AB 106 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis

BILL ANALYSIS Ó

SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW
Senator Mark Leno, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular

Bill No: AB 106 Hearing Date: June 18,
2015
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|Author: |Committee on Budget |
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|Version: |January 9, 2015 Introduced |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Samantha Lui |
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Subject: Budget Act of 2015: Human Services Trailer Bill.

Summary: Provides for statutory changes necessary to enact human
services-related provisions of the Budget Act of 2015.

Background: As part of the 2015-16 budget package, Assembly Bill 106 makes
statutory changes to implement the budget act.

Proposed
Law: AB 106 makes the following statutory changes to implement the
2015-16 budget.

Federal immigration assistance . On November 20, 2014, President
Obama issued executive orders that expanded the population
eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program, and to include new Deferred Action for Parents of
Americans (DAPA). Effective January 1, 2016, trailer bill:

1. Requires that the department must provide grants to
qualified non-profit organizations who meet the definition
of the Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(5).
2. Specifies the types of services that a nonprofit
organization may provide, including:
a. Services to assist with the application
process for initial or renewal of deferred action
under the DACA policy or the DAPA policy;
b. Services to provide legal training and
technical assistance to eligible non-profits;

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c. Services to help obtain other immigration
remedies for people receiving DACA or DAPA application
assistance;
d. Services to assistance with naturalization or
appeals that arise from the process.
3. Defines the services that can be provided that assist
the application process to include: outreach, workshop
presentations, document review, Freedom of Information Act
requests, and screening services to assist individuals with
DACA, DAPA, naturalization, or other immigration remedies.
4. Defines "legal training and assistance" to include
webinars, in-person trainings, and technical assistance in
the form of answering questions via email, fax, or phone
5. Requires that grants awarded must fulfill specified
criteria, including:
a. For nonprofits under 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(5)
status, have at least three years of experience
handling immigration cases; have conducted trainings
on immigration beyond staff persons; and are
accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals under
the U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Office for
Immigration Review, or be a Trust Fund Program
administered by the State Bar of California
b. For a legal services organization that
provides legal training and technical assistance, have
at least ten years of experience conducting
immigration legal services and receive funding by the
Trust Fund Program administered by the State Bar of
California.
6. Requires grant recipients maintain adequate legal
malpractice insurance.
7. Requires the department to report to the fiscal
legislative committees the following information:
a. Implementation timeline;
b. Participating entities awarded contracts and
grants;
c. Number of applications submitted;
d. Types of services provided and in what
language;
e. Ethnic communities served; and
f. Identification of further barriers and
challenges to immigration assistance and legal
services related to naturalization and deferred
action.

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8. Limits the amount of grant funds available to be
advanced to a qualified nonprofit to 40 percent.
9. Requires the department, subject to available Budget Act
funding, provide grants to organizations that provide free
education and outreach information, services, and
materials.
10. Define the terms "education" and "outreach" to include
referrals to educational or legal services that support an
applicant's eligibility for citizenship or deferred action,
and the importance of participating in civic engagement as
a naturalized citizen. Education and outreach activities
are prohibited from including representation as legal
counsel that assists in the application process.

CalWORKs . The bill includes provisions pertaining to the
CalWORKs program, including:

1. Housing Support Program (HSP) . SB 855 (Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 29, Statutes of 2014, established the
CalWORKs Housing Support Program and provides $20 million
($12 million General Fund) ongoing to specified counties to
provide evidence-based interventions to families receiving
CalWORKs who are at risk for homelessness, or are homeless.
Services could include landlord outreach, housing search
and placement, legal services, and housing barrier
assessment. Trailer bill language contains the following
provisions:

a. Requires the department to award funds, according to
criteria developed by the department in consultation with
the County Welfare Directors Association, to provide
CalWORKs housing support to recipients who are
experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
b. Authorizes counties to continue providing housing
support under the CalWORKs Housing Support Program to a
recipient who may no longer be income eligible for
CalWORKs.
c. Other technical, non-substantive changes.

1. Child support pass-through for long-term sanction cases .
Federal law prohibits the Department of Child Support
Services from passing collected child support through to
the state on behalf of non-Temporary Assistance to Needy
Families (TANF) families and requires payments be made

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directly to the family. In contrast, state law requires
families to assign support rights and requires counties to
refer families on CalWORKs to the Local Child Support
Agencies. This bill resolves the federal and state law
conflicts, and exempts long-term sanction cases from
assigning their child and spousal support rights to the
state/county. Funding for these cases is switched to
non-maintenance of effort General Fund, so these cases will
no longer assign their child support to the state. As a
result, the Department of Child Support Services will no
longer be required to track these cases.

