BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 855 Page 1 ( Without Reference to File ) SENATE THIRD READING SB 855 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee) As Amended June 13, 2014 Majority vote. Budget Bill Appropriation Takes Effect Immediately SENATE VOTE :Vote not relevant SUMMARY : This is the Human Services Omnibus Trailer Bill for the 2014-15 Budget. This bill contains necessary changes related to the Budget Act of 2014. This bill makes various statutory changes to implement the 2014-15 budget. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires each person employed as a facility manager or staff member of a group home on or after October 1, 2014, to be at least 21 years of age, except as specified. 2)Adjusts the tribal share of costs, commencing July 1, 2014, for a tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization, for the care and custody of Indian children and jurisdiction over Indian child custody proceedings. These entities enter into agreements with the California Department of Social Services (DSS) and are required to provide matching funds. 3)Requires the report that DSS is required to submit annually on outcome and expenditure data that allows for monitoring the changes of the 2011 realignment of child welfare services, foster care, adoptions, and adult protective services programs to contain specified information, including the child welfare services social worker caseloads per county. 4)Establishes the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Program to be administered by DSS in order to adequately serve children who have been sexually exploited, and would require the department, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California, to develop an allocation methodology to distribute funding for the program. The budget appropriates $5 million General Fund for 2014-15 with an effective date of January 1, 2015. The program will be funded at $14 million General Fund in 2015-16 and on-going. The bill does the following in establishing the program: SB 855 Page 2 a) Authorizes the use of these funds by counties electing to participate in the program for certain prevention and intervention activities and services to children who are victims, or at risk of becoming victims, of commercial sexual exploitation. b) Requires DSS to contract to provide training for county children's services workers to identify, intervene, and provide case management services to children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, and the training of foster caregivers for the prevention and identification of potential victims. c) Requires DSS, no later than April 1, 2017, to provide to the Legislature information regarding the implementation of the program. d) Requires each county electing to receive funds to develop an interagency protocol to be utilized in serving sexually exploited children who have been adjudged to be a dependent child of the juvenile court. e) Requires the county interagency protocol to be developed by a team led by a representative of the county human services department and to include representatives from specified county agencies and the juvenile court. 1)Establishes the Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program and would require counties who opt to participate in the program to, effective January 1, 2015, pay an approved relative caregiver a per child per month rate in return for the care and supervision of an Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) ineligible child placed with the relative caregiver that is equal to the basic rate paid to foster care providers for an AFDC-FC child if the county has notified the department of its decision to participate in the program and the related child placed in the home meets certain requirements, including that the child resides in the state. The budget appropriates $15 million General Fund for 2014-15 with an effective date of January 1, 2015, and is fully funded on-going. The bill does the following in establishing the program: a) Requires a participating county to affirmatively SB 855 Page 3 indicate that the county understands and agrees to specified conditions, including that the county will be responsible to pay any additional costs needed to make all payments to the relative caregivers if state and federal funds are insufficient. b) If a participating county decides to opt-out of the program, it requires the county to provide at least 120 days' prior written notice of that decision to the department and to provide at least 90 days' prior written notice to the approved relative caregiver or caregivers informing them that his or her per child per month payment will be reduced, and the date that the reduction will occur. c) Specifies the funding for the program, including the use of state General Fund resources that do not count towards the state's maintenance of effort requirements for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. d) Appropriates the sum of $30 million from the General Fund for the 2015 calendar year and for each calendar year thereafter, with adjustments, for these purposes. e) If this appropriation is insufficient to fully fund the base caseload of approved relative caregivers, provides for the appropriation of additional funds necessary to fully fund that base caseload, and would require the calendar year appropriation amount beginning with the 2016 calendar year to be increased by the same amount of additional funds and along with the total calendar year appropriation be adjusted by the California Necessities Index for each year. 2)Increases maximum aid grant amounts by 5% as of April 1, 2015 in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, reliant on the Child Poverty and Family Supplemental Support Subaccount of the Local Revenue Fund and the mechanism in existing law as the main funding source. 