BILL NUMBER: SB 1183 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 26, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Senator Lieu
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
An act to amend Section 7503 4980.54
of the Business and Professions Code, relating to
repossessors healing arts .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1183, as amended, Lieu. Repossessors: licensure.
Marriage and family therapists: continuing education.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of marriage
and family therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and
imposes continuing education requirements for license renewal.
Existing law requires the board to approve continuing education
providers and authorizes the board to revoke or deny the right of a
provider to offer coursework if the provider fails to comply with
specified requirements.
This bill would prohibit training regarding sexual orientation
change efforts from being included in the approved continuing
education coursework.
Existing law, the Collateral Recovery Act, authorizes the Bureau
of Security and Investigative Services to license and regulate the
persons engaged in the business of repossessing personal property.
Existing law provides that a person who declares as true any material
matter relative to the submission of an application for licensure, a
qualification certificate, or application for registration that he
or she knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor, and requires an
applicant to sign his or her application for licensure and
qualification certificate.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these
provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 4980.54 of the
Business and Professions Code is amended to read:
4980.54. (a) The Legislature recognizes that the education and
experience requirements in this chapter constitute only minimal
requirements to assure that an applicant is prepared and qualified to
take the licensure examinations as specified in subdivision (d) of
Section 4980.40 and, if he or she passes those examinations, to begin
practice.
(b) In order to continuously improve the competence of licensed
marriage and family therapists and as a model for all
psychotherapeutic professions, the Legislature encourages all
licensees to regularly engage in continuing education related to the
profession or scope of practice as defined in this chapter.
(c) Except as provided in subdivision (e), the board shall not
renew any license pursuant to this chapter unless the applicant
certifies to the board, on a form prescribed by the board, that he or
she has completed not less than 36 hours of approved continuing
education in or relevant to the field of marriage and family therapy
in the preceding two years, as determined by the board.
(d) The board shall have the right to audit the records of any
applicant to verify the completion of the continuing education
requirement. Applicants shall maintain records of completion of
required continuing education coursework for a minimum of two years
and shall make these records available to the board for auditing
purposes upon request.
(e) The board may establish exceptions from the continuing
education requirements of this section for good cause, as defined by
the board.
(f) The continuing education shall be obtained from one of the
following sources:
(1) An accredited school or state-approved school that meets the
requirements set forth in Section 4980.36 or 4980.37. Nothing in this
paragraph shall be construed as requiring coursework to be offered
as part of a regular degree program.
(2) Other continuing education providers, including, but not
limited to, a professional marriage and family therapist association,
a licensed health facility, a governmental entity, a continuing
education unit of an accredited four-year institution of higher
learning, or a mental health professional association, approved by
the board.
(g) The board shall establish, by regulation, a procedure for
approving providers of continuing education courses, and all
providers of continuing education, as described in paragraphs (1) and
(2) of subdivision (f), shall adhere to procedures established by
the board. The board may revoke or deny the right of a provider to
offer continuing education coursework pursuant to this section for
failure to comply with the requirements of this section or any
regulation adopted pursuant to this section.
(h) Training, education, and coursework by approved providers
shall incorporate one or more of the following:
(1) Aspects of the discipline that are fundamental to the
understanding or the practice of marriage and family therapy.
(2) Aspects of the discipline of marriage and family therapy in
which significant recent developments have occurred.
(3) Aspects of other disciplines that enhance the understanding or
the practice of marriage and family therapy.
(i) Training, education, or coursework by approved continuing
education providers shall not include sexual orientation change
efforts. For purposes of this subdivision, sexual orientation change
efforts, also known as conversion therapy or reparative therapy,
means practices aimed at changing an individual's sexual orientation.
(i)
(j) A system of continuing education for licensed
marriage and family therapists shall include courses directly related
to the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the client population
being served.
(j)
(k) The board shall, by regulation, fund the
administration of this section through continuing education provider
fees to be deposited in the Behavioral Sciences Fund. The fees
related to the administration of this section shall be sufficient to
meet, but shall not exceed, the costs of administering the
corresponding provisions of this section. For purposes of this
subdivision, a provider of continuing education as described in
paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) shall be deemed to be an approved
provider.
(k)
(l) The continuing education requirements of this
section shall comply fully with the guidelines for mandatory
continuing education established by the Department of Consumer
Affairs pursuant to Section 166.
SECTION 1. Section 7503 of the Business and
Professions Code is amended to read:
7503. An application for a repossession agency license shall be
made in writing to, and filed with, the bureau in the form that may
be required by the director and shall be accompanied by the original
license fee prescribed by this chapter. The director may require the
submission of any other pertinent information, evidence, statements,
or documents.
Every application for a repossession agency license shall be
signed by the applicant and state, among other things that may be
required, the name of the applicant and the name under which the
applicant will do business, the location by number and street and
city of the office of the business for which the license is sought,
and the usual business hours the business will maintain. An applicant
who declares as true any material matter pursuant to this section
that he or she knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor. The
residence address, residence telephone number, and driver's license
number of each licensee, principal owner of each licensee, and any
applicant for a license, if requested, shall be confidential pursuant
to the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with
Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil
Code) and shall not be released to the public.
No license shall be issued in any fictitious name which may be
confused with or which is similar to any federal, state, county, or
municipal governmental function or agency, or in any name that may
tend to describe any business function or enterprise not actually
engaged in by the applicant, or in any name that is the same as or so
similar to that of any existing licensee as would tend to deceive
the public, or in any name that would otherwise tend to be deceptive
or misleading.
The application form shall contain a statement informing the
applicant that a false or dishonest answer to a question may be
grounds for denial or subsequent suspension or revocation of a
repossession agency license.