Existing law authorizes, in certain circumstances, a child who has been removed from their parent or guardian to be placed with a relative or nonrelative extended family member if the relative or nonrelative extended family member is either an approved resource family or has been assessed by a county social worker or a county probation agency and, among other things, the relative or nonrelative extended family member has not been convicted of a crime for which a criminal record exemption cannot be granted, has been granted a criminal record exemption, or, in certain circumstances, a criminal record exemption is pending. This bill would, notwithstanding those provisions, authorize the court to order placement with a relative, regardless of the status of any criminal exemption or resource family approval, if the court finds that the placement does not pose a risk to the health and safety of the child. The bill would require the county welfare department, if the sole issue preventing an emergency placement of a child with a relative or nonrelative extended family member is a lack of resources, to use reasonable efforts to assist the relative or nonrelative extended family member in obtaining the necessary items. By imposing new duties of county welfare departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Program (ARC) for the purpose of making the amount paid to relative caregivers for the in-home care of children placed with them who are ineligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care program (AFDC-FC) payments equal to the amount paid on behalf of children who are eligible for AFDC-FC payments. Existing law also provides financial support to emergency caregivers with a pending resource family approval application who have a child placed in their home who is ineligible for AFDC-FC payments. Existing law requires a county to pay an approved relative caregiver or an emergency caregiver a per child per month rate that is equal to the basic rate paid to foster care providers and that is funded, in part, through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. This bill would expand eligibility for ARC to include relatives with whom a child is authorized to be placed by the court, as described above, when the placement is ineligible for emergency caregiver financial support or AFDC-FC payments due to the denial of resource family approval. The bill would also expand eligibility for emergency caregiver financial support to include emergency caregivers who had a child placed with them pursuant to additional provisions of law. By expanding county duties relative to these funding programs, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law subjects foster care provider applicants, resource family applicants, and certain other adults in those homes, to a criminal records check and requires the applicant or other adult in the applicant's home to obtain a criminal record clearance or criminal record exemption prior to licensure or approval. Existing law prohibits the State Department of Social Services or other approving entity from granting a criminal record exemption to an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home who has been convicted of certain felonies. With regard to an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home who has been convicted of a crime other than those for which an exemption cannot be granted, existing law either authorizes or requires, depending on the crime for which an applicant or other adult in the applicant's home has been convicted, the department or other approving entity to grant an exemption if, among other things, the applicant or other adult in the applicant's home is of present good character, as specified. This bill would instead limit the convictions for which an exemption cannot be granted to those that occurred within the last 10 years. The bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services or other approving entity, for the purpose of the resource family approval process described below, to grant an exemption from disqualification for the conviction of a felony for which a criminal record exemption cannot be granted if the applicant is seeking placement of a specific relative child or children, the applicant or other adult living in the home is of present good character necessary to justify granting the exemption, and the applicant or other adult living in the home has not been convicted of certain felonies within the last 5 years. The bill would specify that a criminal record exemption granted pursuant to this provision is not transferrable to another community care facility. This bill would also expand the types of convictions for which the department or other approving entity is required to grant an exemption and revise the standards used to determine if a permissive exemption should be granted. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature, by July 1, 2024, regarding certain data relating to criminal record exemptions for resource family applicants who have applied for resource family approval, or tribally approved homes who applied for approval, to care for a relative child. The bill would require foster family agencies to submit that data to the department. Because the failure of a foster family agency to comply with this requirement would be a crime, this bill would expand the scope of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. Existing law generally does not require a criminal record exemption for foster care provider applicants, resource family applicants, and certain other individuals in those homes, or for applicants for licensure or a special permit to operate certain community care facilities and other individuals associated with those community care facilities, if an individual only has a conviction for a minor traffic violation. This bill would instead specify that a criminal record exemption is not required if those individuals only have a conviction for an infraction. Existing law provides for the implementation of the resource family approval process, which replaces the multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, certifying foster homes by foster family agencies, approving relatives and nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers, and approving guardians and adoptive families. Existing law, among other things, requires a resource family to demonstrate the financial ability within the household to ensure the stability and financial security of the family. This bill would authorize that requirement to be waived for relative and nonrelative extended family member resource families on a case-by-case basis and would specify that, for the purposes of that requirement, there is not a minimum income requirement. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 16519.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 366 and SB 584 to be operative only if this bill and AB 366, this bill and SB 584, or all 3 bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 specified reasons.
