November 14, 2024

Throughout the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, CSAC has kept you informed about key legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC will publish a series of articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week, our focus is on the Health and Human Services policy area, covering the impact of newly enacted legislation on health services, behavioral health services, social services, and homelessness.

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

AB 1316 (Irwin) (Chapter 632, Statutes of 2024)

Emergency services: psychiatric emergency medical conditions. This measure revises the definition of “psychiatric emergency medical condition” to make the definition applicable regardless of whether the patient is voluntarily or involuntarily detained for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention, or placement for evaluation and treatment. The measure also requires the Medi-Cal program and Medi-Cal managed care plans to cover all emergency services and care to treat a psychiatric emergency medical condition, including post-stabilization services.

AB 2081 (Davies) (Chapter 376, Statutes of 2024)

Substance abuse: recovery and treatment programs. This measure requires an operator of a licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility, or a certified alcohol or other drug program, to include on its website an intake form paperwork a disclosure stating that any actions taken against the entity can be found on DHCS’s website.

AB 2119 (Weber) (Chapter 948, Statues of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Mental health. This measure deletes stigmatizing and outdated terminology in existing statute as it relates to mental health and replaces it with person-first terminology.

AB 2154 (Berman) (Chapter 653, Statutes of 2024)

Mental health: involuntary treatment. This measure requires a facility to which a person is brought for involuntary detention to offer and provide a copy of the DHCS patients’ rights handbook to a family member of the detained person under specified circumstances. Additionally, the facility must offer to provide a copy of the handbook to the detained person if the handbook is provided to a family member of the detained person.

AB 2995 (Jackson) (Chapter 847, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Public health: alcohol and drug programs. This measure deletes stigmatizing and outdated terminology in existing statute as it relates to alcohol and drug abuse and replaces it with person-first terminology.

AB 2574 (Valencia) (Chapter 410, Statutes of 2024)

Alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment programs and facilities: disclosures. This measure requires a licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility or certified alcohol or other drug program to disclose to DHCS if any of its agents, partners, directors, officers, or owners own or have a financial interest in a recovery residence. Additionally, this measure requires these certified programs or licensed facilities to disclose to DHCS whether it has contractual relationships with entities that provide recovery services and are unlicensed.

AB 2871 (Maienschein) (Chapter 639, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Overdose fatality review teams. This measure allows a county or regional group of counties to establish interagency overdose fatality review teams to engage in system-wide team review when there is a drug fatality, promote information sharing between county agencies and local stakeholders and experts, and strengthen the integration of local prevention efforts.

SB 42 (Umberg) (Chapter 640, Statutes of 2024)

Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program: process and proceedings. Among other things, this measure clarifies what evidence may establish a respondent’s eligibility for CARE proceedings; reduces a CARE court’s obligation to inform the respondent of their rights under specified circumstances; requires a CARE petition’s dismissal to be without prejudice unless specific criteria are met; and gives original petitioners the right to notice of ongoing CARE proceedings unless the court specifically finds that notice would be detrimental to the respondent. As an urgency measure, this measure went into effect immediately.

SB 1184 (Eggman) (Chapter 643, Statutes of 2024)

Mental health: involuntary treatment: antipsychotic medication. This measure permits an order for involuntary treatment with antipsychotic medication that applied during the prior detention period to continue until a new hearing for a determination of the person’s capacity to refuse treatment occurs. This measure requires the capacity hearing to be held on an expedited basis and requires a facility where such an extension of involuntary treatment occurs to report specified data to the county behavioral health director in the county in which they operate. The provisions of this measure sunset on January 1, 2030.