2. Mid-Year Reporting Requirement . Previous law requires a
CalWORKs recipient to report a drug felony conviction, as
specified, within ten days. Senate Bill 855 (Budget and
Fiscal Review), Chapter 29, Statutes of 2014, made eligible
adults who were previously ineligible for benefits due to a
prior felony drug conviction, effective April 1, 2015. AB
106 deletes an outdated mid-period reporting requirement
that is no longer applicable.

Community Care Licensing . The bill includes provisions
pertaining to the Community Care Licensing (CCL) division within
DSS. Specifically, the bill establishes inspection frequency, by
facility type. The language increases the frequency of
inspections from the current level of at least once every five
years, to once every three years for child care facilities; once
every two years for children's residential facilities; and
annual inspections for adult and senior care facilities. The
table compares current law to the new inspection requirements,
by facility type and over time.

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| | | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
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| | Inspections must occur at least once every. . . |
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| Child care | 5 years | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years |
| facilities| | | (unchanged| (unchanged |
| | | | from | from stage |
| | | | stage 1) | 1) |
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| Children's | 5 years | 3 years | 2 years | 2 years |
| residentia| | | | (unchanged |
| l care | | | | from stage |
| facilities| | | | 2) |
| | | | | |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------|
| Adult and | 5 years | 3 years | 2 years | 1 |
| senior | | | |year |
| care | | | | |
| facilities| | | | |
| | | | | |
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The CCL division will continue to conduct random inspections on
at least 30 percent of all facilities annually, as is current
practice.

Child Welfare Services . The bill contains the following
provisions pertaining to child welfare services, including:

1. Approved Relative Caregiver (ARC) program . Senate Bill
855 (Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 29, Statutes of
2014, established the Approved Relative Caregiver Option
Program and provided an ongoing annual appropriation of $30
million GF, to be adjusted annually by CNI. Under the ARC
program, relative caregivers receive an applicable regional
per-child CalWORKs grant, plus the General Fund portion in
an amount that provides a rate equal to the basic foster
family home rate (based on the age of the child).
Participating counties are provided General Fund, based on
the a county's number of eligible approved relative
caregiver placements in the county as of July 1, 2014. If

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the county-specific ARC caseload exceeds the baseline
caseload of July 1, 2014, the county must be responsible
for making the full ARC payments and responsible for the
county-share of the CalWORKs payment. The langauge
streamlines the application process for grant payments,
maximizes federal funding, and ensures that families do not
experience a break in services or payment. Specifically,
the language specifies:

a. Foster children and non-minor dependents (NMDs), who
are eligible to receive an approved relative caregiver
(ARC) payment will be placed into a separate assistance
unit.
b. The CalWORKs portion of the payment will be the
exempt maximum aid payment for an assistance unit of one.
c. If the approved relative caregiver is needy, his or
her assistance unit size will include the number of ARC
children, or NMDs, only for pruposes of determining
program income and eligiblity of the CalWORKs assistance
unit. For purposes of calculating the grant amount for
the needy caregiver, the ARC child and NMD is excluded.
d. Foster care resource limits will be used to
determine eligiblity of an ARC child and NMD.
e. Overpayments will be collected pursuant to existing
foster care program requirements.
f. County of court jurisdiction has payment
responsibliy for ARC children and NMDs.
g. An approved relative caregiver is exempt from
Statewide Fingerprint Imaging Systems, reporting,
immunization, and other CalWORKs requirements.
h. The General Fund (GF) appropriation must be
increased annually by an amount greater than the CNI to
ensure that the caregiver payments get a full California
Necessities Index (CNI) adjustment.
i. The GF portion of the ARC payment may be countable
towards maintenance-of-effort (MOE), only if the GF is
not counted as MOE for another purpose.
j. The department must presume that counties have
opted-out of the program if funding for the base period
is reduced under specified conditions, unless a county
notifies the department in writing of its intent to
opt-in within 60 days of the enactment of the state
budget.
aa. In a circumstance whereby a county decides to no

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longer participate in the ARC program, the county must
provide at least 90 days notice to the approved relative
caregiver(s) that the per child per month payment will be
reduced, and the date the reduction will occur.

