BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 252
Page A
Date of Hearing: July 2, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
SB 252 (Liu) - As Amended: June 24, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 34-4
SUBJECT : CalWORKs: welfare-to-work requirements
SUMMARY : Clarifies that pregnant women who are CalWORKs
recipients and who do not have medical verification of a
pregnancy-related illness shall be considered for other
welfare-to-work exemptions that are applied under current law
for non-pregnant CalWORKs recipients and includes home visit
program participation within welfare-to-work activities, as
specified.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Exempts a pregnant woman from CalWORKs welfare-to-work
requirements if she is unable to secure medical verification
of a pregnancy-related illness but is otherwise eligible for
another welfare-to-work exemption, including good cause for
temporary illness related to her pregnancy.
2)Allows a pregnant woman to satisfy CalWORKs work requirements
through participation in a voluntary maternal, infant, and
early childhood home visiting program or another voluntary
home visiting program for low-income Californians, and allows
the hours spent in the home visiting program to be applied to
her required work participation hours for no more than a
10-month period.
3)Provides that the authorization for voluntary home visiting
program hours to count toward work participation hours shall
only be granted if a waiver of compliance is received from the
US Department of Health and Human Services, as specified.
4)States legislative findings and declarations related to the
advantages to breastfeeding for mothers and their children.
5)Restates current law allowing a woman to breastfeed in a
public area where the mother and child are authorized to be
present and explicitly includes in that description of public
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area a county welfare department or other county office.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes under federal law the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program to provide aid and
welfare-to-work services to eligible families and, in
California, provides that TANF funds for welfare-to-work
services are administered through the California Work
Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program.
(42 U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et seq.)
2)Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
determine eligibility for the program, including net income
below the Maximum Aid Payment (MAP), based on family size and
county of residence, which is currently no higher than 40% of
the Federal Poverty Level. (WIC 11450, 11150 et seq.)
3)Establishes a 48-month lifetime limit of CalWORKs benefits for
eligible adults, including 24 months during which a recipient
must meet federal work requirements in order to retain
eligibility. (WIC 11454, 11322.85)
4)Requires all individuals over 16 years of age, unless they are
otherwise exempt, to participate in welfare-to-work activities
as a condition of eligibility for CalWORKs. (WIC 11320.3,
11322.6)
5)Requires payment of CalWORKs aid to an eligible pregnant woman
for the month in which the birth is anticipated and for the
three-month period immediately prior to the month in which the
birth is anticipated if the mother provides verification of
pregnancy and is in a family without a needy child qualified
for aid. (WIC 11450 (b))
6)Exempts specified categories of recipients from participation
in welfare-to-work activities, including a pregnant woman who
has medical verification that her pregnancy impairs her
ability to be regularly employed or participate in
welfare-to-work activities or a pregnant woman for whom the
county has otherwise determined that, at that time,
participation in welfare-to-work activities would not lead to
employment or a training activity is not appropriate. (WIC
11320.3(b))
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7)Exempts from welfare-to-work activities a parent or other
adult CalWORKs recipient with primary responsibility for
personally providing care to one child from birth to 23
months, inclusive, and requires this exemption to be available
only once in addition to any other young child exemption, as
specified. (WIC 11320.3(b))
8)Requires a county to excuse a CalWORKs recipient from
welfare-to-work participation for good cause when the county
has determined the recipient has a condition or is faced with
a circumstance that temporarily prevents or significantly
impairs the recipient's ability to be regularly employed or to
participate in welfare-to-work activities, and requires county
welfare departments to review a good cause determination to
establish its continuing appropriateness, as specified, no
less than every three months. (WIC 11320.3(f))
9)Establishes the California Families and Children Home Visit
Program, through which grants are provided to counties for the
purpose of providing at-risk families, as defined, services to
improve parent and child outcomes, including reductions in the
mistreatment of children, increased rates of school
completion, reduced incidence of teenage pregnancy, reduced
interaction with the juvenile justice system, and improved
health. (WIC 18994 et seq.)
