California action steps and updates for April 12th, 2023

OPPOSED BILLS

AB 665

Minors: consent to mental health services.

Status of Bill:
4/10/23 -
In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.

Action Step:

  • Call your senator regarding your opposition to AB 665. Find your rep here.

    • Hello, I am asking the Senator to vote NO or Abstain on AB 665, there are better solutions to solve the Medical Coverage for mental health without removing the guardrails for abuse of the current law.”

  • Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal ASAP.

  • Waiting for committee referral for updated action campaign. It will most likely be Senate Judiciary Committee.

  

AB 659

Cancer Prevention Act aka HPV vaccine mandate bill for college students.

Status of Bill:
3/31/23 : Assigned to Assembly Health Committee. Hearing has been postponed.

Action Steps:

  • Call Assembly Health Committee to voice your concerns on clarity of bill .

    • Sample script:

      “Hello, I am a California resident. Regarding AB 659. Please ask author to change language to “recommend” instead of “expected”, this will make the intent more clear and not subject to misinterpretation of the bill.

    • Call bill author, Asm. Aguilar Curry’s office at (916) 319-2004 to thank her for dropping mandate and ask her to clarify language to reflect a recommendation not requirement.

  • Submit your letter of opposition unless amended to legislative portal ASAP.

  • Tweet Assembly Health Committee members. AB 659 language needs to reflect that HPV vaccine is a recommendation not a requirement. Remove “expected” and replace with “recommendation” in the bill.

AB 1078

Instructional materials: removing instructional materials and curriculum: diversity

Status:

Asm Education Committee Hearing Date: 04/26/23

Action Steps:

  • Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal ASAP.

  • Call Assembly Education Committee to vote NO on AB 1078

    • Sample script: “Hello, I am asking the Assembly member to vote NO or Abstain on AB 1078.

  • Use our one click action campaign to email and tweet committee members.


BILLS TO SUPPORT

  • Submit your letter of support to legislative portal for the following bills.

  • Call Committee members to voice your support.

Sample script:

Hello, my name is ___________. I wanted to voice my support for __________. Please vote yes. Thank you.

SB 16

Civil rights: discrimination enforcement

This bill would also specify that nothing in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act shall be construed to limit or restrict efforts by local entities to enforce state law prohibiting discrimination against classes of persons covered by the act in employment and housing, including experience addiction to the social media platform.

Status:

Sen Appropriations Committee Hearing Date: 04/17/23

AB 99

Department of Transportation: state roads and highways: integrated pest management.

Requires the Department of Transportation (CalTrans) to develop a statewide policy to use integrated pest management (IPM) on state roads and highways. Requires CalTrans to annually report on its website the amount, location and type of pesticides used. Requires CalTrans to provide a 24 hour notice before applying a pesticide.

Status:

Asm Transportation Committee Hearing Date: 04/24/23

 

AB 370

Pupil instruction: State Seal of Biliteracy.

This bill would change the criteria needed to be met by a pupil to be awarded the State Seal of Biliteracy by requiring the pupil to both demonstrate proficiency in English by meeting one of 5 4 specified requirements and demonstrate proficiency in one or more languages other than English by meeting one of 3 specified requirements.  The bill would instead require a pupil who is an English learner to achieve an Oral Language composite score of level 4 on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California rather than attain a level demonstrating English language proficiency on whose assessments to be awarded the State Seal of Bi-literacy.

Status:

04/03/23 Re-referred to ASM Appropriation committee

 

AB 590

State-funded assistance grants and contracts: advance payments.

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to improve and expand the state’s existing advance payment practices for state grants and contracts with nonprofits. The bill would authorize an administering state agency to advance a payment to a recipient entity, defined to mean a private, nonprofit organization qualified under federal law, subject to meeting specified requirements. The bill would require the administering state agency to prioritize recipient entities and projects serving disadvantaged, low-income, and under-resourced communities, and to ensure an advance payment to the recipient entity does not exceed 25% of the total grant or contract amount. The bill would require the recipient entity to satisfy certain minimum requirements, including providing an itemized budget and submitting documentation, as required by the administering state agency, to support the need for advance payment.

