BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     AB 176


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          Date of Hearing:  May 6, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          AB  
          176 (Bonta) - As Amended April 14, 2015


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          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  YesReimbursable:   
          Yes


          SUMMARY:


          This bill places specified requirements regarding the collection  
          of demographic data, by the state's public segments of  
          postsecondary education and by state health-related departments,  








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          pertaining to tabulation categories of Native Hawaiian (NH),  
          Asian, and Pacific Islander (API) groups. Specifically, this  
          bill:


          1)Requires the Board of Governors (BOG) of the California  
            Community Colleges (CCC) and the Trustees of the California  
            State University (CSU), and requests the Regents of the  
            University of California (UC), when collecting demographic  
            data on students for a report that includes student admission,  
            enrollment, completion, or graduation rates, to use specified  
            collection and tabulation categories for NH and API groups as  
            follows:


             a)   Until the release of the next decennial census, each  
               entity shall use the categories that the entity used as of  
               January 1, 2015.


             b)   Within 18 months after release of the a decennial  
               census, each entity shall use the NH and API categories as  
               reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.


          2)Requires CCC, CSU, and UC to collect and publish the above  
            demographic data on their respective websites by July 1, 2016,  
            to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,  
            and to observe criteria for ensuring statistical significance  
            of data collected and published.


          3)Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH), Department of  
            Health Care Services (DHCS), and Department Managed Health  
            Care (DMHC), when collecting patient demographic data for  
            reports, on or after July 1, 2016, on level of health care  
            coverage, amount of health care coverage, rates for major  
            diseases, leading causes of death per demographic,  
            subcategories for leading causes of death in California  








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            overall, pregnancy rates, and housing numbers, to use the  
            following separate collection categories and tabulations, in  
            addition to the categories required by existing law:



             a)   Major Asian groups, including, but not limited to,  
               Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri  
               Lankan, Taiwanese, and Thai; and,

             b)   Major Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander groups,  
               including, but not limited to, Fijian and Tongan.


          4)Requires DPH, DHCS, and DMHC to publish the above data on  
            their website by July 1, 2016, and annually thereafter, and to  
            update their data collection to reflect include any additional  
            NH and API groups as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau within  
            18 months after a decennial census is released to the public.


          FISCAL EFFECT:


          1)UC. The system collects the required data for undergraduate  
            students, but not for graduate schools and professional  
            schools, including medical schools. UC would incur one-time  
            General Fund costs exceeding $250,000 to provide this  
            capability.


          2)CSU. Minor absorbable costs.


          3)CCC. Districts currently report on about one-third of the  
            Census subgroups. Given that the bill would not require  
            reporting for all subgroups until around 2023, districts  
            should be able to encompass this change within the course of  
            updating their current practices, costs should not be  








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            significant.


          4)DMHC. No additional costs, as recently enacted legislation  
            already will require the department to meet the requirements  
            of this bill.


          5)DPH will be impacted in several areas.


             a)   Center for Health Statistics and Information. Will  
               require two positions for two years ($230,000, special  
               fund) to include all of the sub-groups specified in  
               demographic reports produced using vital statistics data.  
               This involves development of new statistical coding of data  
               to produce the strata specified for the data files, and to  
               ensure the integrity and quality of the data produced.  
               Additionally, staff will need to determine if the  
               disaggregated data produced is statistically reliable and  
               would also need to ensure that re-identification of  
               individuals was not possible for confidential data, which  
               becomes exceedingly complex and time-consuming at the level  
               of detail proposed in this bill, particularly for data  
               reported at the county level.



             b)   Genetic Disease Screening Program. Ongoing cost of  
               $150,000 cover the annual cost of expanded form sizes for  
               both newborn screening and prenatal screening (to  
               accommodate eight additional categories), and for  
               additional follow-up referrals due to inaccurate  
               race/ethnicity data. Also one-time information  
               technology-related costs of $150,000. These costs are  
               covered by fee-supported special funds.
          










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             c)   Office of AIDS. General Fund cost of $125,000 for one  
               position to coordinate reprogramming of data systems,  
               production of modified statistical reports, and changes to  
               regulations.



          6)DHCS. Non-responsive.
          COMMENTS:


          1)Background. According to the California Commission on Asian  
            and Pacific Islander American Affairs', data disaggregation is  
            imperative for uncovering economic, educational, and social  
            disparities inherent not only in API communities, but in all  
            ethnic populations. The Commission finds that the need to  
            disaggregate data is often exemplified by the needs of  
            Southeast Asian American students; often categorized as  
            "Asian," their "lower academic achievement rates are  
            overshadowed by the stereotype that all Asian students excel  
            in academics." 


            According to information provided by the author's office, many  
            of the communities within the API population face similar  
            challenges in California, such as language barriers and  
            immigration; however, they differ on many issues.  This is  
            most evident with respect to education and public health,  
            where the outcomes of some of the largest API groups within  
            the API population raise the average outcome of the greater  
            API population as a whole.  





          2)Purpose. According to the author's office, "By relying heavily  
            on aggregate data of the API community, the state of  
            California fails to recognize that different API ethnic  








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            subpopulations have diverse social and economic conditions."   
            The author contends that if the needs of each of the API  
            "subgroups" are not addressed properly, California will run  
            the risk of lower educational outcomes and greater healthcare  
            costs for our future generations.  Data disaggregation is  
            imperative for uncovering social, economic and educational  
            disparities within the greater Asian population.



          3)Prior Legislation. AB 1088 (Eng)/Chapter 689 of 2011, required  
            the Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of  
            Fair Employment and Housing to collect and tabulate data for  
            additional major Asian groups.

            AB 1737 (Eng) of 2010, which would have required certain state  
            agencies to use additional separate collection categories and  
            tabulations for major Native Hawaiian and API groups, was held  
            on this committee's Suspense file.





          Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081