3)Clarifies countable welfare-to-work participation hours to conform to certain federal requirements. SB 855 Page 4 4)Delays the implementation date for the voluntary Temporary Assistance Program until October 1, 2016, maintaining this program as an option to provide cash assistance and other benefits to specified current and future CalWORKs recipients who meet the exemption criteria for participation in welfare-to-work activities and are not single parents who have a child under one year of age. 5)Authorizes funds allocated for CalWORKs Family Stabilization services to be used to provide housing and other needed services to a family during any month that a family is participating in this program component. Also states the intent of the Legislature that family stabilization is a voluntary component intended to provide needed services and constructive interventions for parents and to assist in barrier removal for families facing very difficult needs and that participation families should not be sanctioned as part of their participation. 6)Provides a child support pass-through payment for an assistance unit that excludes any adults pursuant to specified provisions of law, including a provision that makes an individual ineligible for CalWORKs aid if the individual has been convicted in state or federal court after December 31, 1997. 7)Creates a CalWORKs Housing Support Program, with DSS, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California and other stakeholders, to, among other things, develop criteria by which counties may opt to participate in providing housing supports to eligible recipients of CalWORKs benefits. Twenty million dollar General Fund is appropriated in the Budget Act on an on-going basis for this purpose. Specifies that families receiving CalWORKs benefits for which homelessness or housing instability is a barrier to self-sufficiency or child well-being are eligible for specified housing supports, including financial assistance and housing stabilization and relocation, in counties that opt to participate in providing these supports and to the extent that funding for this purpose is provided in the annual Budget Act. 8)Repeals provisions associated with the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program service benefit and instead, effective July SB 855 Page 5 1, 2014, creates the State Utility Assistance Subsidy (SUAS), a state-funded energy assistance program. Requires the Department of Community Services and Development (CSD) to delegate authority over the program to DSS. The bill would require DSS, in designing, implementing, and maintaining the SUAS program, to provide households that do not currently qualify for, nor receive, a standard utility allowance with a SUAS benefit if the household would become eligible for CalFresh benefits or would receive increased benefits if the standard utility allowance was provided. Funding of $9.3 million General Fund is appropriated in the budget for this purpose. 9)Provides for the modification of a program of categorical eligibility for CalFresh in accordance with federal law for needy households who meet all other federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility requirements. States that categorical eligibility for CalFresh shall also apply to any individual who is a member of a household that will be receiving or is eligible to receive cash or food assistance, as specified. 10)Extends counties' eligibility as it exists in the 2013-14 fiscal year to receive the full allocation for CalFresh administration with a waiver for the county match to the 2014-15 fiscal year. Reduces the amount of the waiver throughout subsequent fiscal years and would eliminate the waiver by the 2018-19 fiscal year. 11)Requires a foster family agency to conduct an announced inspection of a certified family home during the annual recertification and an unannounced inspection when certain circumstances are present, including when a certified family home is on probation. 12)Authorizes a foster family agency to inspect a certified family home more frequently than annually in order to ensure the quality of care provided. Additionally clarifies that certain provisions relating to regulation and licensing of community care facilities generally are applicable to certified family homes approved by a foster family agency. 13)Requires that inspections of a residential care facility for persons with chronic, life-threatening illness be conducted at least annually and that inspections and annual evaluations of SB 855 Page 6 these same facilities be conducted unannounced. 14)Provides that the prelicensure inspection or survey is optional at the discretion of DSS if the department determines that an application is for licensure of a currently licensed facility for which there will be no material change to the management or operations of the facility. 15)Requires, if the DSS Director determines at any time during or following a temporary suspension or revocation of a license that there is a risk to the residents or clients of the facility from physical or mental abuse, abandonment, or any other substantial threat to health or safety, DSS to take any necessary action to minimize trauma for the residents, including, but not limited to, arranging for the preparation of the residents' records and medications for transfer and checking in on the status of each transferred resident within 24 hours of transfer. 16)Requires the department to contact the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman after a decision is made to temporarily suspend or upon a final order revoke a license that is likely to result in closure of the facility. 