1. Intensive Treatment Foster Care (ITFC) rate extension .
ITFC offers an alternative, family-like setting for foster
children who would otherwise be placed in group homes Rate
Classification Level (RCL) 9 through 11. SB 1013 (Budget
and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2012,
authorized the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) effort to
develop recommendations related to the state's current rate
setting system, and to services and programs that serve
children and families in the continuum of Aid to Families
with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) eligible
placement settings. In addition, SB 1013 provided for an
interim increase in rates, including a California
Necessities Index increase, intended to ensure providers
keep pace with the costs of providing care, recruitment,
and retaining qualified foster caregivers for children
needing intensive treatment in a home-based setting.
Trailer bill language that includes the following
provisions:

a. Extends, from June 30, 2015 to December 31,
2016, the applicable interim period for specified
modified service and rate levels, which support
modified in-home support counselor hours per month,
apply.
b. Extends, from June 30, 2015 to December 31,
2016, the interim period for which specified modified
serve and rate levels, that support the modified
standard rate schedule, apply.
c. Requires the rate for the modified standard
rate be adjusted for the California Necessities Index
on July 1, 2015, and on July 1, 2016.

Adult Protective Services . The department shall, to the extent
funding for this purpose remains with the department, establish
one full-time position which reports to the director to assist
counties with the following functions in their operation of the
adult protective services system

1991 Realignment . AB 85 modified 1991 Realignment Local Revenue

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Fund (LRF) distributions to capture and redirect county savings
resulting from the implementation of federal health care reform
effective January 1, 2014. AB 85 established the Family Support
Subaccount within the LRF beginning in 2013-14. The Family
Support Subaccount receives sales tax revenues redirected from
the Health Subaccount, which then redistributes the funds to
counties for the CalWORKs program. While this redirection
mechanism frees up General Fund resources to pay for Medi-Cal
costs, according to the Administration, the process to achieve
this is significantly burdensome for the State Controller's
Office and the Department of Finance. The language eliminates
the need to redirect sales and use tax and vehicle license fee
revenues between the Health and Social Services Subaccounts and
makes other necessary technical and clarifying changes related
to AB 85 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 24, Statutes of 2013.

Other issues . The bill also includes additional provisions:

1. Data sharing agreements . Authorizes the Employment
Development Department (EDD) to share data with federal,
state, or local government departments or agencies, or
their contracted agencies, to support social services
administration.

2. Suspension of the fingerprint licensing fee exemption .
Existing law prohibits the Department of Social Services
(DSS) and the Department of Justice from charging a fee to
process a criminal history check of individuals who are
licensed to operate child and adult facilities, to provide
care in a facility, or who reside at that facility. This
language authorizes allows DSS to charge fees for this
criminal history check and extends this suspension for two
additional years.

3. Suspension of the incentives under the Department of
Child Support Services (DCSS) . The language suspends a)
health insurance incentives and b) improved performance
incentives.

a. Existing law requires the DCSS to provide a
health insurance incentive ($50 per case) to the local
child support agency (LCSA) for obtaining third-party
health coverage, or insurance, for beneficiaries, if
the budget provides GF support for the incentive.

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Since 2003, these health insurance incentive payments
to LCSAs have been suspended. This language suspends
the health insurance incentive and the top ten
improved performance incentive for two years.
b. Existing law requires DCSS to provide to ten
counties, which demonstrate the best performance on
federal and state performance standards, an additional
five percent of the state's share of those counties
collections used to reduce or repay aid. Since 2002,
these top ten performance incentive payments to LCSAs
have been suspended. This language suspends the top
ten improved performance incentive for two years.

4. Establishes new successor fund for the California Senior
Legislature . The California Fund for Senior Citizens first
appeared on the 1983 personal income tax return. Donations
to the California Fund for Senior Citizens support the
ongoing work of the CSL. In 2014, the California Fund of
Senior Citizens received $229,522 in voluntary
contributions. Because it did not meet the minimum
contribution amount of $250,000, it fell off the tax
check-off for the 2014 tax return. Trailer bill language
that establishes the California Senior Legislature Fund as
the successor fund of the California Fund for Senior
Citizens.

Fiscal
Effect: The funding related to the changes in this bill is contained
in the 2015-16 budget. In addition, the bill would appropriate
$30 million General Fund, effective January 1, 2016, for the
Approved Relative Caregiver Program.

Support: None on file.

Opposed: None on file.

Comments: This bill provides the necessary statutory references to enact
the 2015-16 budget related to human services.

-- END --

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