10)Establishes in federal law The Maternal, Infant, and Early
Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV), which allows
collaboration at the federal, state, tribal, and community
levels and provides grant allocations to states for the
purpose of improving health and development outcomes for
at-risk children and families through evidence-based home
visiting programs. (42 U.S.C. 711)
11)Permits the Secretary of US Department of Health and Human
Services to waive a state's compliance with TANF state plan
requirements, as specified, to conduct an experimental, pilot,
or demonstration project which, in the judgment of the
Secretary, will assist in promoting the objectives of federal
TANF law. (42 U.S.C. 1315; Social Security Act Sec. 1115)
12)Requires DSS to obtain all necessary waivers from the US
Department of Health and Human Services to implement
welfare-to-work requirements that are inconsistent with
federal TANF law and requires any such waiver to only be
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operative during the period for which the waiver is granted,
as specified. (WIC 11329.2)
13)Establishes, within the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the right of
all persons within the jurisdiction of the state to be free
and equal and entitled to full and equal accommodations, as
specified, regardless of their sex, race, color, religion,
ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition,
genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation.
(CIV 51)
14)Allows a mother to breastfeed her child in any location,
public or private, except the private home or resident of
another, where the mother and the child are otherwise
authorized to be present. (CIV 43.3)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the May 23, 2013 Senate
Appropriations Committee analysis, this bill may result in
potential one-time significant automation costs (General Fund)
to the extent enhancements are required for the allowance of
participation in a maternal home visiting program as countable
work participation hours. Additionally, subject to waiver
approval, this bill may result in an increase in ongoing
CalWORKs grant costs potentially in excess of $150,000 (General
Fund) resulting from reduced sanctions to the extent the hours
spent participating in a maternal, infant, and early childhood
home visiting program are countable towards a recipient's
required monthly work participation hours. Administrative costs
to collect and verify program participation hours could also be
incurred.
COMMENTS : The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to
Kids (CalWORKs) program provides monthly income assistance and
employment-related services aimed at moving children out of
poverty and helping families meet basic needs. Federal funding
for CalWORKs comes from the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) block grant. The average monthly cash grant for
a family of three on CalWORKs (one parent and two children) is
$464. According to data from the California Department of
Social Services, 562,570 families rely on CalWORKs, including
over one million children. Nearly half of the children are
under age six.
Average grants of $464 per month for a family of three means
$15.46 per day, per family, or $5.15 per family member, per day
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to meet basic needs, including rent, clothing, utility bills,
food, and anything else a family needs to ensure children can be
cared for at home and safely remain with their families. This
grant amount puts the annual household income at $5,568 per
year. Federal Poverty Guidelines show that 100% of poverty for
2013 is three and a half times that at $19,530 per year. In
addition to aiding eligible needy families with children,
CalWORKs provides assistance to eligible pregnant women, without
other children in the household qualified to receive aid, who
are in their third trimester of pregnancy and have provided
verification of pregnancy to the county office. The maximum
monthly grant for a pregnant woman on CalWORKs who is the sole
recipient in the household is $317.
Welfare-to-Work activities : Welfare-to-work activities within
the CalWORKs program include public or private sector subsidized
or unsubsidized employment; on-the-job training; community
service; secondary school, adult basic education and vocational
education and training when the education is needed for the
recipient to become employed; specific mental health, substance
abuse, domestic violence services if they are necessary to
obtain or retain employment; and a number of other activities
necessary to assist a recipient in obtaining unsubsidized
employment. If a CalWORKs recipient who is not exempt from
participation does not meet his or her welfare-to-work
requirements, the recipient is sanctioned for noncompliance, and
that recipient's portion of the family's grant is removed. This
means that in a typical family of three with one parent and two
children, the parent's sanction would reduce the family's
average monthly grant from $464 to $322.