17)Requires, upon an order to temporarily suspend a license, a licensee to immediately provide a written notice of license suspension to the resident and initiate contact with the resident's responsible person, as specified, and would entitle a resident who transfers due to the receipt of a notice of a temporary suspension or revocation of license to be entitled to a refund of preadmission fees. 18)Prohibits a licensee, upon receipt of an order to temporarily suspend or revoke a license, from accepting new residents or entering into admission agreements for new residents. 19)Makes a licensee who fails to comply with the requirements of these provisions liable for civil penalties in the amount of $500 per violation per day for each day that the licensee is in violation of these provisions until the violation has been corrected. 20)Authorizes DSS to appoint a temporary manager to assume the operation of a residential care facility for the elderly for SB 855 Page 7 60 days, subject to extension by the department, when specified circumstances exist, including when the director determines that it is necessary to temporarily suspend the license of the facility and immediate relocation of the residents of the facility is not feasible, or when the licensee has opted to secure a temporary manager in response to a final order to revoke a license. Sets forth the duties of the temporary manager, would limit the expenditures and encumbrances by the temporary manager unless approved by the department, and would require that the costs of the temporary manager be paid directly by the facility while the temporary manager is assigned. To the extent department funds are used for the costs of the temporary manager or related expenses, requires DSS to be reimbursed from the revenues accruing to the facility or to the licensee, and to the extent those revenues are insufficient, requires that the unreimbursed amount constitute a lien upon the asset of the facility or the proceeds from the sale of the facility, as specified. 21)Authorize DSS to apply for a court order appointing a receiver to temporarily operate a community care facility or a residential care facility for the elderly for no more than three months, subject to extension by the department, when circumstances exist indicating that continued management of the facility by the licensee would present a substantial probability of imminent danger or serious physical harm or death to the clients or residents or the facility is closing and adequate arrangements for the relocation of clients or residents have not been made. 22)Specifies the duties of a receiver appointed pursuant to these provisions and would require that the salary of the receiver be set by the court and be paid from the revenue coming to the facility. In the event the revenue is insufficient, would require that the salary be paid from the emergency client contingency fund. 23)Requires that state funds advanced to pay for that salary or other related expenses be reimbursed from the revenues accruing to the facility. If those revenues are insufficient, would require that the unreimbursed amount constitute a lien on the assets of the facility. 24)Increases the licensure and renewal fees for community care SB 855 Page 8 facilities, residential care facilities for persons with chronic, life-threatening illness, residential care facilities for the elderly, and child day care facilities by 10%, and would require the department to adjust the fees assessed against licensees as necessary to ensure they do not exceed specified costs. 25)Authorizes the creation of an emergency client contingency account and an emergency resident contingency account within the Technical Assistance Fund to be used, at the discretion of the DSS Director, for the care and relocation of clients and residents when a facility's license is revoked or temporarily suspended. Requires DSS to seek the input of stakeholders and local agencies in developing policies for emergency client or resident care and supervision. Also authorizes the civil penalties deposited in the Technical Assistance Fund to be used for the technical assistance, training, and education of licensees. 26)States that it is the intent of the Legislature that increased staffing and funding resources for DSS' Community Care Licensing Division appropriated in the Budget Act of 2014 be used to enhance the division's structure and improve operations, as specified. Also provides that it is the intent of the Legislature to, over a period of time, increase the frequency of facility inspections resulting in annual inspections for some or all facility types. Requires DSS to update the Legislature on the status of the structural and quality enhancement improvements during the 2015-16 legislative budget subcommittee hearings. 27)States that it is the intent of the Legislature to comprehensively increase the penalties for facilities licensed by DSS in subsequent legislation, with particular emphasis on penalties for violations that result in serious injury or death. 28)Revises and recasts various provisions of the Home Care Services and Consumer Protection Act and delays the implementation date of the act to January 1, 2016. 29)Deletes provisions of the act that exempt specified individuals from the registration requirements for home care aides and expands the list of individuals and entities that SB 855 Page 9 are not considered home care aides or home care organizations, respectively, for purposes of the act. 30)Requires that each home care organization be separately licensed, as specified. Additionally requires the chief executive officer or other person serving in a similar capacity in a home care organization, as specified, to consent to a background examination. 