SB 1238 (Eggman) (Chapter 644, Statutes of 2024)

Health facilities. This measure expands the definition of a “designated facility” or “facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment” for the purposes of an involuntary hold under the Lanterman-Petric-Short (LPS) Act to include additional facilities. This measure also, among other provisions, requires DHCS to issue guidance  regarding Medi-Cal reimbursement for covered Medi-Cal services provided to an individual receiving involuntary treatment for a severe substance use disorder

SB 1400 (Stern) (Chapter 647, Statutes of 2024) – CONCERNS

Criminal procedure: competence to stand trial. This measure requires hearings for misdemeanor incompetent to stand trial (IST) defendants to determine diversion eligibility, and if ineligible, to determine appropriate referrals. Amongst other provisions, this measure makes considerable changes to the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act data collection and reporting requirements. The measure requires that counties report specified data elements for both active and former CARE participants, and some of the added requirements are not Medi-Cal reimbursable activities, nor is some of the data accessible to counties.

HOMELESSNESS

AB 799 (L. Rivas) (Chapter 263, Statutes of 2024)

Interagency Council on Homelessness: funding: state programs. This measure requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) staff to develop and regularly maintain a strategic funding guide and calendar of new and existing homelessness funding opportunities and requires state agencies and departments administering homelessness programs to provide Cal ICH updated funding opportunity information on a quarterly basis. Beginning with fiscal year 2025-26, this measure also requires Cal ICH to collect fiscal and outcome data from state departments and agencies that administer funding to entities required to enter data into their local Homeless Management Information System. By June 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, this measure requires Cal ICH to aggregate the collected data and make it publicly available.

AB 1948 (Rendon) (Chapter 94, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Homeless multidisciplinary personnel teams. This measure deletes the January 1, 2025 sunset provision on existing law that authorizes the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Clara, and Ventura to expand the goals of the homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team to include facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of individuals at risk of homelessness to housing and supportive services. This measure also expands this authorization to the County of San Mateo.

SB 1415 (Glazer) (Chapter 798, Statutes of 2024)

CalWORKs: permanent housing assistance. This measure requires a county human services agency, beginning January 1, 2026, or on the date that the CalSAWS can perform the necessary automation, whichever is later, to modify the calculation for a family’s total month household income for the CalWORKs temporary or permanent Homeless Assistance (HA) program. Specifically, any amount that is regularly received from other government and nonprofit housing and homeless subsidy programs, and any regularly received private support intended or designed to help the family with housing, such as financial support from an individual outside the household would be included in the calculation to meet the applicants 80% income threshold The measure also prohibits the additional sources of income toward a family’s total monthly household income from being included in the calculation of the family’s income for purposes of calculating the amount of CalWORKs aid paid.

CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES

AB 866 (B. Rubio) (Chapter 936, Statutes of 2024)

Juveniles: care and treatment. This measure authorizes a dependent child of the juvenile court who is 16 years of age or older to consent to receive certain opioid disorder treatment, including medication, without the consent of their parent, guardian, person standing in loco parentis, or social worker, and without a court order. This measure also authorizes a social worker to inform a dependent child 10 years of age and older of their right to consent to certain health services, including reproductive and sexual health care services.

AB 1907 (Pellerin) (Chapter 944, Statutes of 2024)

California Child and Family Service Review System: Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment. Subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, this measure requires the California Child and Family Service Review System to include data from the CANS assessment tool and authorizes it to include other behavioral health data that is available and determined relevant by CDSS. In determining which data is relevant, the measure authorizes CDSS to consider feedback from stakeholders, including county representatives.

AB 2477 (Zbur) (Chapter 237, Statutes of 2024)

Foster care: independent living. This measure clarifies that a nonminor dependent who re-enters foster care with financial savings that make them ineligible for federal financial participation is eligible to receive aid through state Aid to Families with Dependent Children – Foster Care (AFDC-FC) if all other criteria are met. The measure also prohibits a county from re-evaluating a dependent’s resources for the same foster care episode.

AB 2484 (Bryan) (Chapter 965, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Courts: juveniles: remote proceedings. This measure exempts parents, children, nonminor dependents, and Indian tribes in juvenile dependency proceedings from being required to obtain the consent of all parties in order to utilize remote technology for the appearance of an expert witness. 