Welfare-to-Work exemptions : Under current law, CalWORKs
recipients over 16 years of age are required to participate in
county-approved welfare-to-work activities as a condition of
receiving aid while on the program unless they are eligible for
a welfare-to-work exemption. Included among the list of
exempted individuals are recipients with an enduring disability
that prevents them from being able to regularly participate in
welfare-to-work activities; recipients of advanced age;
recipient caretakers of disabled family members, or children at
risk of placement in foster care, whose care needs impair the
CalWORKs recipient's ability to be regularly employed or to
participate in welfare-to-work activities; and pregnant women
who can provide medical verification that their pregnancy
impairs their ability to participate in welfare-to-work
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activities or otherwise be regularly employed. Exemptions from
welfare-to-work requirements can also be granted to parents or
other relative caretakers with personal responsibility to care
for children from zero to six months of age, the duration of
which can be reduced to 12 weeks or increased to 12 months at a
county's discretion. As a result of SB 1041 (Committee on
Budget) Chapter 47, Statutes of 2012, which restricts the
applicability of certain welfare-to-work activities and support
services to a 24-month period within a recipient's lifetime
limit of 48 months of aid, state law includes a young child
exemption from welfare-to-work requirements that can be applied
to a parent or relative caretaker caring for a child under two
years of age. This exemption can only be used once during the
parent or relative caretaker's time on aid.
Counties can also excuse recipients from participation in
welfare-to-work activities for good cause if a county has
determined that a recipient's condition or other circumstances
temporarily prevent him or her from being able to participate in
welfare-to-work activities or to be regularly employed. Under
good cause, a victim of domestic violence must be excused if
participation in welfare-to-work would be detrimental to the
victim or his or her family. Pregnant women who experience
temporary illness due to their pregnancy but are not able to
provide medical verification can also be excused under good
cause, provided that the county determines that the expectant
mother is not able to participate in welfare-to-work activities
or engage in regular employment. However, unlike the specific
aforementioned exemptions from welfare-to-work requirements,
good cause is granted at the county's discretion based on a
county's determination that a condition or circumstance meets
specified criteria.
Because recipients who are determined to be exempt or excused
from welfare-to-work activities have been deemed by the county
to be incapable of fully participating in available work
activities or other employment, these recipients cannot be
sanctioned for noncompliance and are eligible to continue to
receive their grants during the period of exemption.
Additionally, state law explicitly allows any recipient who is
exempt from welfare-to-work participation to voluntarily
participate, and that recipient can choose to end his or her
voluntary participation without losing eligibility for aid as
long as he or she continues to meet the exemption criteria.
This allows new mothers who are exempt, for example, to remain
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engaged in the workforce without penalizing them for choosing to
discontinue or lessen participation in their work activity to
spend time caring for their infants.
Home visit programs : The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood
Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) was established within the
federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to
provide grants to states to enhance evidence-based home visiting
program models for at-risk pregnant women and young children.
According to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
within the US Department of Health and Human Services, home
visits under the MIECHV are offered, on a voluntary basis, to
pregnant women, expectant fathers, and primary caregivers of
children from birth to age 5. MIECHV home visits are intended
to meet a number of targeted outcomes within the ACA, including
improved maternal, infant, and child health; improvement in
parenting skills; prevention of child injuries, child abuse or
maltreatment, and reduction of emergency room visits; reduction
in crime or domestic violence; improvement in school readiness
and child academic achievement; and improvements in family
economic self-sufficiency.<1>
In California, the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health
Division was established within the California Department of
Public Health (DPH) to be the single state entity designated to
apply for and administer MIECHV funds for the state. There are
two home visiting programs providing services to low-income
parents and their children in California; the Nurse Family
Partnership and Healthy Families America. Both programs have
shown proven effectiveness in strengthening parent-child
relationships, increasing language and literacy skills, and
reducing child abuse and neglect. There are currently 22
MIECHV-funded home visiting sites throughout the state within 21
local health jurisdictions (LHJs), including communities in Los
Angeles, Kern, San Diego, Siskiyou, Sacramento, Merced, and
Fresno counties.
Breastfeeding : According to an American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) policy statement titled "Breastfeeding and the Use of
Human Milk" (2012), scientific studies show that breastfeeding
---------------------------
<1> Affordable Care Act Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood
Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) and Tribal MIECHV.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ecd/programs/home-visiting .
