BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 74|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 74
Author: Assembly Budget Committee
Amended: 6/12/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Human services
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill makes various statutory changes necessary
to implement the social services-related provisions of the
Budget Act of 2013.
ANALYSIS : This bill includes the following key changes:
CalWORKs and CalFresh
1.The following changes, which are intended to improve upon the
early engagement of recipients in the welfare-to-work program
and the removal of barriers to their employment, are
consistent with the intent of trailer bill language enacted as
part of the 2012 Budget Act (in SB 1041, Chapter 47, Statutes
of 2012), and include:
A. Appraisal Process . Revises and expands upon, commencing
January 1, 2014, the information gathered during the
process of a county's appraisal of a recipient, as
specified (e.g., with respect to his/her employment and
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educational history, and need for supportive services).
B. Expanded Subsidized Employment . Requires the Department
of Social Services (DSS), in consultation with counties, to
develop an allocation methodology to distribute funding for
expanded subsidized employment programs for CalWORKs
recipients. Establishes a maintenance of effort to require
counties that accept additional funding, pursuant to these
provisions, to continue to expend no less than the
aggregate amount of specified funds that the county
expended for subsidized employment in the 2012-13 fiscal
year.
C. Family Stabilization . Establishes, as of January 1,
2014, a family stabilization component of CalWORKs, to
assist recipients who are experiencing an identified
situation or crisis that is destabilizing their family and
interferes with their participation in welfare-to-work
activities and services.
D. Flow of the Welfare-to-Work Process . Revises,
commencing January 1, 2014, the flow of initial
welfare-to-work requirements by requiring that, after an
orientation and appraisal, recipients participate in job
search and job club, family stabilization, or substance
abuse, mental health, or domestic violence services, unless
the county determines that the participant should first
receive a specified assessment.
1.Vehicle Asset Test . To support participation in work and
related activities, revises provisions relating to the
allowable value of a licensed vehicle retained by an applicant
or recipient of CalWORKs aid, by, among other things,
specifying that the value of licensed vehicles worth under
$9,500 shall not count against a family's resource limits for
purposes of program eligibility.
2.Semiannual Reporting . Revises the timeframes for mailing and
receipt of annual certificates of eligibility required for
redeterminations of eligibility for both the CalWORKs and
CalFresh programs. Requires counties to use information
reported on the semiannual report form or annual certificate
of eligibility to prospectively determine eligibility and the
grant amount for each semiannual reporting period and makes
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other, minor changes.
3.LIHEAP and CalFresh . Requires DSS and the Department of
Community Services and Development to report to the
Legislature if there is a service demand that exceeds the
allocated funding for the federal Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program (LIHEAP) benefit. Requires DSS to ensure
that the receipt of a nominal LIHEAP service benefit does not
adversely affect CalFresh recipients' eligibility or reduce a
household's CalFresh benefits. Provides that, if use of the
full standard utility allowance, rather than the homeless
shelter deduction, results in a lower amount of CalFresh
benefits for a homeless household, the household is entitled
to use the homeless shelter deduction.
Child Welfare Services (CWS)
4.Moratorium on Group Home Rate-Setting . Extends, by one year,
provisions that limit exceptions to a moratorium on the
licensing of new group homes or approvals of specified changes
for existing providers. The larger moratorium was initially
established as part of 2010-11 Budget, and the limitations on
exceptions were established by the 2012-13 Budget.
5.Placements in Group Homes. Creates additional procedural
requirements for county welfare departments or probation
agencies to follow when placing, or extending a placement
beyond 120 days of, children under the age of six in a group
home. These placements were already restricted to specified
circumstances under existing law. Establishes limitations on,
and procedural requirements for, the placement, or extension
beyond six months of placement, of children between the ages
of six and twelve, inclusive, in group homes. Requires DSS,
to adopt, to the extent they determine a necessity for them,
regulations that apply to group homes that care for dependent
children ages six to twelve, inclusive.
6.Assessments and Transition Planning . States the Legislature's
intent that no child or youth in foster care reside in group
care for longer than one year, and requires DSS to provide
updates to the Legislature, commencing no later than January
1, 2014, regarding the assessments of children and youth who
have been in group homes for longer than one year, and their
transition, or plan for transition, to family settings.
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7.Resource Family Approval (RFA) Project . Makes technical
changes to reflect the status of the RFA project as a
permanent program, consistent with legislation enacted as part
of the 2012-13 Budget. The RFA project requires DSS to
implement a unified resource family approval process to
replace multiple, existing processes for licensing foster
family homes, approving relative and nonrelative extended
family member caregivers, and approving adoptive families.
In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
8.Collective Bargaining . Amends the IHSS Employer-Employee
Relations Act, to authorize, under specified circumstances,
the IHSS Statewide Authority to implement any or all of its
last, best, and final offer after declaring an impasse, and
requires that any proposal in the Statewide Authority's last,
best, and final offer be presented to the Legislature for
approval if it would conflict with existing statutes or
require the expenditure of funds. Exempts certain collective
bargaining and personnel-related activities from specified
public meeting requirements.
9.Rate-setting for Public Authorities . Deletes the specified
timing (currently the 2012-13 fiscal year) by which DSS must
use a new rate-setting methodology, developed after
consultation with specified stakeholders, for estimating
public authorities' administrative costs.
Other
10.Suspension of Fingerprint Fee Exemption . Extends, through
2014-15, the suspension of a prohibition on the state charging
fees for fingerprinting in order to conduct background checks
of applicants for licenses to operate specified community care
facilities that serve children.
11.County-Match Waiver . Extends, by one year (through the
2013-14 state fiscal year), a "match waiver" policy that was
in effect for the 2010-11 through 2012-13 state fiscal years.
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Under the waiver, counties can receive the full state General
Fund allocation for CalFresh administration without paying
their share of nonfederal costs for the amount above an
applicable maintenance of effort requirement (which is tied to
1996-97 expenditures).
12.Authorizes DSS to implement specified sections of this bill
by all-county letters or similar instructions, pending the
adoption of emergency regulations, by July 1, 2015.
13.Reappropriates the balance of specified appropriations made
in the 2011 and 2012 Budget Acts to DSS, for the purposes
provided for in those appropriations, to be available for
encumbrance and expenditure until June 30, 2014 thereby making
an appropriation.
14.Declares that this act is to take effect immediately as a
bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
JL:ej 6/13/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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