31)Prohibits DSS from issuing a provisional license or license to any corporate home care organization applicant that has a member of the board of directors, executive director, or officer who is not eligible for licensure, as specified. 32)Revises the licensure requirements of a home care organization to additionally require certain disclosures and proof of an employee dishonesty bond. 33)Revises the license renewal requirements for home care organizations to include, among other things, specified insurance and workers' compensation policies and being current on all fees and civil penalties due to the department. 34)Provides certain review procedures for applications for licensure received by the department and requires DSS to cease any further review of an application for a specified period of time if it is determined that the home care organization applicant was previously issued a license pursuant to the act or other specified provisions of law and that license was revoked. Applies similar requirements to a home care organization applicant that had previously applied for a certificate of approval with a foster family agency and was denied. 35)Authorizes DSS to exclude a person from acting as, and require the home care organization to remove that person from, his or her position as a member of the board of directors, an executive director, or an officer of a licensee if the department determines that the person was previously issued a license pursuant to the act or other specified provisions of law and that license was revoked or if the person was previously issued a certificate of approval by a foster family agency that was subsequently revoked. SB 855 Page 10 36)Requires home care organization licensees to report any suspected or known dependent adult, elder, or child abuse to the department. Require DSS, upon receipt of these reports, to cross-report the suspected or known abuse to local law enforcement and Adult Protective Services or Child Protected Services. 37)Authorizes home care organization applicants and home care aide applicants who submit applications prior to January 1, 2016, to provide home care services without meeting existing tuberculosis requirements, provided those requirements are met by July 1, 2016. 38)Requires all fines and penalties collected for violations be deposited into the Home Care Technical Assistance Fund, which would be created by the bill. Requires that the moneys in the fund be made available to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature for specified purposes. 39)Requires that in the event that the federal government delays overtime requirements for a portion of providers, the state shall still implement the overtime requirements and the weekly caps for all providers for whom federal financial participation is available for overtime. 40)Requires that in-home supportive services and waiver personal care services be performed by providers within a workweek that does not exceed 66 hours per week, as reduced by the net percentage of hour reductions as set in current law. Requires a recipient to employ an additional provider or providers, as needed, to ensure that his or her authorized services are provided and requires the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to work with recipients of waiver personal care services to engage additional providers, as necessary. 41)Requires that the assessment of monthly need for hours in IHSS be divided by 4.33 to establish a recipient's weekly authorized number of hours of services. Requires that IHSS recipients be informed timely of their weekly authorized hours. Permits county welfare department to adjust the authorized weekly hours for any particular week for known recurring or periodic needs of the recipient. 42)Authorizes a recipient of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) to authorize a provider to work hours in excess of the SB 855 Page 11 recipient's weekly authorized hours without notification of the county welfare department if the authorization does not result in more than 40 hours of authorized services per week being provided and the authorization does not exceed the recipients authorized hours of monthly services. Limits provider travel time to 7 hours maximum per week and defines "travel time" for purposes of these provisions. 43)Authorizes, for three months following the effective date of these provisions, which is January 1, 2015 pursuant to the expected effective date in whole or in part of federal law and regulation, that timesheets submitted by providers be paid in excess of the limitations, as long as the number of hours worked by the provider within a given month do not exceed the authorized hours of the recipient or recipients served by the provider. 44)Requires that in the event that the federal government delays overtime requirements for a portion of providers, the state shall still implement the overtime requirements and the weekly caps for all providers for whom federal financial participation is available for overtime. 45)Requires DSS to conduct a study and provide a report be submitted to the Legislature, with information shared on a periodic basis with stakeholders. 46)Authorizes DSS to implement specified provisions of this trailer bill through all-county letters or similar instructions and require DSS to adopt emergency regulations implementing these provisions no later than January 1, 2016. 47)Declares that this bill is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill. COMMENT : This bill is a budget trailer bill within the overall 2014-15 budget package to implement actions taken affecting DSS, Child Support Services, Health Care Services, and Community Services and Development. Analysis Prepared by : Nicole Vazquez / BUDGET / (916) 319-2099 FN: 0003971 SB 855 Page 12