(1) Existing law, the Open Enrollment Act, authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district of enrollment, as defined, as specified. This bill would expand the act to authorize the parent of a pupil enrolled in a school district of residence, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district other than their school district of residence. The Open Enrollment Act requires a school district of enrollment to ensure that pupils enrolled pursuant to the act are enrolled in a school with a higher Academic Performance Index than the school in which the pupil was previously enrolled and are selected through a random, unbiased process, except that pupils applying for transfer are required to be assigned specified priorities for approval. This bill would add a third priority for approval for pupils transferring from a school ranked in decile 2 on the Academic Performance Index. To the extent the bill would expand the duties of school districts under the Open Enrollment Act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district or a county board of education, as specified, after a public hearing on the matter, to request the State Board of Education to waive all or part of any section of the Education Code or any regulation adopted by the state board that implements a provision of the Education Code that may be waived, except for specified provisions. This bill would include additional specified provisions of the Education Code, relating to notice and procedures to apply and transfer schools pursuant to the Open Enrollment Act, that may not be waived. 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.
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Existing law specifies the number of judges of the superior court for each county, and allocates additional judgeships to the various counties in accordance with uniform standards for factually determining additional need in each county, as approved by the Judicial Council, and other specified criteria. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to report biennially to the Legislature and the Governor on the factually determined need for new judgeships in each superior court, using that uniform criteria. This bill would require the Judicial Council, upon the availability of funding, to allocate 12 additional judges each fiscal year to those counties in which the current judicial position allocations are disproportionate to the Judicial Council's recommendation of assessed judicial need.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of all state highways. Existing law describes the authorized routes in the state highway system and establishes a process for adoption of a highway on an authorized route by the California Transportation Commission. Existing law authorizes the commission to relinquish certain state highway segments to local agencies. This bill would authorize the commission to relinquish to the City of Hemet that portion of State Highway Route 74 located within its city limits or sphere of influence under specified conditions.
Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement one of several specified interventions for a school not identified as a persistently lowest-achieving school that, after one full school year, is subject to corrective action, as specified, and fails to meet specified criteria and has a specified percentage of parents and legal guardians of pupils sign a petition requesting the local educational agency to implement at least one of 5 specified interventions. Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement the intervention option requested by the petition unless the agency makes a specified finding in a regularly scheduled public hearing. This bill would delete the provision excluding schools identified as persistently lowest-achieving schools, and would also make the provisions applicable to schools ranked in deciles 1 to 3, inclusive, of the Academic Performance Index. The bill would make technical changes by updating cross-references. By imposing additional duties on school 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.
The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined. Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies, as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies. Existing law imposes various requirements on successor agencies and subjects successor agency actions to the review of oversight boards. Existing law requires each oversight board to direct the successor agency to, among other things, cease performance in connection with and terminate all existing agreements that do not qualify as enforceable obligations, as defined. This bill would provide that a loan provided by a city, county, or city and county to a redevelopment agency that was entered into prior to January 1, 2011, for the purposes of funding the installation and construction of roadways, public improvements, and public utilities in a disaster recovery project area, and for the provision of residential water system or other utility connection subsidies to low- and moderate-income residents of that project area is an enforceable obligation and may be repaid, as specified. The bill would authorize a city, county, city and county, or housing authority acting in its capacity as the successor to a former redevelopment agency to retain and use those loan proceeds pursuant to the loan agreement and would require the return of any funds previously deposited into the Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund of the former redevelopment agency to the entity that assumed the housing functions of the former redevelopment agency. The bill would also prohibit the Department of Finance, the State Board of Equalization, the State Controller, and a county auditor-controller from imposing any statutory remedies upon a city, county, city and county, or a successor agency and would require the reversal, within 30 days of the effective date of this bill, of any statutory remedy previously imposed. The bill would also make conforming changes.
Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , formerly the Food Stamp Program, under which food stamps are allocated to the state by the federal government and are distributed to eligible households by each county. Federal law prohibits the use of SNAP benefits for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco products. Existing law authorizes a county to elect to deliver CalWORKs and SNAP benefits through the use of an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system. Existing law specifies criteria for the development and administration of the EBT system, including issuance to a recipient of an EBT card. This bill would require the EBT system to be designed to prevent use of EBT cards by recipients for the purchase of alcohol or tobacco products. The bill would require that its provisions not be construed to prohibit the use of an EBT card to access SNAP benefits, as authorized by federal law.