Status:

03/29/23 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (March 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

 

AB 731

Pupil literacy: home book delivery: grant program

This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, establish the Home Book Delivery and School Connection Grant Program for the purpose of increasing access to books that are culturally relevant and reflect the diversity of the state, and build connections between school and home to support pupils in achieving grade-level reading by 3rd grade. The bill would require the department to award formula grants to up to 75 local educational agencies that opt in to the program. The bill would require the department to fund selected local educational agencies with pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, that have the highest percentage of 3rd-grade pupils scoring at the lowest performance level on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress in English language arts who opt in to the grant pilot program. The bill would authorize the department to select a county office of education assist in the administration of the grant program.

Status:

4/05/23 Re-referred to ASM Com. on ED.

AB 801

Student privacy: online personal information.

Early Learning Personal Information Protection Act and the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, prohibit the operator of specified internet websites, online services, online applications, or mobile applications from knowingly engaging in targeted advertising to amass a profile about a preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 student, selling a student’s information, or disclosing covered information.  This bill would additionally provide that, when applied to K–12 students, “covered information” does not include official records, files, and data directly related to a student and maintained by the school or local educational agency, including information within records encompassing all the material kept in the student’s cumulative folder.

Existing law requires an operator to take specified other actions relating to the protection of a student or parent’s covered information, including implementing and maintaining reasonable security procedures and practices, and deleting a student’s covered information if the school or district requests deletion of data under the control of the school or district.

This bill would require an operator to delete a preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 student’s covered information that is not subject to the CCPA if the student, or the student’s parent or legal guardian, as provided, requests an operator to delete the covered information under the operator’s control if the student is no longer attending the school or district, and would require an operator to require documentation that the student no longer attends the school or district.

Status:

03/27/23 Re-referred to Assembly Education Committee

 

AB 802

Curriculum: right to examine.

This bill would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school to provide written notice to a pupil’s parent or guardian of their right to examine the curriculum materials of the class or classes in which their child is enrolled, as provided.  The bill would authorize each of those local educational agencies to post information on that right to their internet website if they maintain an internet website.

Status:  

04/03/23 Re-referred to Assembly Appropritations.

  

AB 1652

Curriculum: right to examine

Existing law provides that parents and guardians of children enrolled in public schools have the right, and should have the opportunity, as mutually supportive and respectful partners in the education of their children within the public schools, to be informed by the school, and to participate in the education of their children, as specified to include, among other things, examining the curriculum materials of the class or classes in which their child is enrolled.

This bill would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school to post the process for examining curriculum materials on their internet website.

Status: 

03/09/23 Referred to Assembly Education Committee

  

ACR 4

Positive Parenting Awareness Month.

This measure would declare the month of January 2023 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month in California. 

WHEREAS, Raising children and youth in California to become healthy, confident, capable individuals is the most important job parents and caregivers have as their children’s first teachers; and

WHEREAS, The quality of parenting or caregiving, starting prenatally, is one of the most powerful predictors of children’s future social, emotional, physical, and behavioral health; and

WHEREAS, Positive parenting is a protective factor that strengthens family relationships, increases parents’ confidence, and drives children’s social, emotional, and relational health and development; and

Read more....

Status: 

Sen 3rd Reading - Asm Bills 04-13-2023 #71

Contact your senator to vote yes.

 

SB 291

Pupil rights: recess.

The bill would require, commencing with the 2024–25 school year, a school district, county office of education, or charter school to provide a daily recess, as defined, of at least 30 minutes. The bill would prohibit school staff members from restricting a pupil’s recess unless there is an immediate threat to the physical safety of the pupil or the physical safety of one or more of the pupil’s peers, as provided.

Status:

04/12/23 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 12). Re-referred to Senate Com. on APPR.

 

SB 292 

Education expenses: Education Savings Account Act of 2024

This bill would enact the Education Savings Account Act of 2024 and establish the Education Savings Account (ESA) Trust, to be known as the ESA Trust, as a fund within the State Treasury to be administered by the ESA Trust Board. During the first 4 school years following the operative date of the act, the bill would authorize certain children eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten, or in an elementary or secondary school, in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an ESA, based on parent or guardian income. The bill would remove these income eligibility limits after 4 school years following the operative date of the act, thereby entitling every child eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten, or in an elementary or secondary school, in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an ESA. The bill would specify that every child enrolled in an eligible school shall be entitled, pursuant to this act, to a credit to the child’s account for tuition, elementary and secondary eligible education expenses, and undergraduate or graduate eligible education expenses, as defined. Commencing with the first fiscal year following the operative date of the act, the bill would require the Department of Finance to determine, on July 1 of each year, the annual ESA deposit amount for the upcoming school year. The bill would specify the procedure for calculating the ESA deposit amount and would require the Controller to transfer an amount of money from the General Fund to the ESA Trust equal to the ESA deposit amount multiplied by the number of ESAs established, as provided.

