childcare systems to be subject to the rates established in the regional market rate survey of childcare providers for provider payments. Existing law requires the department to contract to conduct and complete a regional market rate survey no more than once every 2 years. This bill would require the department to update the regional market rate survey methodology to include specified factors, including age ranges and hours of service.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop program guidelines for dyslexia to be used to assist regular education teachers, special education teachers, and parents to identify and assess pupils with dyslexia, as provided. Existing law requires a pupil who is assessed as being dyslexic and meets specified eligibility criteria to be entitled to special education and related services. This bill would require, on or before June 30, 2022, the State Board of Education to establish an approved list of evidence-based culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening instruments to be used by a local educational agency, as defined, to screen pupils for risk of dyslexia, as provided. The bill would require, beginning in the 2022–23 school year, and annually thereafter, a local educational agency serving pupils in any of the grades kindergarten to grade 2, inclusive, to screen each pupil in those grades for risk of dyslexia by using the screening instrument or instruments identified above, as provided. The bill would also require, during the 2022–23 school year, a local educational agency serving pupils in grade 3 to screen each pupil. The bill would require results from the screening, among other things, to be made available to a pupil's parent or guardian in a timely manner, but no more than 45 calendar days from administering the screening. The bill would require a local educational agency to provide a pupil identified as being at risk for dyslexia with appropriate instruction, progress monitoring, and early intervention in the regular general education program. By expanding the duties of a local educational agency, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law establishes the Comprehensive Statewide Domestic Violence Program, administered by the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law specifies the funding process by which the Office of Emergency Services distributes grant awards to domestic violence centers. Existing law permits the Office of Emergency Services to advance up to 25% of a grant award to a domestic violence shelter service provider pursuant to the Comprehensive Statewide Domestic Violence Program. This bill would instead require the Office of Emergency Services to provide the full amount of a grant award to a domestic violence shelter service provider at the beginning of a grant period.

This bill would recognize the month of May 2021 as Older Americans Month and would encourage all Californians to recognize and treat all older adults with compassion and respect, and to participate in services and activities that contribute to the health, welfare, and happiness of older adults.

This measure would proclaim May 15, 2021 as Áo Dài Day in California.