August 24, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
SB 14, as amended, Serious felonies: human trafficking.
Existing law defines the terms term “serious felony” and “violent felony” for various purposes, including, among others, enhancing the punishment for felonies pursuant to existing sentencing provisions commonly known as the Three Strikes Law.
This bill would include human trafficking of a minor within the definition of a serious felony for all purposes, including for purposes of the Three Strikes Law. By expanding the scope of an enhancement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
Passed the Senate 05/25/23. In the Assembly, Appropriations committee.
AB 238, California Student Teach Support Grant Program
Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher credentialing to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law requires the commission to adopt standards for the accreditation of post-secondary teacher preparation programs. Existing law prescribes “clinical practice” as one of the commission-adopted standards and requires that teaching credential candidates perform 600 hours of clinical practice throughout the candidate’s teacher preparation program, including, as a component of those hours, unpaid student teaching.
This bill would express the intent of the legislature, to improve teacher retention and recruitment in California’s public school system, to create a grant program to compensate student teachers to help alleviate financial stress at an important time in the teacher preparation process.
This bill would, contingent upon an appropriation of one-time funding by the Legislature, establish the California Student Teacher Support Grant Program, under the administration of the Commission on Teacher credentialing to award grants of an unspecified amount to teaching credential candidates to compensate the candidates while they perform the required student teaching.
The bill would require stipends for each student teacher to be equal to the daily substitute teacher rate for the applicant local educational agency. In administering the California Student Teacher Support Grant Program, the bill would require the commission to issue a request for applications to all local educational agencies in the state in order to solicit applications for funding.
The bill would require the commission to adopt criteria for the selection of local educational agencies to participate in the program, including that the applicant local educational agency requires participating teaching credential candidates to pass a criminal background check before participating in the program and commit to accomplishing certain criteria, including completing their 600 hours of clinical practice that is required as part of the participant’s teacher preparation program, as provided.
The bill passed the state Assembly in May but was placed on hold by the Senate Appropriations Committee in late June for legislators’ consideration of its ongoing fiscal impacts.
AB 754, as amended, Water management planning: water shortages.
(1) Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every public and private urban water supplier that directly or indirectly provides water for municipal purposes to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan. Existing law requires an urban water management plan to quantify past, current, and projected water use, identifying the uses among water use sectors, including, among others, commercial, agricultural, and industrial.
Existing law requires every urban water supplier to prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan. Existing law requires the water shortage contingency plan to include the procedures used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment, including the key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year.
Existing law requires the key data inputs and assessment methodology to include specified information, including, among other things, a description and quantification of each source of water supply.
This bill would require a water shortage contingency plan to include, if, based on a description and quantification of each source of water supply, a single reservoir constitutes at least 50% of the total water supply, an identification of the dam and description of existing reservoir management operations, as specified, and if the reservoir is owned and operated by the urban water supplier, a description of operational practices and approaches, as specified
(2) Existing law requires an agricultural water supplier to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan with specified components and to update those plans on or before April 1 in the years ending in 6 and one. Existing law requires an agricultural water supplier to develop a drought plan as part of its agricultural water management plan. Existing law requires the drought plan to describe the agricultural water supplier’s actions relating to drought preparedness and management of water supplies and allocations during drought conditions, as provided
This bill would require, if, based on specified findings related to water supply, a single reservoir constitutes at least 50% of the total water supply, the policies for declaring a water shortage to consider certain information related to that reservoir.
Passed the Assembly 05/31/23. In Senate committee 08/14/23.
SB 760, as amended, School facilities: all-gender restrooms.
Existing law requires every restroom of every public and private school maintaining any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, to be maintained and cleaned regularly, fully operational, and stocked at all times with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels or functional hand dryers, and kept open during school hours when pupils are not in classes. Existing law requires that a sufficient number of restrooms be kept open during school hours when pupils are in classes. Existing law authorizes a school to temporarily close a restroom as necessary for pupil safety or as necessary to repair the facility.
This bill would revise the conditions under which a restroom is authorized to be temporarily closed to instead be as necessary (1) for a documented pupil safety concern, (2) for an immediate threat to pupil safety, or (3) to repair the facility. The bill would require, on or before July 1, 2026, each school district, county office of education, and charter school, including charter schools operating in a school district facility, maintaining any combination of classes from grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide and maintain at least one all-gender restroom for voluntary pupil use at each of its schoolsites that meet specified criteria.
The bill would require the all-gender restroom to meet certain requirements, including, among other things, that it has signage identifying the bathroom facility as being open to all genders and is unlocked, unobstructed, and easily accessible by any pupil. The bill would require the local educational agency to designate a staff member to serve as a point of contact for these purposes and to post a notice regarding these requirements in a prominent and conspicuous location outside at least one all-gender restroom.
Passed Senate 05/31/23. In Assembly committee 08/14/23.
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