Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas

Maddy summaryThis bill designates May 8, 2024, as the official Day of the Teacher in California to honor educators. It does not create new laws or change funding but serves as a formal proclamation recognizing the profession's value and challenges. The resolution encourages schools, families, and community members to take time to acknowledge teachers' contributions to students.

The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. These provisions grant the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of its trust. This measure would require employees of the Regents of the University of California to have the right to, and be covered by, certain basic state labor standards, as provided. The measure would require individuals who perform certain work for the regents to have the right to the payment of a prevailing wage. The measure would authorize the Legislature to enact laws that further these rights, establish, define, or specify the basic state labor standards applicable to the regents, or establish other health, safety, and labor protections for individuals performing work for the regents.

Maddy summaryThis Senate Concurrent Resolution designates March 2024 as Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month in California to highlight conditions such as hemophilia and Von Willebrand disease. The measure aims to increase public understanding of these rare genetic disorders, which can cause severe bleeding, chronic pain, and disability without proper treatment. By officially recognizing this month, the state seeks to foster community support and encourage engagement with medical resources for those affected. The resolution does not create new laws or funding but serves as a symbolic declaration to raise awareness among the general public.

This measure would acknowledge April 2024 as Child Abuse Prevention Month and encourage Californians to work together to support youth-serving child abuse prevention activities in their communities and schools.

This measure would proclaim March 12, 2024, as Women's Equal Pay Day in California, in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all.

Maddy summarySenate Resolution 92 officially designates May 2024 as Lupus and Fibromyalgia Awareness Month in California. This legislative measure aims to increase public understanding of these conditions by highlighting their symptoms, diagnostic challenges, and prevalence among specific demographics. The resolution does not alter laws or funding but serves to encourage education and research into these chronic health issues.

Existing law authorizes a city or county prosecuting attorney or county probation department to create a diversion or deferred entry of judgment program for persons who commit a theft offense or repeat theft offenses, as specified. This bill would also allow the program to be conducted by a county department providing pretrial or health care services or a nonprofit contract agency. The bill would define theft offenses for purposes of the program. Existing law authorizes a judge in the superior court in which a misdemeanor is being prosecuted to, at the judge's discretion, offer diversion to a defendant for a period not to exceed 24 months. This bill would expand that authorization to include any cases being prosecuted, as specified. The bill would require a court that offers diversion pursuant to these provisions to assess whether to order the individual to participate in specified programs.

Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, establishes the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to license and regulate the practice of medicine, and establishes examination, training, and other requirements for licensure as a physician and surgeon. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. This bill, through November 30, 2024, would authorize a physician licensed to practice medicine in Arizona who meets certain requirements to practice medicine in California for the purpose of providing abortions and abortion-related care to patients who are Arizona residents traveling from Arizona, upon application for registration with the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, as applicable. The bill would prohibit the physician from providing care or consultation for other purposes or to other patients, except under specified circumstances. The bill would require an Arizona physician, before practicing in California, to submit specified information to the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, as applicable, including, among other information, written verification from the Arizona Medical Board or the Arizona Board of Osteopathic Examiners in Medicine and Surgery, or documentation printed from an online licensing system, that the physician's Arizona license to practice medicine is in good standing and confers on the physician the authority to practice abortions and abortion-related care. The bill would require the applicant to provide an affidavit attesting that, among other things, the applicant meets all of the requirements for registration, as specified, and would make it a misdemeanor for a person to provide false information. The bill would limit the information the California boards are required to disclose about a registrant. The bill would deem a physician registered pursuant to the bill's provisions a licensee of the applicable board, would authorize the applicable board to take enforcement against a person registered pursuant to the bill's provisions, and would prohibit the applicable boards from collecting any fees for registration. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would repeal the bill's provisions on January 1, 2025. 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 that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. 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 Department of Industrial Relations in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to, among other things, foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. This bill would require the department, upon appropriation of funds for this purpose, to establish and administer the California Workplace Outreach Project to promote awareness of and compliance with labor protections that affect California workers. The bill would require the department to issue a competitive request for proposal to qualified organizations, as defined, to provide education and outreach services to workers and assist workers who have experienced labor violations. The bill would require qualified organizations to consult with the department to create education and outreach materials informing workers of their rights on priority topics and training materials for workers and organizations. The bill would require the materials to be translated into non-English languages, to be determined by each qualified organization in consultation with the department, as appropriate for the geographic region the qualified organization serves. The bill would require the department and qualified organizations to meet at least twice a year to coordinate efforts around outreach, education, and enforcement.

Existing law prohibits a school district from receiving a state apportionment based upon average daily attendance unless it has maintained the regular day schools of the district for at least 175 days during the next preceding fiscal year, except as provided. Existing law requires a school district or county office of education that is prevented from maintaining its schools during a fiscal year for at least 180 days, and a charter school is so prevented for 175 days for, and any local educational agency is required to operate sessions of shorter length than otherwise prescribed by law because of (1) certain specified extraordinary conditions, including fire, flood, earthquake, or epidemic, among others, or other extraordinary conditions, (2) inability to secure or hold a teacher, or (3) the illness of the teacher, to receive the same apportionment from the State School Fund as it would have received had it not been so prevented from maintaining school for the requisite number of full-length days. Existing law requires the Superintendent to find that the factual basis for being so prevented has been shown, to the Superintendent's satisfaction, by the affidavits of the members of the respective governing board or body of the local educational agency and the county superintendent of schools. Notwithstanding the inability to secure or hold a teacher, or because of the illness of the teacher, existing law prohibits a school district, county office of education, or charter school, from September 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive, from receiving that same apportionment from the State School Fund as it would have otherwise received if the school closure was due to impacts from COVID-19, except as provided for specified categories of pupils. Notwithstanding that provision, existing law authorizes a school district, county office of education, or charter school to receive that same apportionment from the State School Fund for school closures related to impacts from COVID-19 due to COVID-19-related staffing shortages if specified conditions are established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by affidavits of the members of the respective governing board or body of the local educational agency and the county superintendent of schools. This bill, notwithstanding any other law, including those above-described provisions, would require the Superintendent to exempt Culver City Unified School District from fiscal penalties for failing to maintain the requisite number of instructional days due to the emergency closure of its schools from January 19, 2022, to January 21, 2022, inclusive, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 emergency and the denial of a specified waiver. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Culver City Unified School District.