BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1763
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1763 (Lieu) - As Amended: April 8, 2010
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:4 - 0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires a county to accept the criminal background
clearance pertaining to an In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
provider obtained by the provider's prior county of residence
and authorizes the new county of residence to request notice of
any subsequent arrests. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a county, or an IHSS nonprofit consortium or public
authority, to accept a clearance of an individual for whom a
criminal background check is required as a condition of being
eligible to provide IHSS services issued to the individual in
another county.
2)Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to process a request
from a county, an IHSS nonprofit consortium or a public
authority having criminal record authority to receive
notifications of subsequent arrests when a criminal record
clearance for a provider was originally processed by another
county, nonprofit consortium or public authority.
3)Requires that the Department of Social Services (DSS), in
consultation and coordination with county welfare departments
and other designated stakeholders, establish guidelines to
provide counties with instructions to consistently and
accurately comply with the statutory requirements for the IHSS
program.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs associated with DOJ processing the requests and sending
subsequent arrest notices to the new county would be
AB 1763
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approximately $800,000 in the first year and $700,000 per year
thereafter. The DOJ has the authority to charge fees to cover
the cost of the background check. Presumably a fee sufficient
to cover the cost of the bill would be charged to county welfare
departments. That cost would be state-reimbursable (GF) as this
bill constitutes a new mandate for counties.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The author states that, "Since IHSS background
checks are run through a single statewide system, it is
unnecessary for an individual to provide multiple
criminal background checks to different counties when a
single background check would provide the same
information that is necessary for eligibility. Multiple
criminal background checks are not only excessive and
unnecessary, but they also impose an extreme hardship on
already low income workers. ... The cost of a single
background check can range from $75 to $100. Requiring
multiple background checks could simply be unaffordable
for many homecare workers."
This bill provides that when an IHSS provider who has
been cleared after a criminal background check moves to
another county and seeks to be an IHSS provider in his or
her new county of residence, the new county, nonprofit
consortium, or public authority must accept the criminal
background clearance from the former county of residence.
This bill also authorizes the new county, nonprofit
consortium, or public authority to request notification
of a subsequent arrest of an individual who was cleared
in another county.
2)Related Legislation . ABX4 19 (Evans; Chapter 17, Statutes
of 2009 4th Extraordinary Session) was enacted in
conjunction with the 2009-10 Budget. Among its
provisions to enhance integrity and prevent fraud in the
IHSS program, as a condition of being placed or
maintained on a county's IHSS provider registry, ABX4 19
required criminal background checks to be completed for
all prospective IHSS providers as of October 1, 2009, and
to be completed by July 2, 2010 for anyone already a
provider on October 1, 2009.
AB 1763
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Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081