BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW
Mark Leno, Chair
Bill No: AB 1460
Author: Committee on Budget
As Amended: June 12, 2014
Consultant: Samantha Lui
Fiscal: Yes
Hearing Date: June 15, 2014
Subject: Budget Act of 2014: Human Services
Summary: Provides for statutory changes necessary to enact
the human services provisions of the Budget Act of 2014.
Background: As part of the 2014-15 budget package,
Assembly Bill 1460 makes statutory changes to implement the
budget act.
Proposed Law: AB 1460 makes the following statutory changes
to implement the 2014-15 budget
CalWORKs . The bill includes several provisions pertaining
to CalWORKs, including:
1. Five-percent Grant Increase . This bill increases
aid payments by 5 percent, as of April 1, 2015.
2. Child Support Pass-Through for Safety-Net and
Certain Child-Only Cases . Last year, the Department of
Social Services (DSS) instructed counties to move
Safety-Net and Drug/Fleeing Felon child-only cases out
of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
program to help meet the TANF work participation
requirement. In implementing this move-out, DSS and
the Department of Child and Support Services (DCSS)
discovered a conflict in federal and state law.
Federal law prohibits DCSS from passing collected
child support through to the state on behalf of
non-TANF families, and requires payments be made
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
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federal and state law conflicts, and exempts Safety
Net and Drug and Fleeing Felon child-only cases from
assigning their child and spousal support rights to
the state/county, cooperating with the DCSS, and
requiring these cases be referred to the DCSS for
child support enforcement/collection services. Also,
the bill removes the requirement that DCSS collect the
support on behalf of the state.
3. Family Stabilization . This bill authorizes funds
allocated for family stabilization to be used to
provide housing and other needed services to a family
during any month that a family is participating in
family stabilization. The bill states the intent of
the Legislature that family stabilization is a
voluntary component intended to provide needed
services and constructive interventions for parents
and to assist in barrier removal for families facing
very difficult needs.
4. Housing and Homeless Support . This bill specifies
that families receiving CalWORKs benefits when
homelessness or housing instability is a barrier to
self-sufficiency or child well-being, are eligible for
specified housing supports, including financial
assistance and housing stabilization and relocation,
in counties that opt to participate in providing these
supports, and to the extent that funding for this
purpose is provided in the annual Budget Act. The bill
requires the State Department of Social Services
(DSS), in consultation with the County Welfare
Directors Association of California, to develop
criteria by which counties may opt to participate in
providing housing supports to eligible recipients.
5. Temporary Assistance Program . The bill delays the
commencement date of the Temporary Assistance Program
(TAP) from October 1, 2014, to October 1, 2016.
Community Care Licensing . The bill includes provisions
pertaining to the Community Care Licensing Division within
DSS. Specifically, the bill:
1. Establishes an Emergency Client/Resident
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Contingency Account . The accounts, which would be
within the Technical Assistance Fund, would be used at
the discretion of the Director of DSS for the care and
relocation of clients and residents, when a facility's
license is revoked or temporarily suspended. The money
in the account must cover costs, such as
transportation expenses, expenses incurred in
notifying family members, and costs associated with
providing continuous care and supervision.
2. Establish a Temporary Manager and Receivership
Process . The bill authorizes DSS to appoint a
temporary manager or receiver to act as the
provisional licensee, if DSS determines that residents
of a facility are likely to be in danger of serious
injury or death, and the immediate relocation of
clients is not feasible. The temporary manager or
receiver assumes operation of a facility to bring it
into compliance; to facilitate a transfer of ownership
to a new licensee; or, to assure the transfer of
residents, if the facility is required to close.
Facilities that serve less than six residents, and are
also the principal residence of the licensee, are
exempt. The bill specifies: a) a process to appoint a
temporary manger or receiver; b) a process by which a
licensee may contest the appointment of the temporary
manager; c) a temporary manger or receiver's
authorized responsibilities; d) a receiver's salary
and length of appointment; and, e) circumstances
wherein a facility's owner can sell, lease, or close
the facility.
3. Increase licensing fees . The bill proposes a ten
percent increase in licensing and application fees.
The bill also requires the department to analyze
initial application fees and annual fees, at least
every five years, to determine whether the appropriate
fee amounts are being charged.
4. Home Care Services Consumer Protection Act . The
bill makes changes to several provisions of the Act,
including:
a. Revises the licensure requirements of a
home care organization to require certain
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disclosures and proof of an employee dishonesty
bond.
b. Revises license renewal requirements for
home care organizations to include insurance and
workers' compensation policies, and being current
on all fees and civil penalties.
c. Provides review procedures for
applications for licensure received by the
department.
d. Requires the department to cease any
further review of an application for a specified
period of time, if it is determined that the home
care organization applicant was previously issued
a license pursuant to the act or other specified
provisions of law, and that license was revoked.
e. Applies similar requirements to a home
care organization applicant that had previously
applied for a certificate of approval with a
foster family agency and was denied.
f. Authorizes the department to exclude a
person from acting as, and requires the home care
organization to remove that person from, his or
her position as a member of the board of
directors, an executive director, or an officer
of a licensee, if the department determines that
the person was previously issued a license
pursuant to the act or other specified provisions
of law and that license was revoked, as
specified, or if the person was previously issued
a certificate of approval by a foster family
agency that was subsequently revoked.
g. Requires home care organization licensees
to report any suspected or known dependent adult,
elder, or child abuse to the department.
h. Requires the department, upon receipt of
these reports, to cross-report the suspected or
known abuse to local law enforcement and Adult
Protective Services or Child Protected Services,
as specified. The bill would authorize home care
organization applicants and home care aide
applicants who submit applications prior to
January 1, 2016, to provide home care services
without meeting the tuberculosis requirements
described above, provided those requirements are
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met by July 1, 2016. The bill would authorize the
department to adopt and re-adopt emergency
regulations to implement and administer the
provisions of the act.
i. Require all fines and penalties collected
for violations to be deposited into the Home Care
Technical Assistance Fund, as created by the
bill. The bill would require that the moneys in
the fund be made available to the department,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, for
specified purposes.
