Existing law provides for the placement of certain children in foster care under the custody of the State Department of Social Services and county welfare departments. Existing law establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. The program is funded by a combination of federal, state, and county funds, with moneys from the General Fund being continuously appropriated to pay for the state's share of AFDC-FC costs. Existing law, the federal Social Security Act, provides for benefits for eligible beneficiaries, including survivorship and disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for, among others, blind and disabled children. The act authorizes a person or entity to be appointed as a representative payee for a beneficiary who cannot manage or direct the management of his or her money. Existing law also provides for the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled under which State Supplemental Payments (SSP) are made in supplementation of SSI benefits. Existing law requires a county to apply to become a child's representative payee for purposes of these federal benefits during the time the child is placed in foster care, and also requires the county to provide information to the foster youth regarding certain federal requirements when a foster youth who is receiving SSI payments is approaching his or her 18th birthday. Existing law requires a county to screen each foster youth in foster care who is at least 16 years and 6 months of age and not older than 17 years and 6 months of age in order to determine whether the youth is eligible for federal SSI benefits, as specified. Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which is permitted to adjudge certain children to be dependents of the court under certain circumstances, and prescribes various hearings and other procedures for these purposes. Existing law requires a supplemental report, with specified contents, to be filed in connection with the periodic review of the status of every dependent child in foster care, as specified. Under existing law, the juvenile court, or an appropriate local agency, under certain circumstances, is required to review the status of a child or, on and after January 1, 2012, a nonminor dependent who is in a placement other than the home of a legal guardian, when jurisdiction of the juvenile court has not been dismissed. Existing law requires the reviewing body to make specified determinations in connection with this review. Existing law also prohibits the court from terminating dependency or delinquency jurisdiction over a nonminor dependent who has reached 18 years of age until a hearing is conducted and the department has submitted a report verifying that specified information, documents, and services have been provided to the child. This bill would require a county to notify the child's counsel of its intent to apply to be appointed the child's representative payee, 30 days before making that application, as specified. The bill would authorize the child's attorney to request an accounting of how the child's benefits were expended during the year preceding that request. This bill would revise the requirements applicable to the juvenile court reporting, review, and hearing as described above, to additionally require information to be provided regarding whether a child or nonminor dependent has been screened for eligibility for federal SSI benefits at the appropriate age, whether an application for SSI has been made on behalf of the individual, and the status of any pending SSI application, as specified. By increasing county duties, this 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 these statutory provisions.
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Existing law requires that child care be provided in 3 stages to recipients of benefits under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. The first stage of child care begins upon the entry of a person into the CalWORKs program. The 2nd stage of child care begins when a county determines that the work or approved work activity of the recipient is stable or when a recipient is making the transition off of aid and child care is available through a local stage 2 program. The 3rd stage of child care, which is administered by programs contracting with the State Department of Education, begins when a funded child care space becomes available for the child or children of the eligible CalWORKs recipient. This bill would reappropriate $60,000,000 in unobligated balances appropriated in the Budget Act of 2009 to the State Department of Education for CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services. The bill would also require the State Department of Education to use those funds for families that were receiving, or would have been eligible to receive, CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services, before, on, or after October 31, 2010. The bill would declare that it makes appropriations for the usual and current expenses of the state, thereby taking immediate effect.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
This measure would designate that January 16, 2012, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America.
Existing law establishes the Office of Multicultural Health within the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the office to perform various duties on behalf of the State Department of Public Health and the State Department of Health Care Services relating to the state's racial and ethnic communities. This bill would require the office to also perform those duties with respect to the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.
(1) Existing law contains various provisions that define sex as including gender and define gender as including a person's gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by refining the definition of gender to also mean a person's gender identity and gender expression and would define gender expression as meaning a person's gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. The bill would also replace cross-references to definitions of gender with the referenced definitions refined in the same manner as specified above. (2) Existing law contains various provisions that require equal rights and opportunities in various aspects, including education, housing, and employment, regardless of gender and prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law also includes various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state regarding the equal treatment and equal rights of people regardless of certain enumerated characteristics, including sex and gender. Existing law authorizes the Fair Employment and Housing Commission and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to perform certain functions to eliminate discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sex. Existing law requires the county counsel to determine whether certain documents contain an unlawful restrictive covenant based on sex and other characteristics. In these provisions, sex and gender are defined in the same manner described above. This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by including gender, gender identity, and gender expression among the enumerated characteristics. The bill would make related conforming changes. (3) Existing law prohibits public schools, including charter schools, from discriminating on the basis of specified characteristics, including gender, and specifies various statements of legislative intent and the policies of the state in that regard. Existing law also prohibits discrimination based on specified characteristics by any postsecondary educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance. This bill would additionally include gender identity and gender expression among those characteristics. (4) Existing law requires an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender identity. This bill would additionally require an employer to allow an employee to appear or dress consistently with the employee's gender expression. (5) Existing law requires a county recorder who provides a copy of a declaration, governing document, or deed to any person to place a cover page or stamp on the first page of the previously recorded document stating that if the document contains any restriction based on certain characteristics, including sex, that the restriction violates state and federal fair housing laws and is void, and may be removed. This bill would require the specified language in the cover page or stamp to include the characteristics of gender, gender identity, and gender expression. By requiring the