(1) Existing law authorizes the Director of General Services to dispose of state surplus property, subject to specified conditions, including authorization by the Legislature. This bill would authorize the director to dispose of one specified parcel of state property. (2) The California Constitution provides that the proceeds from the sale of surplus state property be used to pay the principal and interest on bonds issued pursuant to the Economic Recovery Bond Act until the principal and interest on those bonds are fully paid, after which these proceeds are required to be deposited into the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties. Existing statutory law similarly requires that the net proceeds received from any real property disposition be paid into the Deficit Recovery Bond Retirement Sinking Fund Subaccount, a continuously appropriated fund, until the bonds issued pursuant to the act are retired. By increasing the amount transferred into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
(1) Before the filing of an action or the appearance of a defendant in an action, existing law requires certain enumerated health care providers to make all of a patient's records under their custody or control available for inspection and copying by an attorney at law, or his or her representative, who presents a written authorization therefor, as specified. Existing law authorizes any person or enumerated health care provider to charge all reasonable costs incurred in making the patient records available against the person whose written authorization required the availability of the records, as specified. Where the medical records are delivered to the attorney or the attorney's representative for inspection or photocopying at the record custodian's place of business, existing law prohibits the fee for complying with the authorization from exceeding $15 dollars, plus actual costs, as specified. This bill would provide that, where the records are delivered to the attorney or the attorney's representative for inspection or copying at the record custodian's place of business and if any portion of the patient's medical records is stored on paper, the fee for complying with the authorization would be $15 dollars, plus actual costs, as specified. If any portion of the records is stored electronically and is inaccessible for inspection or copying, the bill would authorize the health care provider, in its sole discretion, to produce a paper copy of the electronic records for the attorney to inspect and copy, and to charge specified fees. The bill would delete the provision that authorizes all reasonable costs to be charged against the person whose written authorization required the production of copies of the records, and would instead require an attorney who requests that the health care provider provide paper or electronic copies of the medical records to pay certain fees, including a search and retrieval fee of $30 dollars; a fee of 50 cents per page for the first 25 pages and 25 cents for each additional page, as specified; a fee of 50 cents per page for reproduction of documents stored on microfilm, oversize documents, or documents requiring special processing; actual postage charges, as specified; and the actual cost, if any, charged to the witness by a third party for the retrieval and return of records held offsite by that third party. The bill also would require the health care provider to provide electronic copies of a patient's medical records that are stored electronically, under specified conditions. This bill would, no later than December 1 of each year, require the Director of the California Department of Health Care Services to examine the need to increase or decrease the specified fees by making a calculation based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, as specified, and would authorize the Director to increase or decrease the fees at his or her sole discretion. The bill would prohibit the fees from remaining unchanged for 3 consecutive years unless the Consumer Price Index does not change during that 3-year period. The bill would require any changes to the rates to be effective on January 1 following the December 1 calculation and to be published on the Department of Health Care Services Internet Web site on or before that date. (2) Existing law provides for procedures for the production of business records pursuant to a subpoena duces tecum. Existing law authorizes all reasonable costs, as specified, incurred by a nonparty witness to be charged against the party serving the subpoena duces tecum. This bill would clarify that the reasonable costs incurred by a nonparty witness do not apply to fees incurred in response to a subpoena for the production of medical records. Instead, the fees established for the production of medical records pursuant to an authorization would apply to the production of medical records in response to a subpoena.
Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to adopt standards for accreditation of outpatient settings, as defined, and, in approving accreditation agencies to perform this accreditation, to ensure that the certification program shall, at a minimum, include standards for specified aspects of the settings' operations. Existing law makes a willful violation of these and other provisions relating to outpatient settings a crime. This bill would create entities known as hospital-affiliated outpatient settings, as defined, and would align the accreditation and reporting processes with those of the general acute care hospital with which the hospital-affiliated outpatient settings is affiliated. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires that certain specified felonies be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for the term specified in the underlying offense or for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. Existing law requires that a prisoner who has a severe mental disorder, and whose severe mental disorder was one of the causes or was an aggravating factor in the prisoner's criminal activity, receive treatment by the State Department of State Hospitals as a condition of parole. This bill would require a court, upon conviction of a defendant for certain specified offenses involving force or serious bodily injury, or involving the threat of force or violence likely to produce substantial physical harm, that is punishable as a felony by imprisonment in a county jail, if the court has reason to believe the defendant has a severe mental disorder, to suspend the imposition of the sentence and transport the defendant to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for evaluation to determine whether the defendant has a severe mental disorder and whether the severe mental disorder was an aggravating factor in the prisoner's criminal behavior, as provided. If the initial evaluation determines the defendant has a severe mental disorder, as specified, the bill would require the court to impose a sentence for the term described in the underlying offense to be served in the state prison, and would provide that the defendant be subject to parole upon completion of the sentence. If the initial evaluation determines the defendant does not have a severe mental disorder, as provided, the bill would require the defendant to be returned to court for sentencing to imprisonment in a county jail. The bill would make conforming changes.