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Existing law requires a public school maintaining any combination of classes from grade 6 to grade 12, inclusive, that meets a 40% pupil poverty threshold specified in federal law, to stock 50% of the school's restrooms with feminine hygiene products, and prohibits a public school from charging for any menstrual products provided to pupils. This bill would enact the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, which would require a public school, as provided, maintaining any combination of classes from grades 6 to 12, inclusive, to stock the school's restrooms with an adequate supply of free menstrual products, as defined, available and accessible, free of cost, in all women's restrooms and all-gender restrooms, and in at least one men's restroom, at all times, and to post a designated notice, on or before the start of the 2022–23 school year, as prescribed. This bill would require the California State University and each community college district, and would encourage the Regents of the University of California and private universities, colleges, and institutions of higher learning, to stock an adequate supply of menstrual products, available and accessible, free of cost, at no fewer than one designated and accessible central location on each campus and to post a designated notice, as provided. By imposing additional requirements on public schools and community college districts, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires applicants to be married to first appear together in person before the county clerk to obtain a marriage license. Existing law does not require a particular form for the ceremony to solemnize a marriage, but requires the parties to declare, in the physical presence of the person solemnizing their marriage and necessary witnesses, that they take each other as spouses. Existing law requires the person solemnizing the marriage to return an endorsed marriage license to the county recorder of the county in which the license was issued. Existing law authorizes a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who is stationed overseas and serving in a conflict or a war and is unable to appear for the licensure and solemnization of the marriage to enter into that marriage by the appearance of an attorney-in-fact. Existing law also authorizes a county clerk to issue a marriage license to the person solemnizing the marriage if either or both of the parties to be married are physically unable to appear in person before the county clerk, certain documentation requirements are met, and there is a sufficient reason for this procedure that includes proof of hospitalization, incarceration, or any other reason proved to the satisfaction of the county clerk. Existing executive orders delineate temporary procedures for obtaining a marriage license and solemnizing a marriage via videoconference, as specified. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2024, a county clerk to issue a marriage license, including a confidential marriage license, or solemnize or witness a marriage ceremony using remote technology, as defined, except for the marriage of a minor. The bill would prescribe the procedures and requirements for marriage license applications, marriage license issuance, and the witnessing or solemnizing of the marriage ceremony using remote technology, including the requirement that the couple be in the same physical location in the State of California while using remote technology to solemnize their marriage. The bill would authorize a county clerk to require a couple to complete an affidavit affirming that they and each individual participating in a marriage solemnization using remote technology are physically present within the State of California, as required. The bill would prescribe signature and transmission procedures relating to remote marriage licenses, including authorizing transmission by United States mail, fax, or electronic means, as specified. The bill would authorize a county clerk to provide guidance relating to marriage license applications, marriage license issuance, and the witnessing or solemnizing of the marriage ceremony when the guidance relates to the use of their remote technology. The bill would also make a conforming change. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Student Loan Servicing Act, provides for the licensure, regulation, and oversight of student loan servicers by the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation, who is the head of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The act prohibits a person from engaging in the business of servicing a student loan in this state without a license, unless the person falls within certain exceptions. Existing law, the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, imposes requirements on a student loan servicer, including, among others, the timely posting, processing, and crediting of student loan payments, and applying overpayments consistent with the best financial interest of a student loan borrower. Existing law also prohibits a student loan servicer from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices, or abusive acts or practices in connection with the servicing of a student loan, and authorizes a person to bring an action for actual damages, injunctive relief, restitution, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and other relief, including treble damages in certain circumstances. This bill would enact the Private Student Loan Collections Reform Act, which would become operative July 1, 2022. The act would prohibit a private education lender or a private education loan collector, as defined, from making any written statement to a debtor in an attempt to collect a private education loan unless the private education lender or private education loan collector possesses certain information regarding the loan and provides this information to the debtor, as specified. The act would require all settlement agreements between a private education lender or private education loan collector and a debtor to be documented in open court or otherwise reduced to writing, as specified. The act would also require a private education lender or private education loan collector that accepts a payment as payment in full or as a full and final compromise of a private education loan, within 30 calendar days, to provide specified information to the debtor regarding the loan. The act would also prohibit a private education lender or private education loan collector from bringing suit or initiating an arbitration or other legal proceeding to collect a private education loan if the applicable statute of limitations on the claim has expired. The act would require a complaint, with respect to an action brought by a private education lender or private education loan collector to collect a private education loan, to contain specified information and would prohibit a default or other judgment from being entered against a defendant unless documents submitted to the court establish the facts alleged. The act would require a plaintiff seeking an exemption, as an exempt entity, from those requirements to attach to the complaint a declaration or affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, stating certain information. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The act would also authorize a person to bring a cause of action against a creditor, private education lender, or private education loan collector for violating the act for actual damages, statutory damages, restitution, and other specified relief. 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 prohibits granting probation or suspending a sentence for persons convicted of specified crimes relating to controlled substances, including possessing or agreeing to sell or transport opiates or opium derivatives, possessing or transporting cannabis, planting or cultivating peyote, and various crimes relating to forging or altering prescriptions, among other crimes, if the person has previously been convicted of any one of specified felony offenses relating to controlled substances. Existing law also prohibits granting probation or suspending a sentence for persons convicted of specified crimes relating to controlled substances, including possessing for sale or selling 14.25 grams or more of a substance containing heroin and possessing for sale 14.25 grams or more of any salt or solution of phencyclidine or its analogs, among other crimes. This bill would delete various crimes relating to controlled substances, including, but not limited to, the crimes described above, from those prohibitions against granting probation or a suspended sentence. The bill would authorize the remaining prohibitions on probation to be waived by a court in the interests of justice. By making additional persons eligible for probation, 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 establishes the Child Care and Development Services Act and the Early Education act, administered by the State Department of Education and the State Department of Social Services, respectively. Existing law provides that the Child Care and Development Services Act has as one of its purposes the provision of a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective system of childcare and development services that includes a full range of supervision, health, and support services through full- and part-time programs. Existing law provides that the Early Education Act has as one of its purposes the provision of an inclusive and cost-effective preschool program that provides high-quality learning experiences, coordinated services, and referrals for families to access health and social-emotional support services through full- and part-time programs. Existing law authorizes the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Marin, Monterey, San Benito, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma, as individual pilot projects, to develop an individualized county childcare subsidy plan, as provided. Existing law concludes that pilot program for the County of Santa Clara on July 1, 2022, and concludes the pilot programs for the remaining counties on July 1, 2023. This bill would authorize the County of Santa Clara to continue the individualized county childcare subsidy plan initially developed and approved under the pilot project described above until July 1, 2023. This bill would also require the State Department of Education and the State Department of Social Services to review the existing individualized county childcare pilot programs and to provide a report containing specified recommendations to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on or before June 30, 2022. The bill would repeal this requirement January 1, 2024. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Santa Clara. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law prohibits, during the prosecution of specified sex crimes, the admission of evidence of the manner in which the victim was dressed, when offered by either the prosecution or the defendant on the issue of consent, unless the court finds the evidence relevant and admissible in the interests of justice. This bill would prohibit the court from admitting evidence, in the above circumstances, of the manner in which the victim was dressed, upon a finding that the evidence is relevant and admissible in the interests of justice. (2) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1103 of the Evidence Code proposed by AB 1171 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1171 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (3) The California Constitution provides that relevant evidence shall not be excluded in any criminal proceeding except as provided by statute enacted by a 23 vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature. Because this bill would limit the admissibility of evidence in criminal proceedings, it would require a 23 vote.
Existing law prohibits a full-service restaurant, as specified, from providing single-use plastic straws, as defined, to consumers unless requested by the consumer, and places the duty to enforce this prohibition on specified state and local health and environmental health officers and their agents. Existing law specifies that the first and 2nd violations of these provisions result in a notice of violation, and any subsequent violation is an infraction punishable by a fine of $25 for each day the full-service restaurant is in violation, but not to exceed an annual total of $300. This bill would instead prohibit a food facility from providing any single-use foodware accessory or standard condiment, as defined, to a consumer unless requested by the consumer, as provided. The bill would prohibit those items from being bundled or packaged in a way that prohibits the consumer from taking only the item desired. The bill would authorize a food facility to ask a drive-through consumer, or a food facility located within a public airport to ask a walk-through consumer, if the consumer wants a single-use foodware accessory in specified circumstances. The bill would require a food facility using a third-party food delivery platform to list on its menu the availability of single-use foodware accessories and standard condiments and only provide those items when requested, as provided. The bill would exclude from these requirements correctional institutions, health care facilities, residential care facilities, and public and private school cafeterias. This bill would require a city, county, or city and county, on or before June 1, 2022, to authorize an enforcement agency to enforce these requirements. The bill would specify that the first and 2nd violations of these provisions result in a notice of violation, and any subsequent violation is an infraction punishable by a fine of $25 for each day in violation, but