(1) Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, establishes the missions and functions of the state's 3 segments of public postsecondary education, which are the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges. The provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by resolution, make them applicable. Existing provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act require the Regents of the University of California, the Trustees of the California State University, and the governing boards of community college districts to adopt or provide for the adoption of rules and regulations governing student behavior, known as rules of student conduct. This bill would request the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing board of each community college district to adopt and publish policies on harassment, intimidation, and bullying to be included within the rules of student conduct governing their respective segments of public postsecondary education. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that rules and regulations governing student conduct be published, at a minimum, on the Internet Web sites of each public postsecondary educational campus and as part of any printed material covering those rules and regulations within the respective public postsecondary education systems. (2) The Equity in Higher Education Act, a part of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, provides that it is the policy of the state to afford all persons, regardless of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or other specified bases, equal rights and opportunities in the postsecondary educational institutions of the state. For these purposes, the act defines "gender" to include gender identity. This bill would revise the definition of gender to include "gender expression" for purposes of the Equity in Higher Education Act. The bill would request the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing board of each community college district to designate an employee at each of their respective campuses as a point of contact to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender faculty, staff, and students. The bill would request each segment to collect aggregate demographic information regarding sexual orientation and gender identity of staff and students within other aggregate demographic data collected, and would require annual transmittal of any report to the Legislature, as specified, and posting of the information on the Internet Web site of each respective institution. The bill would encourage the Legislative Analyst to conduct an assessment of the campuses of each of the segments of public postsecondary education to develop recommendations to improve the quality of life on those campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender faculty, staff, and students, and to publish a summary of those recommendations on its Internet Web site. The bill would make various conforming changes to existing nondiscrimination laws affecting postsecondary educational institutions and programs, and requirements related to reporting hate violence, as defined, to additionally include sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression within the scope of those programs and requirements.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the use of risk factors and specified characteristics to deny an injured worker his or her rightful benefit when disabled in the workplace. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the apportionment of risk factors and characteristics without prohibiting the apportionment of documentable preexisting nonindustrial causes of disability or holding an employer liable for any percentage of permanent disability not directly caused by an injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment. (2) Existing law requires any physician who prepares a report addressing the issue of permanent disability due to a claimed industrial injury to address the issue of causation of the permanent disability, and requires that the report include an apportionment determination in order to be considered complete on the issue of permanent disability. Existing law requires a physician to make an apportionment determination by finding what approximate percentage of the permanent disability is caused by the direct result of injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment and what approximate percentage is caused by other factors. This bill would prohibit the approximate percentage of the permanent disability caused by other factors from including consideration of race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics.
Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing federal law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, formerly the Food Stamp Program, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and the California Health and Human Services Agency Data Center to design, implement, and maintain a statewide fingerprint imaging system for use in connection with the determination of eligibility for benefits under the CalWORKs program, excluding the Aid to Families with Dependent Children‑Foster Care program, and CalFresh. Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires applicants for, and recipients of, CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, as a condition of eligibility, to be fingerprint imaged, pursuant to the statewide fingerprint imaging system. This bill would remove the requirement that applicants for, and recipients of, CalFresh benefits, as a condition of eligibility, be fingerprint imaged and would make related conforming changes. Under existing law, the county is required to annually redetermine eligibility for CalWORKs benefits. Existing law additionally requires the county to redetermine recipient eligibility and grant amounts on a quarterly basis, using prospective budgeting, and to prospectively determine the grant amount that a recipient is entitled to receive for each month of the quarterly reporting period. Under existing law, a CalWORKs recipient is required to report to the county, orally or in writing, specified changes that could affect the amount of aid to which the recipient is entitled. Under existing law, the CalWORKs quarterly reporting system is also implemented by the State Department of Social Services in administering SNAP. This bill would make inoperative October 1, 2013, and repeal January 1, 2014, the requirements relating to quarterly reporting and prospective determination grant amounts, and would, instead, impose similar requirements for a semiannual reporting period, operative April 1, 2013, to be implemented no later than October 1, 2013. This bill would require each county to transition recipients to a semiannual reporting system simultaneously and require each county to provide a certificate to the Director of Social Services certifying that semiannual reporting has been implemented in the county. The bill would also require the department to establish an income reporting threshold for CalWORKs recipients, as specified. The bill would make various related conforming changes, including revising provisions relating to the collection of CalWORKs grant overpayments. The bill would authorize counties to adopt staggered semiannual reporting requirements, as specified. This bill would prohibit administrative savings associated with the implementation of semiannual reporting from exceeding the amount necessary to fund the net General Fund costs of the semiannual reporting, and would authorize the reflection of possible additional savings in excess of this amount only to the extent that they are based on actual savings, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions through all-county letters until the adoption of implementing regulations, as prescribed. Existing law requires the Department of Community Services and Development to receive and administer the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program block grant. This bill would, to the extent permitted by federal law, require the State Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the Department of Community Services and Development, to design, implement by January 1, 2013, and maintain a utility assistance initiative. Under the bill, the State Department of Social Services would be required to grant applicants and recipients of CalFresh benefits a nominal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) service benefit, as specified, out of the federal LIHEAP block grant and any funds allocated for this purpose not expended and reinvested into the program, as prescribed. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would, instead, provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. To the extent that the bill would expand eligibility for CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, the bill would create 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.
