Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes. Existing law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. This test is commonly known as the "ABC" test, as described above. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of Dynamex and the provisions described above. These exemptions include a temporary exemption for newspaper distributors or newspaper carriers, as defined, until January 1, 2021. This bill would delete the above inoperative date of January 1, 2021, applicable to newspaper distributors or newspaper carriers, thereby making the above exemption apply indefinitely.
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Existing case law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex) , creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the "ABC" test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes. Existing statutory law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is not an employee under the ABC test. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with the enforcement of labor laws, including worker classification. Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of the ABC test described above. Existing law, instead, provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the multifactor test previously adopted in the case of S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. This bill would also exempt from the ABC test specified individuals working as interpreters and translators.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund, the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund, the Universal Lifeline Telephone Service Trust Administrative Committee Fund, the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee Fund, the Payphone Service Providers Committee Fund, the California Teleconnect Fund Administrative Committee Fund, and the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in the State Treasury and provides that moneys in the funds are held in trust and may be expended only to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. This bill would prohibit the commission from collecting, for deposit into any universal service fund, any revenues derived from charges upon the provision of a communications service that the Federal Communications Commission has determined is an information service, as specified. Existing law establishes the Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account and authorizes the commission to annually determine a utility reimbursement fee to be paid by every public utility providing service directly to customers or subscribers and subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, except for a railroad corporation. The commission is required to establish the fee, with the approval of the Department of Finance, to produce a total amount equal to that amount established in the authorized commission budget for the same year, and an appropriate reserve to regulate public utilities, less specified sources of funding. This bill would prohibit the commission from imposing a utility reimbursement fee that is applicable to the provision of a communications service that the Federal Communications Commission has determined is an information service, as specified.
Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards, the Cal Grant C Awards, and the Cal Grant T Awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law specifies the amounts of the maximum Cal Grant A and B awards for students attending private nonprofit postsecondary institutions of higher education and private for-profit postsecondary educational institutions that are regionally accredited, as specified. Beginning with the 2020–21 award year, the maximum tuition award is either $9,084 or $8,056, depending upon whether the number of new unduplicated transfer students accepted by private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions who have been given associate degree for transfer commitments, as defined, in the prior award year meet and exceed specified targets. This bill would change, in accordance with a prescribed formula, the maximum Cal Grant award for tuition for a new recipient attending an independent institution of higher education, commencing with the 2020–21 award year. This bill would provide that the award amount for a student attending an independent institution of higher education may be determined in the annual Budget Act if the independent institutions of higher education, as a group, do not accept the specified number of transfer students who have been given associate degree for transfer commitments.
Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. The act requires the state plans submitted for the receipt of the grant to include assurances that local educational agencies will designate an appropriate staff person to act as a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths and a description of how the state will ensure that local educational agencies and their liaisons will comply with specified requirements of the act, including the identification of homeless children and youths. Under existing state law, public schools, including charter schools, and county offices of education are required to immediately enroll a homeless child or youth seeking enrollment, except as specified, and a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths is required to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths is disseminated in schools within the liaison's local educational agency that provide services pursuant to the act. This bill would require a local educational agency to ensure that each school within the local educational agency identifies all homeless children and youths enrolled at the school, and would also require the local educational agency to annually report to the State Department of Education the number of homeless children and youths enrolled. The bill would require that an intake form used to identify a child as homeless include a statement that a child will not be removed from the child's family solely because the child's family is experiencing homelessness. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, would establish in the department 1.5 state coordinator positions, in addition to the state coordinator positions maintained in the department as of July 1, 2019, with duties including, at a minimum, those listed for the Coordinator for Education of Homeless Children and Youths pursuant to the federal act. The bill would require the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to allocate $500,000 each to 3 county offices of education in different regions throughout the state for the purpose of establishing technical assistance centers to foster relationships with community partners and other local educational agencies in each region, as provided. The bill would require the department to determine which county offices of education to allocate those funds to through a competitive process, as provided, and to take into account geographic diversity and concentrations of homeless children and youths. The bill would require a school district or county office of education to post on its internet website a list of the local educational agency liaisons for homeless children and youths in that school district or county, respectively, and the contact information for those liaisons. The bill would require a school to post on its internet website the contact information for the liaison, if available. The bill would also require, if a school has an employee or person under contract whose duties include assisting the liaison in completing the liaison's duties under the federal act, the school to post on its internet website the contact information for that employee or person under contract. 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 requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to include, among other subjects, the social sciences. Existing law encourages instruction in the area of social sciences for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, which may include instruction on the Vietnam War, including a component drawn from personal testimony of Southeast Asians who were involved in the Vietnam War and men and women who contributed to the war effort on the homefront, as specified. Existing law requires the State Board of Education, with the assistance of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to establish a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board. Existing law requires the commission to develop and submit to the state board a model curriculum in Hmong history and cultural studies, as specified. Existing law requires the commission, on or before December 31, 2022, to submit the model curriculum to the state board for adoption, and requires the state board to adopt, modify, or reject the model curriculum on or before March 31, 2023. Existing law requires the Superintendent, following the adoption of the model curriculum, to post the model curriculum on the State Department of Education's internet website for use on a voluntary basis by educators. Existing law requires, if the state board modifies the model curriculum, that the state board explain, in writing, the reasons for the modifications to the Governor and certain committees of the Legislature. Existing law also requires the state board to provide, in a public meeting, written reasons for modifying the model curriculum, as specified. Existing law, beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, encourages local educational agencies, as defined, to use the model curriculum to provide instruction in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law provides that implementation of these provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute. This bill would require that model curriculum to additionally cover Laotian history and cultural studies, as provided. The bill would delay by one year the deadlines for the commission to submit the model curriculum to the state board, and for the state board to adopt, modify, or reject the model curriculum, and would set those deadlines at December 31, 2023, and March 31, 2024, respectively. The bill would delete the provisions requiring the state board to provide written reasons for modifying the model curriculum submitted by the commission.
Existing law establishes the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma for the purpose of recognizing pupils who have mastered the high school curriculum. Existing law also establishes the State Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in one or more languages in addition to English. This bill would establish a State Seal of STEM to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The bill would establish criteria for the receipt of the State Seal of STEM, would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare and deliver to participating school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools an appropriate insignia to be affixed to pupil diplomas or transcripts, and would require participating school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to maintain appropriate records and affix the appropriate insignia to diplomas or transcripts of recipient pupils. The bill would not become operative until both (1) data from the statewide administration of specified state science assessments are available and (2) the State Board of Education, in a public meeting, makes specified declarations. The bill's provisions would be inoperative on July 31, 2026, and repealed on January 1, 2027.
This measure would designate October 23, 2020, as Chinese American Day in California to highlight the important historical contributions of Chinese Americans to California and to the United States of America.
Existing law makes a person who deprives or violates the personal liberty of another with the intent to obtain forced labor or services guilty of the crime of human trafficking and subject to imprisonment and a specified fine. This bill would establish the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery (California ACTS) Task Force to collect and organize data on the nature and extent of trafficking of persons in California. The bill would require the task force to examine collaborative models between local and state governments and nongovernmental organizations for protecting victims of trafficking, among other, related duties. Under the bill, the task force would be comprised of specified state officials and specified individuals who have expertise in human trafficking or provide services to victims of human trafficking, as specified. The bill would require the task force to hold its first meeting no later than July 1, 2020, and would require the task force to meet at least 4 times. The bill would require the task force to report its findings and recommendations to the Office of Emergency Services, the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Legislature by July 1, 2023. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2024.