Sen. Angelique Ashby

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. This bill would require the commission to develop, in coordination with electrical corporations, gas corporations, and the unions representing the impacted workers, and conduct a 5-year, statewide, public campaign to raise awareness and understanding around the harassment of utility workers and contractors in the state, as specified. The bill would require the commission, at the end of each year of the campaign, to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign, and to prepare and publish on its internet website an annual report describing the campaign's activities, effectiveness, and gaps, as specified. The bill would require implementation of these provisions to be subject to the commission receiving sufficient funding for the campaign.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides that abortion is a covered benefit under Medi-Cal. Existing regulation authorizes reimbursement for specified medications used to terminate a pregnancy through the 70th day from the first day of the recipient's last menstrual period. This bill would require the department, by March 1, 2024, to review and update Medi-Cal coverage policies for medication abortion to align with current evidence-based clinical guidelines. After the initial review, the bill would require the department to update its Medi-Cal coverage policies for medication abortion as needed to align with evidence-based clinical guidelines. The bill would require the department to allow flexibility for providers to exercise their clinical judgment when services are performed in a manner that aligns with one or more evidence-based clinical guidelines.

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 and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law sets forth specified coverage requirements for health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies. This bill, the Let California Kids Hear Act, would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, to include coverage for hearing aids for enrollees and insureds under 21 years of age, if medically necessary. The bill would limit the maximum required coverage amount to $3,000 per individual hearing aid, as specified. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to a health care service plan 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, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , protects the right to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination because of prescribed characteristics. FEHA makes various employment practices unlawful and empowers the Civil Rights Department to investigate and prosecute complaints alleging unlawful practices. FEHA makes it an unlawful practice for an employer or other entity to fail to make reasonable accommodation for the known physical or mental disability of an applicant or employee. FEHA further makes it an unlawful practice for an employer or other entity to fail to engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process with the employee or applicant to determine effective reasonable accommodations, if any, in response to a request for reasonable accommodation by an employee or applicant with a known physical or mental disability or known medical condition. This bill would make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail to provide to an employee who is working from home at least 30 calendar days' advance notice before requiring the employee to return to work in person. The bill would prohibit an employee from being required to return to work in person until the employer provides notice in accordance with the bill. The bill would require that notice be written and sent by mail or email and include, at a minimum, prescribed text with information about the rights of an employee to reasonable accommodation for a disability. The bill would establish specified restrictions on the interpretation of its provisions.

Existing law provides that 8 hours of labor constitute a day's work unless it is otherwise expressly stipulated in a collective bargaining agreement, and requires that any work in excess of specified hours in one workday or one workweek be compensated at a rate higher than the regular rate of pay for the employee, as specified. Existing law authorizes, upon the proposal of an employer, employees of an employer to adopt a regularly scheduled alternative workweek that authorizes work by the affected employees for no longer than 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek without the payment to the affected employees of an overtime rate of compensation, as specified. Existing law prohibits an employer from employing an employee for a work period of more than 5 hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period, as specified, but, notwithstanding these provisions, existing law authorizes the Industrial Welfare Commission to adopt a working condition order permitting a meal period to commence after 6 hours of work if specified conditions are met. Under existing law, the Industrial Welfare Commission issues wage orders that regulates wages, hours, and working conditions in various occupations, including Wage Order No. 10-2001, which regulates the amusement and recreation industry. This bill would provide that these provisions do not apply to a person who is covered by a contract to play baseball at the minor league level with a labor organization that has at least 10 years of experience representing baseball players and who is compensated pursuant to the terms of a valid collective bargaining agreement that expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, working conditions of employees, payment for time worked during the off-season and spring training, and final and binding arbitration of disputes. The bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to amend and republish Wage Order No. 10-2001 to provide that specified provisions of the wage order do not apply to a person subject to these provisions, as specified. Existing law requires an employer, semimonthly or at the time of payment of wages, to furnish an employee an accurate, itemized, written statement containing specified information regarding the amounts earned, hours worked, and the employee's identity, among other things, subject to certain variations. Existing law provides that an itemized wage statement furnished by an employer pursuant to these provisions is not required to show total hours worked by the employee if, among other things, the employee is exempt from the payment of minimum wage and overtime under specified law. This bill would provide that an itemized wage statement furnished by an employer pursuant to these provisions is not required to show total hours worked by an employee if the employee is exempt from the payment of minimum wage and overtime under the bill's provisions described above. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs, among other things, the procedures for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies. Existing law also describes procedures for the promulgation of regulations by the Industrial Welfare Commission. This bill would exempt these provisions from the rulemaking procedures described above. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law authorizes a public or private elementary or secondary school to determine whether or not to make emergency naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist and trained personnel available at its school, and to designate one or more volunteers to receive related training to address an opioid overdose, as specified. This bill would state the Legislature's encouragement of county offices of education to establish a County Working Group on Fentanyl Education in Schools, as provided, for the purposes of outreach, building awareness, and collaborating with local health agencies regarding fentanyl overdoses. The bill would require the State Department of Education to curate and maintain on its internet website, among other things, informational materials containing awareness and safety advice, for school staff, pupils, and parents or guardians of pupils, on how to prevent an opioid overdose. (2) Under existing law, each school district and county office of education is responsible for the overall development of a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in cooperation with certain local entities. Existing law requires that the plan identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety and address the school's procedures for complying with existing laws related to school safety. Existing law requires a petition to establish a charter school to include, among other things, a reasonably comprehensive description of the procedures that the charter school will follow to ensure the health and safety of pupils and staff, including requiring the development and annual update of a school safety plan that includes certain safety topics and procedures. This bill would additionally require a comprehensive school safety plan, and the school safety plan of a charter school, for a school serving pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to include the development of a protocol in the event a pupil is suffering or is reasonably believed to be suffering from an opioid overdose. By creating new duties for local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that alternatives to suspension or expulsion be imposed against a pupil who is truant, tardy, or otherwise absent from school activities. Existing law further states legislative intent that the Multi-Tiered System of Supports, which includes restorative justice practices, among other things, may be used to help pupils, as specified. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that a school use alternatives to a referral of a pupil to a law enforcement agency in response to an incident involving the pupil's misuse of an opioid, to the extent not in conflict with any other law requiring that referral. The bill would state legislative intent that the above-described Multi-Tiered System of Supports may be used to achieve these alternatives. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 32282 of the Education Code proposed by SB 323 and SB 671 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 47605 of the Education Code proposed by AB 1604 and SB 671 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 47605.6 of the Education Code proposed by AB 1604 and SB 671 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) 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.

