BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 855
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( 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:
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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