BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 532
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Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
Rudy Salas, Chair
AB 532
McCarty - As Amended April 20, 2015
SUBJECT: State agencies: collection of data: ancestry or
ethnic origin
SUMMARY: Requires any state agency, board, or commission that
collects demographic data, as specified, to provide forms that
offer the respondents the option of identifying as multiracial
and selecting one or more ethnic or racial designations.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires state agencies, boards, or commissions when reporting
respondents data to any other state agency, board, or
commission to tabulate and report all of the following:
a) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
with each ethnic or racial designation alone.
b) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
with each ethnic or racial designation in combination with
other ethnic or racial designations.
c) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
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with multiple ethnic or racial designations.
d) Federally mandated actions related to civil rights
monitoring and enforcement.
2)Requires state agencies, boards, or commissions to comply as
reasonably feasible, but no later than January 1, 2022.
3)Allows any state agency, board, or commission that collects
demographic data from a local agency to continue to collect
and report that data in the form the local agency submits.
EXISTING LAW requires a state agency, board, or commission that
directly, or by contract, collects demographic data as to the
ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians, to use separate
collection categories and tabulations for each major Asian group
and each major Pacific Islander group. This data is required to
be made available to the public in accordance with state and
federal law, except for personal identifying information, which
shall be deemed confidential. (Government Code 8310.5)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Data collection by state agencies, boards, or
commissions that collect demographic data is not uniform across
these entities. Existing law sets minimum requirements but does
not limit the amount of information an entity may collect.
For example, the California Department of Education requires
schools to collect and report data consistent with federal
requirements for education eligibility and accountability
reports. Putting both state and federal data collection
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requirements for schools together yields the following for the
category of race:
1)American Indian or Alaska Native
2)13 different Asian codes (This is per California state law.
The federal government only has an Asian category.)
3)Filipino (This is per California state law. The federal
government includes Filipino within the Asian category.)
4)Black or African American
5)White
This bill would add to this list a single racial designation of
"multiracial" and allow for more than one racial designation to
be identified.
The discussion on how best to capture demographic data is
dynamic and constantly evolving. Understanding diversity allows
policy decision makers to craft public policy to better serve
all Californians, ranging from more effective education in
schools to more accessible health care across the state.
Current collection forms seek to provide multiple racial
designations from which an individual may select more than one
designation to express their racial identity. Difficulty
arises, however, when an individual finds that their racial
identity cannot be accurately expressed through the limited
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number of racial designations listed on the forms. Race
organizations have identified the need for individuals who
consider themselves multiracial to have the option of
self-identifying as simply "multiracial" as opposed to
attempting to express their racial identity through an ever
expanding list of racial designations.
This bill seeks to preserve both approaches. By adding a racial
designation of "multiracial" in combination with allowing more
than one ethnic or racial designation, this bill allows
individuals to choose the method that best suits them.
State agencies, boards and commissions would be required to
update forms, software, hardware or information collections
procedures no later than January 1, 2022.
The introduced version of this bill did not include the use of a
specific "multiracial" race designation. This led to opposition
from Project Race. The author chose to amend this bill to
include this option.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Immigrant Policy Center (Prior version)
Opposition
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Project Race (Prior version)
Analysis Prepared by:William Herms / A. & A.R. / (916) 319-3600