Government Relations Update

By Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Government Relations
and Political Affairs

The Legislative session is over for the year. The Governor had until September 30th to sign or veto all the bills on his desk. We had 82 bills that reached his desk this year and he signed 73 of them! All in all, not a bad year! Below you will find an update on bills of interest:

AB 1455 (Campos) Bullying: Counseling: Lobby Days Bill
This bill authorizes a school counseling referral for the victims of school bullies. Current law only stipulates a referral for the perpetrator. School social workers are specifically mentioned in the bill.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1517 (Skinner) DNA Evidence
This bill helps to reduce the huge backlog in untested rape kits by specifying guidelines for testing and entering DNA profile information into CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1522 (Gonzalez) Employment: Paid Sick Days
Requires employers to provide three days of paid sick leave to employees who work 30 or more days within a year. Employees will be entitled to paid sick days after 90 days of employment. Employers are prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who requests paid sick days.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1579 (Stone) CalWORKs: Pregnant Mothers
The bill will allow for a pregnant woman to receive aid each month that she is pregnant, beginning the month in which she submits verification of her pregnancy — rather than current law which only allows aid in the last four months of the pregnancy.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1733 (Quirk-Silva) Public Records: Fee Waiver
This bill requires each county registrar or recorder to issue a certified birth certificate, without a fee, to a homeless person or youth who has corroborating evidence that they are homeless.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1929 (Chau) California Housing Finance Agency: MHSA Funding: Special Needs Housing for Persons with a Mental Illness
This bill authorizes the counties and specified state agencies to work together to develop permanent supportive housing for people with a mental illness using Mental Health Services Act funding.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 1951 (Gomez) Vital Records: Birth Certificates
Requires the State Registrar to modify birth certificates to recognize same-sex couples, allowing for a gender neutral option on the certificate identifying a “parent.”
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 2379 (Weber) Abuse of Elders and Dependent Adults: Multidisciplinary Teams
This bill would add child welfare services personnel to the list of specified persons who may be included on an adult dependent’s disciplinary team, allowing a CPS worker to communicate with an APS worker about specific cases.
Status: Signed by the Governor

AB 2382 (Bradford) CalWORKs: Eligibility: Truancy
Eliminates the dual penalty for truancy for kids whose families are on CalWORKs. Currently, these families can have their aid reduced if the county determines that an eligible child younger than age 16 is not regularly attending school. This is duplicative of the financial and Penal Code penalties applied to all school children through the newly implemented School Attendance Review Board process.Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 895 (Corbett) Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFE)
Requires deficiencies found in RCFEs to be corrected in 10 days. Failure to remedy a deficiency would result in a misdemeanor. Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to post on its Internet Web site information on how to obtain an inspection report. Also requires DSS to design a poster that contains information on the appropriate reporting agency in case of a complaint or emergency and requires these posters to be on display in the entryway of the facilities.

SB 1046 (Beall) Insurance: Mental Illness: Developmental Disabilities: Coverage: Penalties
This bill gives the California Department of Insurance power to assess penalties for non-compliance with the Mental Health Parity Act.
Status: Vetoed

SB 1135 (Jackson) Inmates: Sterilization
This bill prohibits the sterilization of inmates in prison or jails for birth control without their consent.
Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 1159 (Lara) Professions and Vocations: License Applicants: Individual Tax Identification Number
This bill authorizes a board, the State Bar of California, and the Bureau of Real Estate (BRE) to accept an application from an individual containing an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) for the issuance of a license in lieu of a social security number (SSN). This applies to applicants for an ASW or an LCSW.
Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 1227 (Hancock) Diversion: Members of the Military
This bill would authorize a pretrial diversion program for a current or former member of the military who may be suffering from service-related trauma, substance abuse, or mental health issues and is charged with a misdemeanor. In many cases, military members would be referred to a treatment program.
Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 1053 (Mitchell) Health Care Coverage: Contraceptives
This bill would require health insurance carriers for plans issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2016, to provide coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products for women, as well as voluntary sterilization procedures, contraceptive education and counseling, and related follow-up services.
Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 1165 (Mitchell) Pupil Instruction: Sexual Abuse and Sex Trafficking Prevention Education
This bill permits a school district to provide sexual abuse and sex trafficking prevention education. This bill also requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to consider including sexual abuse and sex trafficking prevention education in the Health Framework for California Public Schools.
Status: Signed by the Governor

SB 1174 (Lara) English Language Education
This bill amends and repeals various provisions of Proposition 227 of 1998, the “English Only Initiative.” Repeals the requirement that all children be taught only in English and allows school districts and county offices of education, in consultation with language experts in the field and parents, to determine the best language instruction methods and language acquisition programs to implement.
Status: Signed by the Governor

For more information on these bills go to www.leginfo.ca.gov.