Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson

(1) Existing law specifies the content of a certificate of death and sets forth the persons responsible for completing the certificate of death. Existing law requires certain medical and health content on the certificate. This bill would prohibit "excited delirium," as defined, from being recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in this state. The bill would prohibit a coroner, medical examiner, physician, or physician assistant from stating on the certificate of death or in any report that the cause of death was excited delirium. (2) Existing law designates specified employees and appointees of certain public entities to be peace officers. Existing law grants certain powers to peace officers and prescribes certain requirements and responsibilities for peace officers and their employing or appointing entities. The bill would prohibit a peace officer from using the term "excited delirium" to describe an individual in an incident report, but would not prohibit the peace officer from describing an individual's behavior, as specified. (3) Existing law governs the rules of evidence in every action before the Supreme Court or a court of appeal or superior court, including rules relating to judicial notice, evidentiary burdens, witnesses, opinion testimony and scientific evidence, privileges, evidence affected or excluded by extrinsic policies, hearsay evidence, and writings. This bill would deem evidence that a person experienced or suffered an excited delirium inadmissible in a civil action, but would not prohibit a party or witness from testifying as to the factual circumstances surrounding the case, including a person's demeanor, conduct, and physical and mental condition, provided it is not attributed to excited delirium.

Existing law authorizes an educational provider, as defined, to use behavioral restraints, which include physical and mechanical restraints, or seclusion, as defined, only if specified conditions are met. Existing law prohibits an educational provider from using a behavioral restraint or seclusion in certain circumstances. Existing law requires a local educational agency that meets a specified federal definition to collect and, by no later than 3 months after the end of a school year, report to the State Department of Education annually on the use of behavioral restraints and seclusion for pupils enrolled in, or served by, the local educational agency for all or part of the prior school year, as specified. This bill would require such a local educational agency to annually post their report on their internet website. By imposing additional duties on those local educational agencies, 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 requires the governing board of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions, in order to receive state funds for student financial assistance, to enter into memoranda of understanding, agreements, or collaborative partnerships with existing on-campus and community-based organizations, to the extent feasible, to refer students for assistance or make services available to students, including counseling, health, mental health, victim advocacy, and legal assistance, and including resources for the accused. As a condition of receiving state funds for student financial assistance, this bill would require the trustees and the regents to ensure, to the extent feasible, that a student who seeks support after experiencing sexual violence receives information about the student's options and rights to obtain a sexual assault forensic medical examination, as specified, and commencing with the 2025–26 school year, to the extent practicable and necessary, to provide to their students without charge and in a manner that protects student confidentiality, transportation to and from a local Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) or Sexual Abuse Response Team (SART) exam center for a qualified health care provider to administer the sexual assault forensic medical evidence kit, as provided. The bill would require, on or before June 30, 2026, and biennially thereafter, as a condition of receiving state financial assistance funds, the trustees and the regents to submit a report to the Legislature on whether their respective institutions have provided transportation for students to and from a local SAFE or SART exam center for a qualified health care provider to administer the sexual assault forensic medical evidence kit and the manner in which students received the transportation.