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is directly linked to positive infant health outcomes, including
a lowered risk of infections, leukemia, asthma, obesity, and
lowered hospitalization and overall mortality rates. The AAP
also cites a correlation between breastfeeding and positive
neurodevelopmental outcomes for children, as well as short- and
long-term health benefits for mothers who breastfeed.<2>
While the US Court of Appeals recognized a woman's
constitutional right to breastfeed in Dike v. Orange County
School Board (1981), the right was not explicitly written into
California law until the late 1990's. AB 157 (Villaraigosa),
Chapter 59, Statutes of 1997, established a woman's right to
breastfeed her child in any public or private location besides
the private home or residence of another person, provided that
she and her child are authorized to be there. Recent amendments
to this bill restate current law and clarify that "public areas"
for purposes of a woman's right to breastfeed include county
welfare departments and other county offices. Breastfeeding and
public benefits advocates have reported that they've received
several complaints from CalWORKs applicants and recipients who
have attempted to breastfeed in a county office and have been
told that they are not allowed to do so or that they need to
leave. Given the positive physical and neurodevelopmental
health advantages that are linked to breastfeeding, mothers
receiving CalWORKs assistance could greatly benefit from
breastfeeding support in the county office rather than shame and
embarrassment in addition to the threat of losing access to the
temporary assistance they need to support their families.
Need for the bill : This bill seeks to enhance opportunities for
pregnant women on CalWORKs to engage in appropriate and
meaningful welfare-to-work activities while improving long term
outcomes for themselves and their children. By screening
pregnant women in the CalWORKs program for the same
welfare-to-work exemptions as other applicants and recipients
who are not pregnant, this bill will ensure a greater degree of
fairness in the application of work requirements and sanction
policies. Currently, a pregnant women who cannot obtain medical
verification of a condition that makes her unable to work can be
sanctioned, but the moment her child is born, she is eligible
---------------------------
<2>Section on Breastfeeding, American Academy of Pediatrics.
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. Pediatrics (2012).
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/3/e827.full.htm
l .
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for the 24-month young child exemption from welfare-to-work.
This practice likely results in unnecessary administrative costs
and unfairly penalizes pregnant women who are focused on
maintaining their unborn babies' health. Additionally, the
denial of basic needs aid during pregnancy only increases stress
levels for a pregnant woman, worsens her financial situation,
and threatens her physical and psychological well-being, thereby
increasing health risks for her baby.
This bill also allows the time-limited inclusion of
government-approved home visiting programs on the list of
welfare-to-work activities for pregnant women, provided the
state is granted the appropriate waiver. For those women who
are pregnant and are able to work, or those who are exempt but
choose to volunteer, this new policy could increase promising
outcomes for them and their children through allowing them to be
aided while they interact with nurses and other professionals
who can help guide them through the initial stages of parenting.
Like many other welfare-to-work activities, evidence-based home
visiting programs increase soft skills for parents that help
them have healthy and successful transitions into the workforce,
as well as introduce parents to a broader spectrum of support
services that will help eliminate future dependency on programs
like CalWORKs. Lastly, acknowledging the benefits of bonding
between mothers and their children and the health benefits of
breastfeeding, recent amendments to this bill reiterate a
woman's right to breastfeed in county offices. These provisions
further ensure a mother will not be penalized for responding to
her child's needs while meeting her CalWORKs obligations.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS :
The June 24, 2013 amendments to this bill pertaining to a
woman's right to breastfeed in a public area include a statement
that this right is declaratory of existing law. However, staff
believes there should be a direct reference to existing law that
establishes this right. Therefore, staff recommends the
following amendments to add a cross reference to current law in
subdivision (a) and to delete subdivision (b), beginning on page
3, line 7:
11218. (a) Pursuant to Civil Code Section 43.3, A an applicant
or recipient of aid under this chapter is entitled to breastfeed
her child in any public area, or area where the mother and the
child are authorized to be present, in a county welfare
department or other county office.
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(b) This section is declaratory of existing law.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Asian Law Alliance
BreastfeedLA
California Alternative Payment Program Association (CAPPA)
California Association of Food Banks
California Catholic Conference
Center for Work Life Law, UC Hastings College
Children Now
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
Labor Project for Working Families
National Association of Social Workers, CA Chapter (NASW-CA)
Sacramento Housing Alliance
UAW Local 2865
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089