Child Welfare Services . The bill contains the following
provisions pertaining to child welfare services, including:
1. Tribal Share of Cost . The bill adjusts the tribal
share of costs for a tribe, consortium of tribes, or
tribal organization for the care and custody of
Indian children.
2. Minimum Age of Group Home Staff . The bill
requires a group home staff or facility manager, on
or after October 1, 2014, to be at least 21years old.
3. Services to Child Victims of Commercial Sexual
Exploitation . This bill would establish the
Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Program, as
administered by DSS, to serve children who have been
sexually exploited. Specifically, the bill:
a. Requires the department, in
consultation with the County Welfare Directors
Association of California, to develop an
allocation methodology to distribute funding
for the program.
b. Authorizes the use of these funds by
counties electing to participate in the program
for prevention and intervention activities and
services to children who are victims, or at
risk of becoming victims, of commercial sexual
exploitation.
c. Requires DSS to contract for training
for county children's services workers to
identify, intervene, and provide case
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management services to children who are victims
of commercial sexual exploitation, and for the
training of foster caregivers for the
prevention and identification of potential
victims.
d. Requires the department, no later
than April 1, 2017, to provide to the
Legislature, information regarding the
implementation of the program.
e. Require each county, electing to
receive funds, to develop an interagency
protocol to be utilized in serving sexually
exploited children who have been adjudged to be
a dependent child of the juvenile court.
f. Requires the county interagency
protocol to be developed by a team led by a
representative of the county human services
department and to include representatives from
specified county agencies and the juvenile
court. This bill would make these provisions
operative on January 1, 2015.
g. Specifies that nothing precludes a
county from providing a supplemental rate to
serve commercially exploited foster children.
h. Provides that, to the extent federal
financial participation is available, federal
funds should be utilized.
4. Relative Caregivers . This bill establishes the
Approved Relative Caregiver Funding Option Program.
Under the Program:
a. Counties who opt-in must, effective
January 1, 2015, pay an approved relative
caregiver a per child, per month rate, in
return for the care and supervision of a
federally ineligible Aid to Families with
Dependent Children - Foster Care (AFDC-FC)
child placed with the relative caregiver, equal
to the base rate paid to foster care providers
for an federally eligible AFDC-FC child, if the
county has notified the department of its
decision to participate in the program.
b. A participating county must
affirmatively indicate that it understands and
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agrees to specified conditions, including
responsibility to pay any additional costs
needed to make all payments to the relative
caregivers, if state and federal funds are
insufficient.
c. A county must provide at least 120
days' prior written notice to the department,
if it decides to opt-out of the program, and
must provide at least 90 days' prior written
notice to the approved relative caregiver or
caregivers, informing them that his or her
payment will be reduced and the starting date
of the reeducation.
In addition, the bill would appropriate $30,000,000
General Fund for the 2015 calendar year and for each
calendar year thereafter for these purposes. If this
appropriation is insufficient to fully fund the base
caseload of approved relative caregivers, the bill
provides for the appropriation of additional funds
necessary to fully fund that base caseload, and
requires the calendar year appropriation amount
beginning with the 2016 calendar year to be increased
by the same amount of additional funds and along with
the total calendar year appropriation, be adjusted by
the California Necessities Index annually.
CalFresh . The bill makes significant changes to the
CalFresh program. Specifically:
1. State Utility Assistance Subsidy . This bill
repeals provisions pertaining to the existing
utility assistance initiative to provide applicants
and recipients of CalFresh a $0.10 LIHEAP benefit
out of the federal LIHEAP block grant. Effective
July 1, 2014, the bill creates the State Utility
Assistance Subsidy (SUAS), a state-funded energy
assistance program, and requires the Department of
Community Services and Development to delegate
authority over the program to the State Department
of Social Services. DSS must design, implement, and
maintain the SUAS program, to provide households
that do not currently qualify for, or receive, a
standard utility allowance with a SUAS benefit, as
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specified, if the household would become eligible
for CalFresh benefits or would receive increased
benefits if the standard utility allowance was
provided. The bill would condition the
implementation of these provisions on an
appropriation of funds by the Legislature in the
annual Budget Act or related legislation.
2. Modified Categorical Eligibility . The bill
raises the federal poverty level to the federally
allowable maximum amount of 200 percent, and also
requires DSS to establish, design, and implement a
program of categorical eligibility for CalFresh
recipients. The bill provides that the Director of
DSS can only establish the program of categorical
eligibility with appropriate federal authorization,
and if implementation would not result in the loss
of federal financial participation. Lastly, the bill
repeals rulemaking provisions in law and moves those
provisions to an uncodified section.
3. County Administration Match Waiver . This
bill extends counties' eligibility to receive the
full allocation for CalFresh administration without
paying the county's share of the nonfederal costs
above the 1996-1997 expenditure requirement to the
budget year. The bill would also reduce the amount
of the waiver throughout subsequent fiscal years and
would eliminate the waiver by the 2018-19 fiscal
year.
Fiscal Effect: The funding related to the changes in this
bill is contained in the 2014-15 budget. In addition, the
bill would appropriate $30 million General Fund, effective
January 1, 2015 for the Child Victims of Sexual
Exploitation Program.
Support: NA
Opposed: NA
Comments: This bill provides the necessary statutory
references to enact the 2014-15 budget related to human
services.
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