AB 2496 (Pellerin) (Chapter 403, Statutes of 2024)

Foster family agencies and noncustodial adoption agencies. This measure gives CDSS the authority to streamline the process of transferring resource family home approval from a Foster Family Agency (FFA) that closes to the county or another FFA, prohibits the use of certain types of indemnification contracts between counties and FFAs for two years, and establishes a process to find a solution to the lack of liability insurance options for FFAs.

AB 2664 (Bryan) (Chapter 412, Statutes of 2024)

Foster youth. This measure clarifies the dates a child will be deemed to have entered the foster care system for the purpose of establishing timelines for the purposes of reunification timelines. Specifically, the measure clarifies that when a child is returned to the home of the parent or guardian at the dispositional hearing and subsequently removed through a petition, the child shall be deemed to have been originally removed from the physical custody of their parent or guardian on the date they were taken into custody by the social worker via the subsequent petition.

AB 2802 (Maienschein) (Chapter 245, Statutes of 2024)

Transitional housing placement providers. This measure requires CDSS to update the regulations governing transitional housing placement (THP) living arrangement requirements for minors and nonminor dependents to allow a participant to share a bedroom or unit in a THP with a roommate, sibling, or co-parent regardless of gender identity. The measure also requires counties to allow THP providers and participants to make best matches to allow for gender flexibility.

AB 2830 (R. Rivas) (Chapter 417, Statutes of 2024)

Foster care: relative placement: approval process. This measure requires CDSS, on or before January 1, 2027, to adopt a simplified approval process for relatives to become foster care providers in alignment with federal regulations. This measure also requires CDSS, on or before September 30, 2026, to report to the Legislature for consideration the additional statutory changes required to fully implement separate resource family approval standards for relative caregivers.

AB 2906 (Bryan) (Chapter 623, Statutes of 2024)

Foster care payments. This measure, among other provisions, requires a county to act in accordance with specified guidelines and pursuant to certain requirements when acting as the representative payee or in any other fiduciary capacity for a child or youth receive federal Social Security Administration survivors’ benefits, including, among other requirements, ensuring that the child’s federal survivors’ benefits are not used to pay for, or to reimburse, the county for any costs of the child’s care and supervision. The bill would make these requirements operative January 1, 2025, or 30 days after the department issues the necessary all-county letters and informing materials to county placing agencies, whichever is later.

AB 2929 (Juan Carillo) (Chapter 845, Statutes of 2024)

Dependents: family finding. This measure requires the court, when conducting the periodic status review for a child or non-minor dependent who is not residing with relatives or kin to determine whether the social worker has made continuing efforts to locate any relatives or kin who could provide family support or possible placement. The measure also requires the social worker’s supplemental report for a child or non-minor dependent who does not reside with relatives or kin to include the active efforts made by the social worker to locate any relatives or kin. Finally, the measure specifies that the requirements of the bill also apply to nonrelative extended family members.

AB 2935 (Maienschein) (Chapter 846, Statutes of 2024)

Foster children: consumer credit reports. This measure revises requirements related to the placement of a security freeze, and the removal of a security freeze, on the credit report of a minor under the age of 16 years who has been placed in a foster care setting. This measure provides that a county welfare department or county probation department does not have the authority to request a security freeze for a protected consumer placed in foster care that continues beyond the protected consumer’s 18^th birthday.

AB 3145 (Bryan) (Chapter 976, Statutes of 2024)

Family preservation services: standards. This measure requires, by January 1, 2026, providers of family preservation services, at the time they are selected by a participating county, to provide services that are reasonable, meritorious, and that demonstrate cost effectiveness and success at avoiding or reducing the length of stay in out-of-home placements. The measure also establishes new requirements for a program to be deemed successful by a county and requires new information to be included in the annual reports submitted by counties. 

AB 3223 (Wilson) (Chapter 850, Statutes of 2024)

Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program. This measure expands the eligibility for the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program to youth who are subject to a juvenile court petition and who have been identified by a county child welfare agency, probation department, or Indian tribe, as being at imminent risk of removal and placement into foster care.

