These are certainly unusual times in Sacramento. With the Senate back in session as of Monday, May 11th and the Assembly the prior Monday, our legislators are back at work either in the Capitol wearing masks and practicing physical distancing, or participating from home via Zoom calls.
Many of the bills that were introduced this legislative session will die for lack of a hearing, as bills that deal with the coronavirus take priority and legislators have been asked to pull all but the most crucial bills.
Here are a few bills that California State PTA has taken a position on that are still active:
Support Position
- AB 1835 (Weber) – Would require unspent supplemental and concentration funds to be used in subsequent years to increase and improve services for the unduplicated pupils generating those funds.
- AB 1837 (Smith) – Would require the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish an emergency response team to serve as a liaison and provide guidance and support to local educational agencies (LEAs) during emergencies such as a natural disaster, planned safety power shutoff, safety threats, and other declared states of emergency.
- AB 1982 (Cunningham) – Would allow teacher credential candidates to use qualifying coursework to satisfy the State’s basic skills test requirement.
- AB 2051 (Reyes) – Would protect the strong connection between foster siblings by including them into the visitation provisions provided in current law.
- AB 2558 (Reyes) and SB 1140 (Caballero) – Would establish the Child Poverty Tax Credit to end deep child poverty in California by providing a credit to families living at 50% of the California poverty level.
- AB 2581 (Reyes) – Established the Dept. of Early Child Development to put all early learning and care programs under one umbrella within the California Health & Human Services Agency to improve service coordination and delivery for children, families and providers.
- SB 793 (Hill) – Prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products
- SB 805 (Portantino) – Would prohibit a district from requiring an employee to use sick leave if the school is forced to close because of a natural disaster or evacuation or if the employee is unable to report to work because they reside in an area affected by a natural disaster. It would also ensure districts receive their ADA funding under these circumstances and the school must close.
- SB 855 (Wiener) – Requires insurance companies to provide additional care to children and families suffering from mental health or substance abuse issues. Expands the criteria for what mental health issues are covered under health insurance policies.
- SB 884 (Dodd) – Would establish a voluntary Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program for school districts that lost five or more instructional days due to emergencies and pay for summer programs to make up instructional time if money is appropriated in the budget.
- SB 943 (Chang) – Would authorize wage replacement benefits under the Paid Family Leave Program for workers who take time off to care for a minor child whose school has been closed due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
- SB 1383 (Jackson) – Would broaden The Family-School Partnership Act to apply to all parents of K-12 children and enable them to take time off to tend to child care responsibilities including a school-closure pursuant to a state of emergency declaration without fear of discharge or discrimination by their employer.
Please click here to read more on the California State PTA Advocacy pages.
Please click here to return to the blog homepage.