The bill would require the ESA Trust Board to be composed of specified members and would vest the ESA Trust Board with certain powers and duties. The bill would establish 2 accounts within the ESA Trust, the ESA Trust Program Account and the ESA Trust Administrative Account, and would continuously appropriate the monies in the program account to the ESA Trust Board for purposes of the bill, thereby making an appropriation.

The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a procedure for the parents and legal guardians of eligible students to apply to establish an ESA and submit an executed participation agreement. The bill would authorize the ESA Trust Board to disburse funds from ESAs to eligible schools. The bill would define “eligible school” as a campus of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, a full-time private school, a private college or university, a public college or university, or a vocational educational or training institution, as specified. The bill would specify the procedures for participating eligible schools to receive funds disbursed by the ESA Trust Board. Once an eligible student graduates from high school or obtains a high school equivalency certification, the bill would impose a $60,000 cap on the balance in any ESA available for an eligible student’s use for tuition, undergraduate or graduate eligible education expenses, or expenses associated with vocational education. The bill would require the Department of Finance to adjust this limit annually for inflation using the California Consumer Price Index.

Status: 

Sen Education Committee Hearing Date: 04/19/23

 

SB 347

Vehicles: driver education and training: grant program.

This bill would require the DMV to establish a grant program to provide vouchers for high school students to attend automobile driver education and driver training by a driving school or independent driving instructor.

Status:

Sen Transportation Committee Hearing Date: 04/25/23

 

SB 845 

Let Parents Choose Protection Act of 2023

This bill, beginning July 1, 2024, would require large social media platform providers, as defined, to create, maintain, and make available to specified third-party safety software providers a set of third-party-accessible application programming interfaces to allow a third-party safety software provider, upon authorization by a child 13 years of age or older, or a parent or legal guardian of a child, to manage a child’s online interactions, content, and account settings and initiate secure transfers of the child’s user data for these purposes, as provided. The bill would prohibit the third-party safety software provider from disclosing user data unless specified exceptions apply and would authorize the child or the parent or legal guardian, as applicable, to revoke the authorization with the third-party safety software provider or disable registration with the large social media provider.

The bill would require the third-party safety software provider to register with the Attorney General’s office as a condition of accessing an application programming interface from a large social media platform provider and would require the Attorney General to affirm that the third-party safety software provider meets specified requirements, including that it is solely engaged in the business of internet safety. The bill would also require a large social media platform to register with the Attorney General’s office within 30 days of meeting specified requirements, including that it enables a child to share images, text, or video through the internet with other users of the service, as provided, and has more than 100,000,000 monthly global active users or generates more than $1,000,000,000 in gross revenue per year, as provided. The bill would require the Attorney General to post both registration lists on its internet website, and to establish processes to deregister third-party safety software providers and large social media platform providers if certain criteria is met.

The bill would provide that a large social media platform provider is not liable for damages arising out of the transfer of user data to a third-party safety software provider in accordance with these provisions if the large social media platform provider has in good faith complied with specified requirements.

Status:

03/01/23 Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee

  

SCA 5 

Educational expenses: education savings accounts

This measure, notwithstanding the constitutional provisions referenced above or any other provision of the California Constitution, would authorize the state, and every agency or political subdivision of the state, to disburse funds pursuant to an agreement between the state and a parent or legal guardian of an eligible child for tuition and education-related expenses, as provided by statute, and provide tax or other public benefits to private schools, private colleges, private universities, or private vocational educational or training institutions, irrespective of religious affiliation, to further the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement. This measure would define average daily attendance to include all children enrolled in public kindergarten schools, elementary schools, and secondary schools and all children who are eligible to enroll in public kindergarten schools, elementary schools, and secondary schools but have chosen to fund their kindergarten, elementary, or secondary education with an Education Savings Account, as provided.   This measure would authorize the Legislature, by statute, to require the allocation of ad valorem property tax revenue in the manner described in the Education Savings Account Act of 2024.

Status:

Sen Education Committee Hearing Date: 04/19/23

AB 1314 has been shelved, as the Assembly Education Chair has stated the bill will not be heard.