SB 1043 (Grove) (Chapter 628, Statutes of 2024) Short-term residential therapeutic programs: dashboard: seclusion or behavioral restraints. This measure requires operating STRTPs to provide specified information to a child subject to seclusion or behavioral restraints, their parent, foster parent, guardian, or tribal representative, and CDSS. This measure also requires CDSS to review all reported incidents, investigate any incidents that indicate a potential health and safety concern or licensing violation, and display data on its website specific to the use of seclusion or behavioral restraints in STRPS.

CHILD CARE AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

AB 1808 (Nguyen) (Chapter 356, Statues of 2024)

Childcare and development services: eligibility. This measure removes the 12-month requirement to re-certify eligibility for families receiving child care services through CalWORKs Stage One, Two, and Three programs. As a result, this measure aligns the CalWORKs child care eligibility period with other subsidized child care programs at 24 months.

AB 2343 (Schiavo) (Chapter 958, Statutes of 2024)

CalWORKs: childcare programs. This measure clarifies that an administrator of an alternative payment program or agency administering CalWORKs Stage One or Stage Two programs may utilize funds for administrative and support services to provide families at risk of homelessness or escaping domestic abuse a referral pathway to secure stable child care placement. The measure also authorizes the services in coordination with services provided by county human services agencies. 

AB 2967 (Ting) (Chapter 748, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED

Teacher Housing Act of 2016: nonprofit organization employees. This measure expands the types of educators eligible for a housing preference under the Teacher Housing Act of 2016 to include employees of nonprofit organizations operating early childhood, pre-kindergarten, or school-aged child care programs on school district property.

OTHER SOCIAL SERVICES

AB 262 (Holden) (Chapter 341, Statutes of 2024)

Children’s camps: safety and regulation. This measure, subject to an appropriation by the legislature, requires the California State Department of Social Services (CDSS) to prepare a report regarding approaches for children’s camp health and safety regulation oversight. In developing the report, CDSS is required to consult with a range of stakeholders, including local health departments.

AB 518 (Wicks) (Chapter 910, Statutes of 2024)

CalFresh: data. On or before July 1, 2025, this measure requires CDSS, in consultation with various stakeholders including county human services agencies, to develop a methodology for estimating the CalFresh participation rate and identifying characteristics of Californians who are eligible for CalFresh benefits, but not receiving them.  The measure also permits CDSS to identify data-sharing opportunities with other state and local public entities for the purpose of improving the administration of CalFresh.

SB 1089 (Smallwood-Cuevas) (Chapter 625, Statutes of 2024)

Food and prescription access: grocery and pharmacy closures. Among other provisions, this measure requires a county, after receiving notice of a closure from a covered grocery or pharmacy establishment, to provide information on safety net programs to the establishment for the establishment to share with the employees.

SB 1249 (Roth)(Chapter 337, Statutes of 2024) – SUPPORTED IN CONCEPT

Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act. This measure establishes a California Department of Aging (CDA)-led stakeholder process to identify core programs and services, develop objectives and performance measurements for those core programs and services, develop a consumer engagement plan, and update the intrastate funding formula for area agencies on aging (AAAs). In addition, it requires CDA to work with stakeholders to establish criteria for applying for a AAA designation and removing a AAA designation. Following the rulemaking process for that criteria, a county would be able to submit a letter of intent to be considered for designation.

SB 1254 (Becker) (Chapter 465, Statutes of 2024)

CalFresh: enrollment of incarcerated individuals. This measure requires CDSS to submit applicable waivers to the federal government to allow for the pre-enrollment of incarcerated individuals into the CalFresh program prior to their release from state prison or county jail. The measure requires CDSS to create a workgroup of various stakeholders, including a county human services agency representative, to develop recommendations for a state reentry process.