Existing law grants the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is within the Department of Industrial Relations, jurisdiction over all employment and places of employment, and the power necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, an independent entity within the department, has the exclusive authority to adopt occupational safety and health standards within the state. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 (OSHA) , requires employers to comply with certain safety and health standards, as specified, and charges the division with enforcement of the act. Existing law requires the division, before December 1, 2025, to submit to the standards board a rulemaking proposal to consider revising the heat illness standard and wildfire smoke standard. Existing law also requires the standards board to review the proposed changes and consider adopting revised standards on or before December 31, 2025. This bill would require the standards board, before December 1, 2025, to draft a rulemaking proposal to consider revising a regulation on construction jobsite toilet facilities to require at least one single-user toilet facility on all construction jobsites, designated for employees who self-identify as female or nonbinary. The bill would require the standards board to consider adopting revised standards for the standards described above on or before December 31, 2025. Existing law further requires all single-user toilet facilities in a business establishment, place of public accommodation, or state or local government agency to be identified as all-gender toilet facilities by specified signage and designated for use by no more than one occupant at a time or for family or assisted use. This bill would provide that this provision does not apply to construction jobsites, as described above. The bill would include related legislative findings.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act of 2016, to award funding to local health departments, local governmental agencies, or on a competitive basis to other organizations, as specified, to support or establish programs that provide naloxone or another opioid antagonist to first responders and at-risk opioid users through programs that serve at-risk drug users. Existing law exempts from civil liability a person who, in good faith and not for compensation, renders emergency medical or nonmedical care or assistance at the scene of an emergency other than an act or omission constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct, as provided. This bill would require each stadium, concert venue, and amusement park to maintain unexpired doses of naloxone hydrochloride or any other opioid antagonist on its premises at all times, and to ensure that at least 2 employees are aware of the location of the naloxone hydrochloride or other opioid antagonist. The bill would exempt from civil or criminal liability a person who, in good faith, administers naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist by nasal spray or auto-injector on the premises of a stadium, concert venue, or amusement park, other than an act or omission constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct, except as specified. The bill would exempt from civil or criminal liability a stadium, concert venue, or amusement park, or its employees, or an entity that owns, occupies, or operates a stadium, concert venue, or amusement park, or its employees, for the administration of naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist, or the failure to administer naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist, on the premises of the stadium, concert venue, or amusement park, as provided.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care under authority of the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes health care service plans and certain disability insurers, that offer coverage for a service that is within the scope of practice of a duly licensed pharmacist, to pay or reimburse the cost of the service performed by a pharmacist for the plan or insurer if the pharmacist otherwise provides services for the plan or insurer. This bill would instead require a health care service plan and certain disability insurers that offer coverage for a service that is within the scope of practice of a duly licensed pharmacist to pay or reimburse the cost of services performed by a pharmacist at an in-network pharmacy or by a pharmacist at an out-of-network pharmacy if the health care service plan or insurer has an out-of-network pharmacy benefit. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law provides for the regulation of the safety of food products, including adulterated and misbranded food, wholesale food, and food in retail food facilities. This bill, commencing January 1, 2027, would prohibit a person or entity from manufacturing, selling, delivering, distributing, holding, or offering for sale, in commerce a food product for human consumption that contains any specified substance, including, among others, brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3. The bill would make a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for a first violation and not to exceed $10,000 for each subsequent violation, upon an action brought by the Attorney General, a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney.

Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for their governance. Existing law establishes county boards of education and school districts throughout the state to administer the public elementary and secondary schools within their respective jurisdictions. Existing law requires county boards of education and the governing board of each school district to prescribe and enforce rules not inconsistent with state law for their own government. Existing law requires a petition to establish a charter school to include, among other things, a reasonably comprehensive description of the governance structure of the charter school. Existing law requires county boards of education, school district governing boards, and, commencing July 1, 2023, the governing body of a charter school or of an entity managing multiple charter schools to appoint at least one high school pupil as a pupil member of the board or body, as applicable, in response to a petition from high school pupils requesting the appointment of one or more pupil members. Existing law authorizes the members of city or county boards of education or the governing boards of school districts to receive compensation, as provided. Existing law, on an annual basis, authorizes the county board of education or school district governing board to increase the compensation of individual board members beyond these limits in an amount not to exceed 5% based on the present monthly rate of compensation. Existing law authorizes any member who does not attend all meetings held in any month to receive, as compensation for their services, an amount not greater than the maximum amount allowed by law divided by the number of meetings held, and multiplied by the number of meetings actually attended. Existing law also authorizes an absent member to be paid for any meeting if the county board of education or school district governing board, by resolution, makes specified findings. Existing law does not entitle a pupil member of a county board of education, school district governing board, or governing body of a charter school or of an entity managing multiple charter schools to compensation pursuant to these provisions, except that the county board of education, the school district governing board, or the governing body of a charter school or of an entity managing multiple charter schools may award a pupil member elective course credit, as provided. This bill would revise and recast provisions related to the compensation of regular members and pupil members, as defined, of county boards of education, school district governing boards, and governing bodies of charter schools and of entities managing multiple charter schools. The bill would authorize the county board of education, the governing board of a school district, and the governing body of a charter school or of an entity managing multiple charter schools to award a pupil member elective course credit or monthly financial compensation, or both, as provided. For county boards of education and school district governing boards, the bill would authorize a pupil member to also receive partial monthly compensation, as described above, and would authorize an absent pupil member or an absent regular member to be paid for any meeting if the county board of education or school district governing board, by resolution, makes specified findings. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1000 of the Education Code proposed by AB 417 to be operative only if this bill and AB 417 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law describes the California Interscholastic Federation as a voluntary organization that consists of school and school-related personnel with responsibility for administering interscholastic athletic activities in secondary schools, and sets forth the Legislature's intent regarding the California Interscholastic Federation's implementation of certain policies. Existing law requires the California Interscholastic Federation, on or before January 1, 2023, and on or before January 1 every 7 years thereafter, to report to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and the Governor on its evaluation and accountability activities undertaken pursuant to specified provisions. Upon receiving a report from the California Interscholastic Federation, existing law requires the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature to hold a joint hearing, and requires the California Interscholastic Federation to testify on information in the report, as provided. This bill would require the California Interscholastic Federation to, during years in which the California Interscholastic Federation is not required to submit a report, and at the request of the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, make itself available for hearings regarding the information that is covered by the report. The bill would require the State Department of Education, on or before January 1, 2025, to develop, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, a standardized incident form to track racial discrimination, harassment, or hazing, as defined, that occurs at high school sporting games or sporting events, and annually report the information from completed incident forms on the department's internet website, as provided. The bill would require a school district, county office of education, or charter school that participates in the California Interscholastic Federation to, on or before April 1, 2025, post the standardized incident form on its internet website and upon request by the department, submit information related to any completed standardized incident forms received by that local educational agency.

Existing law, the California Public Records Act, generally requires public records to be open for inspection by the public. Existing law provides numerous exceptions to this requirement. Under existing law, the personnel records of peace officers and custodial officers are confidential and not subject to public inspection. Existing law provides certain exemptions to this confidentiality, including the reports, investigations, and findings of certain incidents involving the use of force by a peace officer. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2024, make records relating to an investigation conducted by a local detention facility into a death incident, as defined, available to public inspection, as specified. By increasing duties on local governments, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections, with the mission of providing statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system. This bill would expand the board's mission to include the promotion of legal and safe conditions for youth, inmates, and staff in local detention facilities. The bill would create the position of Director of In-Custody Death Review (director) within the Board of State and Community Corrections. The bill would require the Governor to appoint, subject to confirmation by the Senate, the director to a 6-year term. The bill, beginning on July 1, 2024, would require the director to review investigations of any death incident occurring within a local detention facility, as specified. The bill would require, upon that review, the director to make specific recommendations to the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility who operates the local detention facility regarding those incidents, including, among other things, changes to policies, procedures, and practices, as specified. The bill, within 90 days of receipt of the recommendations of the director, would require the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility to identify the recommendations that will be implemented and provide a timeline for implementation and the anticipated cost of implementing those recommendations. The bill would require these recommendations and responses to be made available to the public, and would give the director and the sheriff or administrator of the local detention facility the discretion to redact these disclosures, as specified. The bill, beginning on July 1, 2024, would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to employ a sufficient number of licensed medical professionals and licensed behavioral health professionals to participate in the reviews, assist with establishing and implementing health and behavioral health standards for local detention facilities, and review the delivery of medical and behavioral health services within local detention facilities. 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. 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.