Sen. Sabrina Cervantes

Existing law, the Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A Entitlement Awards, the Cal Grant B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Expanded 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 requires that, in order to be eligible to receive a Cal Grant Program award, a student either be a citizen of the United States or an eligible noncitizen, as defined. This bill would, contingent upon an appropriation of funds by the Legislature for these purposes, also provide eligibility to a noncitizen who has filed a designated application for asylum and has a valid employment authorization document and social security number. The bill would make related findings and declarations.

Existing law regulates the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General, at the request of the Department of Toxic Substances Control or a unified program agency, to bring an action seeking to enjoin a violation of laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law specifies that every civil action brought at the request of the department or a unified program agency is to be brought by the city attorney, the county attorney, the district attorney, or the Attorney General in the name of the people of the State of California and that those actions relating to the same processing or disposal of hazardous waste may be joined or consolidated. This bill would authorize the county counsel to bring an action seeking to enjoin a violation of laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. The bill would specify that county counsel, at the request of the department or a unified program agency, is authorized to bring a civil action in the name of the people of the State of California to enforce laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law requires certain businesses that handle hazardous materials to prepare a business and area plan relating to the handling and release or threatened release of hazardous materials and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. Existing law regulates the operation of underground storage tanks and aboveground storage tanks and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. Existing law regulates the handling, storage, and disposal of medical waste and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. This bill would authorize the county counsel to bring an action to enforce the requirements related to the business and area plans, underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks, or medical waste. This bill would, if a county counsel or the district attorney brings an action described above, require the county counsel or district attorney, within 7 days of the filing of the action, to give notice to the district attorney or county counsel, as applicable, of the related county and would make various conforming changes.

Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Board of Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to provide for courses in ethnic studies at each of its campuses. Existing law, commencing with students graduating in the 2024–25 academic year, requires the California State University to require, as an undergraduate graduation requirement, the completion of, at minimum, one 3-unit course in ethnic studies. This bill would require the California State University to collaborate with the Academic Senate of the California State University, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, the California Community Colleges Ethnic Studies Faculty Council, and the California State University Council on Ethnic Studies to ensure the development of a process, on or before December 31, 2024, for eligible community college ethnic studies courses to meet the requirements of a California State University ethnic studies course provided pursuant to these provisions for students who transfer to the California State University from California Community Colleges. The bill would require the California State University Council on Ethnic Studies to make the final decision on whether a community college course satisfies the California State University requirements for ethnic studies. The bill would provide that a community college course that has been approved for the California State University ethnic studies requirements as of December 1, 2023, no longer satisfies those requirements on and after August 1, 2025, unless the course is approved under the process developed pursuant to this bill, except that the bill, notwithstanding that provision, would prohibit requiring students who have successfully completed an approved community college ethnic studies course before August 1, 2025, from taking another course to meet the California State University requirements for ethnic studies.

(1) Existing law establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Education, with the purpose of encouraging, maintaining, and strengthening the delivery of high-quality career technical education programs. Existing law provides, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, that $300,000,000 shall be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. Existing law prohibits an applicant from being awarded an amount higher than the amount that the allocation formula determines them to be eligible to receive under the program. This bill instead would provide, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, that $450,000,000 shall be made available to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. The bill would delete the prohibition against an applicant being awarded more than the amount determined by the allocation formula. (2) Existing law requires grant applicants to meet minimum requirements, including, among other things, reporting to the Superintendent of Public Instruction data on the number of pupils completing career technical education coursework. This bill would require applicants to additionally report data on the number of pupils completing a career technical education pathway consisting of a sequence of 2 or more career technical education courses in the same career technical education subject matter discipline. (3) Existing law requires the Superintendent to take specified actions for purposes of administering the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program. This bill would require the Superintendent to establish, in collaboration with the executive director of the State Board of Education, a stakeholder workgroup, as specified, on or before June 30, 2024, to consider and provide recommendations on maximizing career technical education opportunities for pupils, as provided, and to report those recommendations to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Governor by January 31, 2025. The bill would require the Superintendent to ensure a level of professional staffing within the department that is dedicated to career technical education, sufficient to effectively administer the program and other federal and state career technical education programs, as specified. (4) Existing law requires the K–12 Workforce Pathway Coordinators and the K–14 Technical Assistance Providers to provide technical assistance and support to grant recipients, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, instead require $12,000,000 to be made available to the department, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute, to provide regional career technical education coordinators for the provision of technical assistance and support to local educational agencies in implementing all of their career technical education courses, programs, and pathways, as provided. (5) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes the Strong Workforce Program to provide funding to career technical education regional consortia made up of community college districts, as specified. Existing law also establishes a K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program. Existing law provides that, commencing with the 2018–19 fiscal year, the amount appropriated in the annual Budget Act for the K–12 component of the program is used to create, support, or expand high-quality career technical education programs at the K–12 level that are aligned with the workforce development efforts occurring through the program. This bill would, as of July 1, 2024, repeal the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program and would require the administration of any outstanding allocations for the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program to be administered by the department pursuant to the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program.

Existing law establishes the Middle Class Scholarship Program (MCSP) under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law, subject to an available and sufficient appropriation, makes an undergraduate student eligible for a scholarship award under the MCSP if the student is enrolled at the University of California or the California State University, or enrolled in upper division coursework in a community college baccalaureate program, and meets certain eligibility requirements. This bill would require the Department of Finance, following a growth of General Fund revenues for 2 consecutive fiscal years, to fund the cost of the MCSP, as determined by the commission, over the 5 fiscal years following that growth, as provided.

This measure would declare that the Legislature should pass laws that halt the importation of cobalt or any product using cobalt mined in Africa using child slave labor and encourage the production of cobalt and other critical minerals ethically sourced from within the United States.

This measure would recognize July 17, 2023, to July 23, 2023, as Outdoor Worker Appreciation Week.

This measure would declare the month of October 2023 as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month.

This measure would designate the month of November 2023 to be California's Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month. The measure would recognize and acknowledge the significant contributions made by Californians of Sikh heritage to our state and would seek to afford all Californians the opportunity to better understand, recognize, and appreciate the rich history and shared principles of Sikh Americans. The measure would condemn all hate crimes and bias incidents against Sikh Americans and would encourage all Sikhs to practice their faith freely and fearlessly.