SB 1289 (Roth) (Chapter 792, Statutes of 2024)

Medi-Cal: call centers: standards and data. This measure requires counties operating call centers to collect and submit call-center metrics and DHCS to report on those metrics on a quarterly basis on its website.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE SERVICES

AB 869 (Wood) (Chapter 801, Statutes of 2024)

Hospitals: seismic safety compliance. Among other provisions, this measure authorizes a Distressed Hospital Loan Program recipient, a small hospital, a rural hospital, a critical access hospital, or a health care district hospital to seek approval from the Department of Health Care Access and Information for a delay to the January 1, 2030, deadline to comply with specified seismic safety standards.

AB 1005 (Alvarez) (Chapter 346, Statutes of 2024)

In-home supportive services: terminal illness diagnosis. This measure requires a hospital’s designated case manager or discharge planner, prior to discharging a Medi-Cal beneficiary diagnosed with a terminal illness from an acute care hospital, to evaluate the patient’s likely need for posthospital services and provide information about the IHSS program and application process to the patient.

AB 2471 (Jim Patterson) (Chapter 717, Statutes of 2024)

Professions and vocations: public health nurses. This measure deletes existing provisions relating to renewal of a certificate to practice as a public health nurse and states that a public health nurse certificate is not subject to renewal.

AB 2975 (Gipson) (Chapter 749, Statutes of 2024)

Occupational safety and health standards: workplace violence prevention plan: hospitals. This measure requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, by March 1, 2027, to amend the existing workplace violence prevention in health care standards to require licensed hospitals to implement a weapons detection screening policy that includes the use of weapons detection devices that automatically screen a person’s body at specified entrances. This measure also requires hospitals to adopt related policies for staffing, training, and signage requirements.

SB 819 (Eggman) (Chapter 819, Statutes of 2024)

Medi-Cal: certification. This measure clarifies existing Medi-Cal provider enrollment requirements so that a clinic operated by a county, which is exempt from licensure, is treated the same as a licensed clinic in being able to add an intermittent clinic site or an affiliated mobile health care unit operating as an intermittent clinic without needing to separately enroll the clinic or unit as a separate Medi-Cal provider.

SB 963 (Ashby) (Chapter 963, Statutes of 2024)

Hospitals:  self-identification procedure: human trafficking or domestic violence.

This measure requires general acute care hospitals with an emergency department to adopt and implement policies and procedures to facilitate the self-identification of an emergency department patient as a victim of human trafficking or domestic violence to hospital personnel.

SB 1132 (Durazo) (Chapter 183, Statutes of 2024)

County health officers. This measure authorizes a county or city health officer to investigate a private detention facility as they determine necessary.

SB 1180 (Ashby) (Chapter 884, Statutes of 2024)

Health care coverage: emergency medical services. This measure requires a health plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, to establish a process to reimburse services provided by a community paramedicine program, triage to alternative destination program, or mobile integrated health program. This measure also makes these services a covered Medi-Cal benefit and requires DHCS to establish Medi-Cal rates for these services, to the extent federal financial participation is available and the Legislature appropriates funding.

SB 1300 (Cortese) (Chapter 894, Statutes of 2024)

Health facility closure: public notice: inpatient psychiatric and perinatal services. This measure extends the public notice requirement when a health facility eliminates a supplemental service to be 120 days when it involves the closure of either inpatient psychiatric services or perinatal services. This measure expands the notice of closure to include data on the patients served and a justification for the decision to eliminate services and requires the hospital to hold a public hearing within 60 days of providing the notice.

SB 1333 (Eggman) (Chapter 472, Statutes of 2024)

Communicable diseases: HIV reporting. This measure allows confidential HIV reporting and data sharing for communicable diseases between state and local public health personnel and health care providers in order to facilitate care.

SB 1385 (Roth) (Chapter 164, Statutes of 2024)

Medi-Cal: community health workers: supervising providers. This measure requires a Medi-Cal managed care plan, no later than July 1, 2025,  to adopt policies and procedures to effectuate a billing pathway for supervising providers to claim for the provision of community health worker services to enrollees during an emergency department visit and as an outpatient follow-up to an emergency department visit.