Existing law prohibits employment discrimination based on sex or disability. Existing law prohibits an employer from refusing to allow a female employee disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition to take a leave for a reasonable time of up to 4 months before returning to work. This bill would also prohibit an employer from refusing to maintain and pay for coverage under a group health plan for an employee who takes that leave, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12945 of the Government Code proposed by AB 592, to be operative only if AB 592 and this bill are both enacted, both bills become effective on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is enacted last.
The School Land Bank Act vests the State Lands Commission, as a trustee, with the exclusive jurisdiction and authority to administer the School Land Bank Fund and the interest in land acquired pursuant to that act. The act authorizes the commission, acting as a trustee, to acquire interest in real property for the purposes of facilitating the management of school lands to generate income. This bill would, contingent on the cooperation of the United States Secretary of the Interior, require the commission to enter into a memorandum of agreement by April 1, 2012, with the United States Secretary of the Interior to facilitate land exchanges consolidating school land parcels into contiguous holdings that are suitable for renewable energy-related projects. The bill would require the commission, by January 1 of each year, to report to the Legislature on the status of the memorandum of agreement and school land consolidation efforts for renewable energy-related projects. The bill would require that a portion of the revenues generated from renewable energy leases pursuant to provisions of the bill be made available to the commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the commission's costs attributable to the land exchange process.
Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, headed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It would require, by July 1, 2012, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to prepare recommendations, to be presented upon request to the Legislature, regarding actions that need to be taken to promote food access in the state. The bill would establish the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council and would require the council to implement the initiative, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory group, as specified. The bill would create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Fund in the State Treasury, to be comprised of federal, state, philanthropic, and private funds, for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in underserved communities and, to the extent practicable, to leverage other funding, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be expended upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining any kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide for each needy pupil one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district and the county superintendent of schools to make applications for free or reduced-price meals available to pupils. This bill would authorize a school district or county office of education to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the local agency that determines CalFresh program eligibility, or its designee, to share information provided on the School Lunch Program application to determine an applicant's CalFresh program eligibility, as specified. The bill would provide that the School Lunch Program application is confidential and would prohibit the information used in the application from being disclosed to any governmental agency, including the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Social Security Administration, or used for any purpose other than enrollment in the CalFresh program. This bill would also require a county that has entered into a memorandum of understanding to determine CalFresh program eligibility for children from the information provided on a School Lunch Program application shared with the county pursuant to the provisions discussed above, and, if the child is eligible, to enroll the child in the CalFresh program, upon receipt of a signed CalFresh program application. The bill would also require each county to request that the parent or guardian of each child who it determines meets the eligibility requirements for participation in the CalFresh program to provide additional documentation necessary for retention of eligibility in the CalFresh program.
Existing law requires the California State University and each community college district, and requests the University of California, with respect to each campus in their respective jurisdictions that administers a priority enrollment system, to grant priority for registration for enrollment to any member or former member of the Armed Forces of the United States, as defined, for any academic term attended at one of these institutions within 2 years of leaving active duty. This bill, until January 1, 2017, would require the California State University and each community college district, and requests the University of California, with respect to each campus in their respective jurisdictions that administers a priority enrollment system, to grant priority for registration for enrollment to foster youth or former foster youth, as defined. By revising requirements relating to student eligibility for priority registration at community college districts, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law, part of the hazardous waste control law, requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals or chemical ingredients in products may be identified and prioritized for consideration as being chemicals of concern and to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals of concern may be evaluated. The department is prohibited from duplicating or adopting conflicting regulations for regulated product categories. A violation of the hazardous waste control law is a crime. The bill would enact the Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act, which would, except as specified, prohibit, on and after July 1, 2013, the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of any bottle or cup that contains bisphenol A, at a detectable level above 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) , if the bottle or cup is designed or intended to be filled with any liquid, food, or beverage intended primarily for consumption by children 3 years of age or younger. This prohibition would not apply to a product subject to a regulatory response by the department, on the date that a prescribed notice is posted regarding the department's adoption of the regulatory response. The bill would also require manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative when replacing bisphenolA in containers in accordance with this bill.
The federal income tax law authorizes a refundable earned income tax credit for certain low-income individuals who have earned income and who meet certain other requirements. Existing California law requires an employer, as defined, to notify all employees that they may be eligible for the federal earned income tax credit (EITC) , as specified. This bill would require state departments and agencies that serve those who may qualify for the EITC, as defined, to notify their program recipients that they may be eligible for the EITC, at least once a year during the months of January through April, or alternatively, to provide this annual notification during a regularly scheduled contact with a recipient by telephone, mail, or electronic communication, or by an in-person communication, as specified. This bill would require state departments and agencies that do not directly communicate with persons who may qualify for the EITC to communicate indirectly through agencies or districts serving those persons.