Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, establishes in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency the Civil Rights Department, headed by the Director of Civil Rights, to protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination or abridgment on account of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, reproductive health decisionmaking, or military and veteran status. This bill would establish within the department the Labor Trafficking Unit, which would be required to coordinate with the Labor Enforcement Task Force, the Criminal Investigation Unit, the Department of Justice, and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations to combat labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit to receive and investigate complaints alleging labor trafficking and take steps to prevent labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit to coordinate with or refer cases to the Labor Enforcement Task Force or the department for potential civil actions, and to coordinate with or refer cases to the Department of Justice for potential criminal actions. The bill would require the unit to follow protocols to ensure survivors of labor trafficking are not victimized by the process of prosecuting traffickers and are informed of the services available to them. The bill would require the unit to coordinate with both state and local agencies to connect survivors with available services. The bill would require the unit to provide specified services to victims, including providing a list of pro bono victim's rights attorneys to survivors. The bill would require the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations to notify the unit when, upon investigating businesses under their purview, there is evidence of labor trafficking. The bill would require the unit, beginning January 1, 2025, until January 1, 2035, to annually submit a report to the Legislature with specified information relating to labor trafficking complaints, including the number, types, and outcomes of complaints.
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Existing law requires the court, if a person is convicted of a felony and is eligible for probation, as defined, to immediately refer the matter to a probation officer to investigate and report to the court upon the circumstances surrounding the crime and the prior history and record of the person, which may be considered either in aggravation or mitigation of the punishment. Existing law requires the probation officer, among other things, to immediately investigate and make a written report to the court of their findings and recommendations, including their recommendation as to the granting or denying of probation and the conditions of probation, if granted. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to this provision.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each city, county, and city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law requires the housing element to identify the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community. Existing federal law requires a continuum of care, a group organized under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, to develop a plan that includes planning for and conducting, at least biennially, a point-in-time count of homeless persons within the geographic area. Existing law requires that information from the point-in-time count be used to, among other things, allocate funding for the Homeless Emergency Aid program and Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program. This bill would require a city, county, and city and county, within 60 days after the local continuum of care releases the results of a point-in-time count for a city, county, or city and county's jurisdiction, to, among other things, agendize the point-in-time count results at a meeting of the city, county, or city and county and present the steps the city, county, or city and county is taking to prevent and end homelessness, including, but not limited to, consideration of specified actions. By imposing new duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 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 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 their employment. Existing law requires the employer to provide medical, surgical, chiropractic, acupuncture, and hospital treatment that is reasonably required to cure or relieve the injured worker from the effects of the injury and authorizes an insurer, employer, or entity that provides physician network services to establish or modify a medical provider network (MPN) for the provision of medical treatment to injured employees. Existing law requires every MPN to post on its internet website information about how to obtain a copy of any notification regarding the MPN that is required to be given to an employee by regulations adopted by the administrative director. This bill would allow an injured employee to authorize their primary treating physician to request an electronic copy of any notification that an injury is subject to an MPN or that an employee is required to transfer treatment to an MPN. (2) Existing law requires an MPN to post and update a roster of all participating providers, including physicians and ancillary service providers, as defined, within the MPN. This bill would instead require the roster to include all physicians and would allow the roster to include persons or entities that provide or contract with persons or entities that provide ancillary services, treatment, management services, or coordinate patient care, as specified. (3) Existing law requires an insurer, employer, or entity that provides physician network services to submit a plan for the MPN to the administrative director. Existing law requires the director to approve a plan for an MPN if they determine it meets certain requirements and deems any plan the director does not act on in 60 days approved. Existing law requires that a plan for an MPN be periodically reapproved and prohibits the director from withholding approval or disapproving a medical provider network based solely on the selection of providers. This bill would, if the director disapproves a plan or determines that it contains deficiencies, require the director to allow the applicant 45 days to submit additional information and materials, as requested. The bill would require the director to respond within 30 days of receiving additional information and either approve the plan or request additional information or clarification. (4) Under existing law, an employer or insurer has the exclusive right to determine the members of their network, and prohibits the director from withholding approval or disapproving an MPN based on the selection of providers. This bill would specify that an employer or insurer has the right to determine the members of their network in regard to physicians if the physician is duly licensed and with the scope of their practice, and in regard to a person or entity that provides ancillary services regardless of whether the person or entity is doing business as a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or other business entity.
Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish the California Legacy License Plate Program, and to create and issue a series of specialized license plates, consisting of one or more of 3 specified designs that replicate license plates from the state's past. Existing law requires the department to collect and hold paid applications for the plates, as specified, and prohibits the department from issuing a specialized license plate until it has received not less than 7,500 paid applications for any one of the particular plates on or before January 1, 2015. This bill would extend the deadline for receipt of the required number of paid applications to January 1, 2025, for plate designs that did not receive the required number of applications by January 1, 2015.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit no later than December 31, 2030. Existing law requires the state board, by July 1, 2025, to develop, in consultation with specified stakeholders, a framework for measuring and then reducing the average carbon intensity of the materials used in the construction of new buildings. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation that would further support California's efforts to decarbonize the built environment.
Existing law requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to issue a park pass for free use of all park facilities in the state park system to a veteran of war in which the United States has been, or may be, engaged, who is a resident of this state, who presents to the department proof of a disability, proof of being held captive as a prisoner of war, or proof of being a recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor, and proof of an honorable discharge from service. This bill would require a pass for free day use of any unit of the state park system that is operated by the state to be issued to Gold Star Family members, as provided.
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. Under existing law, certain types of payments received by recipients of aid under the CalWORKs program, including income from a college work-study program, as specified, are exempt from consideration as income for purposes of determining eligibility and aid amount. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2025, or on the date that the State Department of Social Services notifies the Legislature that the California Statewide Automated Welfare System can perform the necessary automation to implement this change, additionally exempt income up to 200% of the federal poverty level that is received by an apprentice or preapprentice for performing work as part of a specified apprenticeship program or preapprenticeship program from consideration as income for purposes of determining eligibility or calculating grant amounts under the CalWORKs program. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to implement these provisions through an all-county letter or similar instruction until regulations are adopted. By expanding the scope of eligibility for CalWORKs, 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 above provisions. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 11157 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 274 to be operative only if this bill and AB 274 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, 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 makes legislative findings and declarations that set forth the principles for public postsecondary institutions and budgetary control agencies to observe in providing postsecondary programs and services for students with disabilities, including the principle that state-funded activity is directly related to the functional limitations of the verifiable disabilities of the students to be served. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that, as appropriate for each postsecondary segment, funds for disabled student programs and services be based on 3 categories of costs, including a continuing variable costs category for services that vary in frequency depending on the needs of students, such as, among other services, diagnostic assessment, including both individual and group assessment not otherwise provided by the institution to determine functional, educational, or employment levels or to certify specific disabilities. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to adopt rules and regulations for the administration and funding of educational programs and support services to be provided to disabled students by community college districts. Existing law requires those regulations to provide for the apportionment of funds to each community college district to offset the direct excess cost of providing specialized support services or instruction, or both, to disabled students enrolled in state-supported disabled student services programs or courses. Existing law describes those direct excess costs as those actual fixed, variable, and one-time costs, including those described above, that exceed the combined total of specified costs, revenues, and funds. Existing law establishes the Department of General Services in the Government Operations Agency for purposes of providing centralized services of state government, as provided. This bill would revise the intent of the Legislature relating to diagnostic assessments by including costs for continuing assessments, required documentation, and individual and group assessments provided by the institution or by an outside entity, as provided. The bill would also expand the purpose of the assessments to include defining specific disabilities of the student and as proof for academic or institutional accommodations. The bill, commencing July 1, 2025, would require the Trustees of the California State University, and would request the Regents of the University of California, to cover the costs of diagnostic assessments for learning disabilities as proof for academic accommodations for any student who receives student financial aid or who is eligible for financial assistance from the institution's health or disability center, as provided. The bill would require state funds to be provided annually for the cost of these services on an actual-cost basis and would require each institution to be responsible for documenting its costs to the Department of General Services. The bill would require the Department of General Services to oversee reimbursements to institutions for their documented costs. The bill would require each educational institution to post on its internet website that the educational institution will cover the costs of the diagnostic assessments for such students.
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 provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, or an individual or group policy of disability insurance or self-insured employee welfare benefit plan to provide coverage for mammography for screening or diagnostic purposes upon referral by specified professionals. Under existing law, mammography performed pursuant to those requirements or that meets the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force is provided to an enrollee or an insured without cost sharing. This bill would require a health care service plan contract, a policy of health insurance that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage, or a self-insured employee welfare benefit plan issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, to provide coverage without imposing cost sharing for, among other things, screening mammography and medically necessary diagnostic breast imaging, including diagnostic breast imaging following an abnormal mammography result and for an enrollee or insured indicated to have a risk factor associated with breast cancer, except as specified. 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.