AB 79 (Committee on Budget) - Expanding Criminal Diversions for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)

Conforms the criteria for IDD diversion to the current behavioral health diversion provisions by including specified felonies.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 860 (Berman) – Safe Voting for All

Requires county elections officials to mail a ballot to every registered voter for the November 3, 2020, statewide general election. The COVID-19 pandemic has a particularly detrimental impact on people with compromised immune systems and others with disabilities. Mail-in voting for every registered voter protects many voters with disabilities by allowing them to vote from home.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 1286 (Muratsuchi) – Regulation of Shared Mobility Devices (scooters)

Requires shared mobility service providers, such as scooter operators, to enter into an agreement with, or obtain a permit from, the city or county where they will be used, specifying operation, parking, and maintenance rules, and include commercial general liability insurance. Persons with disabilities, in the unregulated scooter market, are hindered and inhibited from using the sidewalks and other public rights of way because they have become so dangerous and inaccessible through the uncurbed growth of the scooter market.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 1993 (Kamlager) - Unemployment and Disability Insurance for In Home Supportive Services Providers

Expand eligibility for Unemployment Insurance (UI) to include providers of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and Waiver Personal Care Services (WPCS) who care for a spouse or a child. As California faces a profound homecare workforce shortage, our state must do everything it can to support family caregivers.
DRC Support. Vetoed.

AB 2213 (Limón) - Using Volunteers in Disasters Assistance

Requires the OES in coordination with volunteer organizations to develop planning guidance to identify volunteers and donation management resources that could assist in responding to or recovering from disasters. It also requires a city to enter into an agreement to access the contact information of resident account holders through the records of a public utility. The effective use of volunteers and donations augments the services nonprofits and government agencies provide during disasters.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 2512 (Stone) – Protecting People with Intellectual Disabilities from Death Sentences

Changes the definition of intellectual disability to include conditions that manifest before the end of the developmental period, as defined by clinical standards and prohibits the results of a test measuring intellectual functioning to be changed or adjusted based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or socioeconomic status.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 2542 (Kalra) – Bars Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

Bars state prosecutors and court officers from using discriminating means to seek or to obtain a conviction or criminal sentence and provides procedures for challenging discrimination in proceedings. Persons with disabilities, and particularly those who intersect with race and color are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. They bear the brunt of bigotry in a biased system.
DRC Support. Signed

AB 2782 (Stone) – Protecting Residents of Mobilehome Parks

Clarifies a local jurisdiction’s power to prevent the loss of low-income affordable housing by requiring an owner obtain approval for the conversion of parks containing low-income affordable mobile homes so that the conversion will not result in the loss of housing for low- and moderate-income households. It also requires the management of a mobilehome park to give homeowners at least 60 days notice if the management intends to change of use of the mobilehome park.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 3088 (Chu) – Protecting Tenants from Evictions Due to COVID

Protects many tenants, including mobile home park tenants, from evictions in cases of non-payment of rent due to COVID until February 1, 2021 if the tenant pays 25 percent of the owed rent. It also provides assistance to small landlords through notices of forbearance during the pandemic. More work needs to be done in the upcoming session to extend the protections.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 3228 (Bonta) – Safer Private Detention Facilities

Requires any private detention facility operator to comply with, and adhere to, the detention standards of care and confinement agreed upon in the facility’s contract for operations and provides for civil causes of action and penalties. Facilities that do not comply with contractual standards of care pose significant risks to the detainees. When conditions in a detention facility fall below prevailing legal and other standards, it is people with disabilities who are among the most likely to suffer the harms.
DRC Support. Signed.

AB 3234 (Ting) – Expanding Criminal Diversions

Authorizes a judge in the Superior Court in which a misdemeanor is being prosecuted to offer misdemeanor diversion to a defendant over the objection of a prosecuting attorney and requires the judge, at the end of the diversion period, and if the defendant complies with all required terms, to dismiss the action against the defendant. Providing judges with the authority to use diversion that does not otherwise fit within current statutory requirements allows individuals accused of misdemeanor crimes the opportunity to participate and benefit from tailored diversion approach.
DRC Support. Signed.

SB 214 (Dodd) – Expanding the Medi-Cal California Community Transitions Program to Promote More Transitions from Institutions

Allows the State Department of Health Care Services to provide services consistent with the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration for transitioning eligible individuals out of an inpatient facility who have not resided in the facility for at least ninety consecutive days.
DRC Sponsored. Signed.

SB 803 (Beall) – Developing Statewide Requirements for Certifying Peer Support Specialists

Requires the state to establish statewide requirements for certifying peer support specialists helping expand the workforce of people who can respond to the state’s mental health crisis.
DRC Support. Signed.

SB 823 (Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Committee) – Realigning Juvenile Justice Realignment from the State to Counties

Establishes a Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant program to provide county-based custody, care, and supervision of youth who are realigned from the Division of Juvenile Justice and would have otherwise been eligible for commitment to the Division.
DRC Support. Signed.

SB 855 (Wiener) – Expanding Parity in Mental Health Plans

Requires commercial health insurers to pay for medically necessary treatment of any behavioral health or substance use disorder listed in the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association manual that defines mental health conditions.
DRC Support. Signed.