not to exceed an annual total of $300. By creating a new crime and imposing additional duties on local governing bodies, 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, establishes the Board of Registered Nursing within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of the practice of nursing, and requires the board to issue a certificate to practice nurse-midwifery to a person who, among other qualifications, meets educational standards established by the board or the equivalent of those educational standards. Existing law, the Licensed Midwifery Practice Act of 1993, provides for the licensure of midwives by the Medical Board of California. Existing law, the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act, provides for specified training programs for certain health care workers, including family physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Existing law establishes a state medical contract program with accredited medical schools, hospitals, and other programs and institutions to increase the number of students and residents receiving quality education and training in specified primary care specialties and maximize the delivery of primary care and family physician services to underserved areas of the state. This bill would enact the Midwifery Workforce Training Act, under which the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, contract with programs that train certified nurse-midwives and programs that train licensed midwives to increase the number of students receiving quality education and training as a certified nurse-midwife or a licensed midwife, as specified. The bill would require the office to contract only with programs that include, or intend to include, a component of training designed for medically underserved multicultural communities, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, or rural communities, and that are organized to prepare program graduates for service in those neighborhoods and communities. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to track data on pregnancy-related deaths, including specified health conditions, indirect obstetric deaths, and other maternal disorders predominantly related to pregnancy and complications predominantly related to the puerperium, and requires this data to be published at least once every 3 years. Existing law also requires the department to develop a plan to identify causes of infant mortality and morbidity in California and to study recommendations on the reduction of infant mortality and morbidity in California. This bill would, commencing August 1, 2022, establish the California Pregnancy-Associated Review Committee, and would require the committee to, among other things, identify and review all pregnancy-related deaths and severe maternal morbidity. The bill would require the committee to be composed of a minimum of 13 members, as specified, and would authorize the committee to request from any state department, commission, local health department, or coroner, among others, specified information, including death records, medical records, and autopsy reports. The bill would make all proceedings, activities, and opinions of the committee confidential. This bill would require each county to annually report infant deaths to its respective local health department. The bill would require local health departments, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a Fetal and Infant Mortality Review committee to investigate infant deaths to prevent fetal and infant death under specified circumstances, and would require those local health departments that participate in the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review process to annually investigate, track, and review cases of term infants, as defined, who were born following labor with the outcome of intrapartum stillbirth, early neonatal death, or postneonatal death. The bill would require counties, hospitals, birthing centers, and state entities to provide to local health departments death records, medical records, and autopsy reports, among other information, that will help the local health department conduct the fetal and infant mortality review. By imposing duties on local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law provides for 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 pursuant to a schedule of benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. This bill would require the department to convene a workgroup to examine the implementation of the Medi-Cal doula benefit, as specified. No later than July 1, 2024, the bill would require the department to publish a report that addresses the number of Medi-Cal recipients utilizing doula services and identifies barriers that impede access to doula services, among other things, and would require the department to post that report on its internet website. (4) Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility, but provides an exemption to a woman who is pregnant and for whom it has been medically verified that the pregnancy impairs their ability to be regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities or the county has determined that, at that time, participation will not readily lead to employment or that a training activity is not appropriate. This bill would remove the medical verification and county determination requirements, and would instead provide an exemption to any recipient who is pregnant. Because the bill would result in an increase in CalWORKs eligibility, thus increasing the duties of counties administering the CalWORKs program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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. (5) 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. (6) 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 authorizes the State Department of Public Health to authorize certain entities to apply to the department to provide hypodermic needle and syringe exchange services in any location where the department determines that the conditions exist for the rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) , viral hepatitis, or any other potentially deadly or disabling infections that are spread through the sharing of used hypodermic needles and syringes, and requires the department to provide for a period of public comment during that application process, as specified. Existing law prescribes the standards that apply to an entity that has been authorized to provide these services. Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act, requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would expressly exempt the above-described needle and syringe exchange services application submissions, authorizations, and operations from review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The bill would declare that this provision is intended to be declaratory of existing law. The bill would state that the provisions relating to needle exchange programs are severable.