county recorder to change the cover page or stamp, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law prohibits certain property insurance policies from being canceled or refused renewal, and prohibits any premium from being excessive or unfairly discriminatory, solely on the basis that one or more claims has been made against the policy during the preceding 60 months for a loss that is the result of a hate crime committed against the person or property of the insured. That provision defines "hate crime" as specified acts done to a person because of any enumerated characteristics of that person, including gender. This bill would additionally include gender expression and gender identity among those characteristics. (7) Existing law requires the Healthy Families Program to be administered without regard to gender, race, creed, color, sexual orientation, health status, disability, or occupation. This bill would additionally require that program to be administered without regard to gender, gender identity, or gender expression. (8) Existing law prohibits a personal relationship or personal connection from being deemed to exist between an employee who is injured or killed by a 3rd party in the course of the employee's employment and that 3rd party based only on a determination that the 3rd party injured or killed the employee solely because of the 3rd party's perception of the employee's race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, disability, sex, or sexual orientation, for purposes of determining whether to grant or deny a workers' compensation claim. This bill would include among those characteristics gender, gender identity, and gender expression. (9) Existing law requires the parole authority upon the release of any person who has been imprisoned for any felony offense committed against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to order the defendant to refrain from further acts of violence, threats, stalking, or harassment of the victim as a condition of parole, as specified. Existing law also requires the court in any case when a person is convicted of an offense against someone due to the victim's actual or perceived gender, among other characteristics, to make an order protecting the victim, or known immediate family or domestic partner of the victim. This bill would additionally require the parole authority and the court to make those orders when the offense was due to a victim's actual or perceived gender identity or gender expression. (10) This bill would incorporate changes made by AB 440 and SB 559 that would become operative if AB 440, SB 559, or both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted after AB 440, SB 559, or both bills. (11) 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law requires an employer to withhold the amounts required by an earnings withholding order from all earnings of the employee payable for any pay period of the employee that ends during the withholding period. Under existing law, the portion of the judgment debtor's earnings that the judgment debtor proves is necessary for the support of the judgment debtor or the judgment debtor's family supported in whole or in part by the judgment debtor is exempt from the levy of an earnings withholding order. This exemption is not available if the debt was incurred for the common necessaries of life furnished to the judgment debtor or the family of the judgment debtor. This bill would delete that exception for the common necessaries of life. This bill would, instead, provide an exception for a debt incurred pursuant to an order or award for the payment of attorney's fees in connection with certain family law proceedings. The bill would also make a conforming change.
Existing law, the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, as defined, to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period (1) to bond with a child who was born to, adopted by, or placed for foster care with, the employee, (2) to care for the employee's parent, spouse, or child who has a serious health condition, as defined, or (3) because the employee is suffering from a serious health condition rendering him or her unable to perform the functions of the job. Existing law makes it an unlawful employment practice, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification, for an employer to refuse to allow a female employee affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions to take leave on account of pregnancy for a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 4 months and thereafter return to work. Leave under these provisions is in addition to the leave provided under the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act. Additionally, existing law makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee for conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, if she so requests, with the advice of her health care provider. This bill would also make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right provided under the above provisions. This bill would also state that the changes made by this bill to the above provisions are declaratory of existing law. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12945 of the Government Code proposed by SB 299, to be operative only if SB 299 and this bill are both enacted, both bills become effective on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is enacted last.
(1) The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. Existing law exempts a student, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, from paying nonresident tuition at the California State University and the California Community Colleges if certain requirements are met. Those requirements include that the person has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, has graduated from a California high school or has attained the equivalent thereof, has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and, if the person is without lawful immigration status, has filed a certain affidavit. This bill would add a provision to the Donahoe Higher Education Act that would provide that any student, including a person without lawful immigration status, or a person who is exempt from nonresident tuition, as described above, may serve in any capacity in student government at the California State University or the California Community Colleges and receive any grant, scholarship, fee waiver, or reimbursement for expenses that is connected with that service to the full extent consistent with federal law. The University of California would be requested to comply with this provision. This bill would find and declare that the amendments to the Donahoe Higher Education Act described above are state laws within the meaning of a specified federal provision. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of each community college district to order the inclusion within the membership of the governing board of one or more nonvoting students who are residents of California, as determined pursuant to specified provisions of existing law, are enrolled in a community college of the district, and chosen by students enrolled in a college of the district in accordance with procedures prescribed by the governing board. This bill would eliminate the requirement that a nonvoting student member of the governing board be a resident of California.
Existing law sets forth various requirements for the issuance of diplomas conferred upon a pupil as evidence of graduation from high school. Statutory provisions establish the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma for the purpose of recognizing pupils who have mastered the high school curriculum. This bill would establish 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. The State Seal of Biliteracy would be awarded by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in accordance with specified criteria. The Superintendent would be required to prepare and deliver to participating school districts the seal insignia. Participating school districts would be required to maintain records in order to identify pupils who have earned a State Seal of Biliteracy and to affix an appropriate insignia to the diploma or transcript of pupils who earn a State Seal of Biliteracy. The bill would make an appropriation by authorizing the Superintendent to use money appropriated for purposes of the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma program to develop an Internet Web site for electronic delivery of the seals for both the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and State Seal of Biliteracy programs to school districts.