(1) Existing law establishes the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program, administered by the State Department of Education, in consultation with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, for teachers seeking to provide instruction in bilingual and multilingual settings. Existing law, for the 2023–24 fiscal year, appropriates $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for purposes of the program, to be available for grants totaling $4,000,000 each fiscal year, from the 2023–24 fiscal year to the 2027–28 fiscal year, inclusive, as provided. Existing law requires the department to allocate grant funding to eligible local educational agencies, including county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, or a consortia of local educational agencies for purposes of providing professional development services to teachers or paraprofessionals who satisfy specified requirements, but exempts participants who are currently enrolled in, or have completed, the Asian Language Bilingual Teacher Education Program from those requirements that apply to teachers. This bill would also exempt participants who are currently enrolled in, or have completed, programs to support bilingual teacher education in languages in the classroom, such as Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and other languages, as represented in an instructional program, from those specified requirements that apply to teachers. By expanding the scope of eligibility for purposes of an appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing requires Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program grant recipients to provide to the department, by July 1, 2026, a preliminary report, and, by January 1, 2029, a final report, on the number of participants who were issued bilingual authorizations, the number of previously authorized teachers who have participated in the program and subsequently returned to bilingual teaching assignments, and the number of teachers who are still working at least 50% of the time in a bilingual setting. This bill would extend the deadline for the final report by one year to January 1, 2030. (3) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.

Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes. This bill, on or after April 1, 2024, and before April 1, 2029, would exempt the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, breast pumps, breast pump collection and storage supplies, breast pump kits, and breast pads. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would make findings detailing the goals of the above-described tax expenditure and performance indicators for determining whether the tax expenditure meets those goals. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act contains various provisions regulating the application for, the issuance of, the suspension of, and the conditions imposed upon alcoholic beverage licenses by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Existing law provides for various annual fees for the issuance of alcoholic beverage licenses, depending upon the type of license issued. Existing law authorizes the department to issue a music venue license, as defined, that allows the licensee to sell beer, wine, and distilled spirits at retail for consumption on the premises in a music entertainment facility, as defined. Existing law makes selling, giving, delivering, or purchasing an alcoholic beverage between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. of the same day a misdemeanor. Existing law further limits a music venue licensee's authorization to sell, serve, and permit consumption of alcoholic beverages to the time period from 2 hours before a live performance until one hour after the live performance. Existing law authorizes the department to make any examination of the books and records of any licensee and makes any person who fails to preserve the books for inspection guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would authorize a licensee under a music venue license to apply to the department for a duplicate license or licenses, as prescribed. The bill would also authorize a music venue licensee to sell, serve, and permit consumption of alcoholic beverages during private events or private functions not open to the general public within any hours of operation permitted by its license, regardless of whether any live performance occurs. The bill would exempt the licensee from having to meet certain requirements generally imposed on a music entertainment facility in connection with and during a private event or private function if specified conditions are met. The bill would require the licensee to keep records demonstrating compliance with these provisions for the preceding 3 calendar years and to provide these records to the department upon request. The bill would make a licensee's failure to keep the required records or provide them to the department grounds for disciplinary action punishable as a misdemeanor and would, therefore, expand the scope of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. (2) Under existing law, any person possessing an open container of an alcoholic beverage in any city, county, or city and county-owned public place, as specified, or any regional park or recreation and park district, is guilty of an infraction if the city or county has enacted an ordinance that prohibits the possession of those containers or the consumption of alcoholic beverages in those areas, except as specified. Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, authorizes the legislative body of any city or county to adopt ordinances regulating zoning within its jurisdiction, as specified. Existing law authorizes a licensed beer manufacturer, a licensed winegrower, and any on-sale licensee to sell certain alcoholic beverages for consumption on or off the premises, as specified. This bill, additionally, would authorize a licensed beer manufacturer, a licensed winegrower, and any on-sale licensee to permit consumers to leave the premises with open containers of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises within an entertainment zone, subject to certain conditions. The bill would define "entertainment zone" for purposes of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act as a zone created by ordinance on or after January 1, 2024, in the City and County of San Francisco, that authorizes consumption of one or more types of alcoholic beverages on public streets, sidewalks, or public rights-of-way adjacent to and during a special event permitted or licensed by the department. The bill would require the City and County of San Francisco, if it establishes an entertainment zone, to provide specified information relating to the entertainment zone to the department and establish a process or procedure by which persons in possession of alcoholic beverages in the entertainment zone may be readily identifiable as being 21 years of age or older. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for City and County of San Francisco. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 23357 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 788 to be operative only if this bill and SB 788 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 23358 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 1704 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1704 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (4) 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.