Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for the establishment of local educational agencies to operate these schools and provide instruction to pupils. Existing law states the policy of the State of California to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other specified characteristic, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state. Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying, as specified, and has publicized that policy to pupils, parents, employees, agents of the governing board, and the general public. This bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has provided to certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning pupils, as specified.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish specified forms to request an aid-in-dying drug, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing a state-mandated local program, and a final attestation for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon, or affected by, a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide a person, except as provided, immunity from civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug, or the person assisted the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug so long as the person did not assist with the ingestion of the drug, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct of a health care provider provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would also authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life, to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request, or to administer an aid-in-dying drug to an individual without their knowledge or consent. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The bill would authorize the Medical Board of California to update those forms and would require the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the department to annually review a sample of certain information and records, make a statistical report of the information collected, and post that report to its Internet Web site. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is required to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires the Director of Developmental Services to establish, annually review, and adjust as needed, a schedule of parental fees to be paid by parents of children under 18 years of age who are receiving 24-hour out-of-home care services through a regional center or who are residents of a state hospital or on leave from the state hospital. Existing law provides that all parental fees collected by or for regional centers are remitted to the State Treasury to be deposited in the Program Development Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would, effective July 1, 2016, revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, calculating monthly parental fees based on a percentage of the parents' annual income and authorizing a credit of the equivalent of one day of the monthly parental fee for each day a child spends 6 or more consecutive hours in a 24-hour period on a home visit. The bill would prohibit a monthly parental fee from exceeding the maximum monthly cost of caring for a child or the cost of services provided, whichever is less. The bill would require, for parents of children placed in 24-hour out-of-home care prior to July 1, 2016, the monthly parental fee to be calculated at the time of the parents' annual fee recalculation, or within 60 days of a parental request for review by the department and receipt of the family's completed family financial statement. The bill would provide that the Program Development Fund is available upon appropriation by the Legislature and make other related and conforming changes.
Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures as a written document, signed by an individual with capacity, or a legally recognized health care decisionmaker, and the individual's physician, directing a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures. Existing law defines a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form, which is commonly referred to as a POLST form, and provides that a request regarding resuscitative measures includes a POLST form. Existing law requires that a POLST form and the medical intervention and procedures offered by the form be explained by a health care provider. Existing law distinguishes a request regarding resuscitative measures from an advance health care directive. This bill would enact the California POLST eRegistry Pilot Act. The bill would require the Emergency Medical Services Authority to establish a pilot project, in consultation with stakeholders, to operate an electronic registry system on a pilot basis, to be known as the California POLST eRegistry Pilot, for the purpose of collecting POLST information received from a physician or physician's designee. The bill would require the authority to coordinate the POLST eRegistry Pilot, which would be operated by health information exchange networks, by an independent contractor, or by a combination thereof. The bill would require the authority to implement these provisions only after it determines that sufficient nonstate funds are available for development of the POLST eRegistry Pilot, any related startup costs, and an evaluation of the POLST eRegistry Pilot. When the POLST eRegistry Pilot is operable in the geographic area in which he or she operates or practices, a physician or physician's designee who completes POLST information would be required to include the POLST information in the patient's official medical record and would be required to submit a copy of the form to, or to enter the information into, the POLST eRegistry Pilot, unless a patient or his or her health care decisionmaker chooses not to participate in the POLST eRegistry Pilot. The bill would require the authority to adopt guidelines for, among other things, the operation of the POLST eRegistry Pilot, including the means by which POLST information would be submitted electronically, modified, or withdrawn, the appropriate and timely methods for dissemination of POLST form information, the procedures for verifying the identity of an authorized user, and rules for maintaining the confidentiality of POLST information received by the POLST eRegistry Pilot. The bill would require that any disclosure of POLST information in the POLST eRegistry Pilot be made in accordance with applicable state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. The bill would provide immunity from criminal prosecution, civil liability, discipline for unprofessional conduct, and any other sanction for a health care provider who honors a patient's request regarding resuscitative measures obtained from the POLST eRegistry Pilot, as specified. The bill would require an independent contractor approved by the authority to conduct an evaluation of the POLST eRegistry Pilot. The provisions of the bill would be operative until January 1, 2020.
Existing law generally requires that an inmate released on parole or postrelease community supervision be returned to the county of last legal residence. Existing law provides, however, that an inmate who is released on parole for an offense involving stalking shall not be returned to a location within 35 miles of the victim's actual residence or place of employment if specified criteria are satisfied. This bill would make that provision applicable to an inmate released on postrelease community supervision. The bill would also authorize a supervising county agency to transfer an inmate who is released on postrelease community supervision to another county, upon approval of the receiving county, when the inmate cannot be placed in his or her county of last legal residence in compliance with this provision. The bill would make other clarifying changes. By imposing additional duties on supervising county agencies, 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.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 19, 2015, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would designate November 2015 as Court Adoption and Permanency Month and would encourage the courts and their local communities to join in activities to expedite permanency for children.
This measure would establish the California Task Force on Family Caregiving, to meet, if a nonstate organization agrees to provide administrative support to the task force, to examine issues relative to the challenges faced by family caregivers and opportunities to improve caregiver support, review the current network and the services and supports available to caregivers, and make policy recommendations to the Legislature. The task force would be required to submit an interim report to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2017, and a final report no later than July 1, 2018.
This measure would recognize the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers for helping veterans secure their federal and state benefits over the past 70 years.
Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to improve and maintain the state's highways, and establishes various programs to fund the development, construction, and repair of local roads, bridges, and other critical transportation infrastructure in the state. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish permanent, sustainable sources of transportation funding to maintain and repair highways, local roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.