BILL NUMBER: SB 1348 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 7, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 3, 2000
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 26, 2000
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 3, 2000
INTRODUCED BY Senator Vasconcellos
JANUARY 11, 2000
An act relating to parenting.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1348, as amended, Vasconcellos. Parenting education.
Existing law requires the State Department of Health Services to
maintain a program of maternal and child health.
This bill would require the department to convene a summit on or
before April 30, 2001, to develop a master plan for parenting
education in nonschool settings. The bill would require the various
state departments to participate in the summit and collect, complete,
and submit to the summit available research regarding, among other
things, the causal relationship between the presence or absence of
parenting skills and dysfunctional behavior. The bill would require
the department to report its findings to the Legislature on or before
January 1, 2002.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Our failure to prepare young Californians to make informed,
wise choices regarding whether to become, and how to be good,
healthy, and effective parents results in too many unwise choices and
too little healthy parenting for the next generation of
Californians.
(b) Research indicates that over 50 percent of Californians
imprisoned for violent crime were abused as children.
(c) Providing early and smart parenting education to every
California pupil would help us overcome set failures.
(d) There are a variety of parenting education programs in a
variety of venues throughout California, differing in their
availability and in their accessibility with regard to geography,
time, and location.
(e) The State of California must recognize, encourage, and build
upon, rather than duplicate, the effective and available parenting
education programs.
(f) The State of California must identify venues in which
effective parenting education is not available, and strive to ensure
access to parenting education in those venues.
(g) Every Californian must recognize the need, responsibility, and
opportunity to prepare himself or herself better to become a healthy
parent.
(h) Every California institution must recognize its
responsibility, duty, and capacity to engage itself in supporting the
development of Californians into healthier parents.
(i) The private sector, through major policy development
foundations such as the California Wellness Foundation, has begun to
recognize the fundamental benefits of parenting education in
preventing crime and violence.
(j) The state should study particular strategies that are proving
successful in effectively reaching and providing parenting education
to the most vulnerable of our population.
SEC. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act
that the State of California convene a top level statewide summit to
determine whether parenting education should be provided to every
young Californian and, if so, to design for submission to the
Legislature for its consideration, a comprehensive strategic action
plan for ensuring that every young Californian gain the benefit of
parenting education, in hopes of fostering the development of
healthier parents, and thereby healthier families, children and
adults.
SEC 3. (a) The Director of Health Services shall convene a summit
on or before April 30, 2001, for the purpose of assessing whether it
would be smart and wise for the state of California to develop a
master plan for parenting education in nonschool settings. The
master plan shall especially accommodate those persons who are no
longer attending school in the year 2001.
(b) The summit shall include interested parties of all ideologies
and persuasions, including significant representation from diverse
communities, experts in parenting issues, family and child
development experts, representatives of current providers, academic
experts, business leaders, health professionals, experts in public
school parenting education programs, parents, and children.
(c) The director, or his or her designee, of each of the
departments listed in subdivision (d) shall participate in the
summit. To the extent that his or her department has jurisdiction,
each director shall collect, complete, and submit to the summit the
best research available regarding what it takes to develop a whole
child with healthy self-esteem and a healthy sense of personal and
social responsibility and regarding the causal relationship between
good and healthy parenting, or lack thereof, to dysfunctional
behavior, as well as the costs for providing this universal parenting
education. The research submitted to the summit shall also address
the public costs that result from dysfunctional behavior.
(d)
(c) The director, or his or her designee, of each of the
following departments shall participate in the summit as provided in
subdivision (c) (d) :
(1) The Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(2) The Chairperson of the State Board of Education.
(3) The State Secretary of Education.
(4) The State Department of Social Services.
(5) The State Department of Mental Health.
(6) The State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.
(7) The Department of the Youth Authority.
(8) The Department of Corrections.
(9) The Attorney General.
(g)
(d) To the extent that his or her department has jurisdiction,
each director of the department listed in subdivision (c) shall
collect, complete, and submit to the summit the best research
available regarding what it takes to develop a whole child with
healthy self-esteem and a healthy sense of personal and social
responsibility and regarding the causal relationship between good and
healthy parenting, or the lack thereof, to dysfunctional behavior,
as well as the costs for providing this universal parenting
education. The research submitted to the summit shall also address
the public costs that result from dysfunctional behavior.
(e) The objectives of the summit shall include, but not be
limited to, the following:
(1) Development of an inventory of all parenting education
programs currently available in California.
(2) Determination of whether universal parenting education for
every young Californian would improve the public health and safety of
all Californians.
(3) If it is found to be valuable, the following shall be included
as part of a proposed master plan to be submitted to the Legislature
for its consideration.
(A) Development of a method by which parents of newborns may
receive parenting education in an appropriate range of public and
private nonschool settings.
(B) Identification of the classifications of licensed
professionals who would be the most appropriate educators of
parenting skills in nonschool settings, assessment of the need for
the establishment of instructor training and continuing education
requirements for these professionals, and development of mechanisms
by which these professionals can be engaged in the practice of
parenting education.
(C) Development of a method and curriculum in juvenile court
school, homes, ranches, camps, and forestry camps, as well as a
method for making parenting education available to all public high
school students.
(D) Creation of a means for coordinating parenting education
services, in consultation with the State Department of Education.
(E) Identification of the ways and means for developing the
funding for the various options for parenting education.
(F) Identification and development of additional methods by which
each of the state departments participating in this summit can ensure
that Californians receive effective and useful parenting education.
(h)
(f) The State Department of Health Services shall report its
findings to the Legislature, including, if it concludes that it
would be valuable to do so, organizing the recommendations of the
summit into a proposed California master plan for parenting
education, and shall submit that plan to the Legislature on or before
January 1, 2002.
(i)
(g) The State Department of Health Services shall make every
reasonable effort to secure private funding to underwrite the cost
of this summit.
(j)
(h) The State Department of Health Services shall not be
responsible for travel costs and per diem associated with this summit
for any participant, except when required by state law or
administrative policy.
(k)
(i) After making available copies of the master plan to the
Legislature and appropriate persons in the executive branch, the
State Department of Health Services may make additional copies
available to interested persons at a reasonable charge to cover costs
of printing and mailing.
(l)
(j) The State Department of Health Services shall evaluate
the implementation of the summit's recommendations and shall make
every reasonable effort to either use existing resources or secure
private funding to underwrite this evaluation.