Bill Text: CA AB3229 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project: report.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-09 - Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. [AB3229 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB3229-Amended.html

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 18, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 3229


Introduced by Assembly Member Lee

February 16, 2024


An act to amend Section 16521.6 10072.3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to public social services. CalFresh.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 3229, as amended, Lee. Foster care. California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project: report.
Existing federal law establishes the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law establishes a statewide electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system, administered by the State Department of Social Services, for the purpose of providing financial and food assistance benefits, including CalFresh benefits.
Existing law establishes the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project and requires the department, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture and specified stakeholders, to include within the EBT system a supplemental benefits mechanism that allows an authorized retailer to deliver and redeem supplemental benefits. Existing law requires the department to submit a report to the Legislature by March 1, 2026, regarding the transition of the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project to a supplemental benefits program that is fully state managed, without grantee intermediaries, as specified. Existing law specifies that the pilot project is to remain in effect until January 1, 2027, and is repealed as of that date.
This bill would instead require the department to submit the report to the Legislature regarding the transition of the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project to a supplemental benefits program that is fully state managed, without grantee intermediaries, by January 1, 2025.

Existing law requires each county to develop and implement a memorandum of understanding, with specified components, setting forth the roles and responsibilities of agencies and other entities that serve children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma.

This bill would require counties to develop and implement that memorandum of understanding by January 1, 2026. To the extent the bill imposes a higher level of service on counties, the bill imposes a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YESNO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 10072.3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:

10072.3.
 (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project.
(b) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Authorized pilot retailer” means any retail establishment that is authorized to accept CalFresh benefits, including, but not limited to, grocery stores, corner stores, farmers’ markets, farm stands, and mobile markets.
(2) “Fresh fruits and vegetables” means any variety of whole or cut fruits and vegetables without added sugars, fats, oils, or salt and that have not been processed with heat, drying, canning, or freezing.
(3) “Supplemental benefits” means additional funds delivered to a CalFresh recipient’s EBT card upon purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables using CalFresh benefits, and to be redeemed only for purchases allowed under the CalFresh program at an authorized retailer.
(c) The department, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, county CalFresh administrators, and stakeholders with experience operating CalFresh nutrition incentive programs, shall include within the EBT system a supplemental benefits mechanism that allows an authorized pilot retailer to deliver and redeem supplemental benefits. The supplemental benefits mechanism shall be compatible with operational procedures at farmers’ markets with centralized point-of-sale terminals and at grocery stores with integrated point-of-sale terminals. The supplemental benefits mechanism shall ensure all of the following:
(1) Supplemental benefits can be transferable across any CalFresh program authorized retailer.
(2) Supplemental benefits can be accrued, tracked, and redeemed by CalFresh recipients in a seamless, integrated process through the EBT system.
(3) Supplemental benefits can only be accrued by CalFresh recipients through the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables from an authorized pilot retailer.
(4) Supplemental benefits can only be redeemed to make eligible purchases under the CalFresh program from an authorized retailer.
(5) The supplemental benefits mechanism complies with all applicable state and federal laws governing procedures to ensure privacy and confidentiality.
(6) Authorized pilot retailers that use EBT-only point-of-sale terminals, such as farmers’ markets, and those that use integrated point-of-sale terminals, such as grocery stores, shall be able to integrate the new supplemental benefits mechanism into their existing systems, including the free state-issued hardware provided to certified farmers’ markets and farmers.
(7) The supplemental benefits mechanism provides a CalFresh benefits to supplemental benefits match ratio of at least 1:1.
(8) A CalFresh household may only accrue up to a limited amount of supplemental benefits, as determined by the department.
(9) There shall be no expiration date for use of supplemental benefits, but the benefits may be expunged in accordance with federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations.
(d) There is hereby created in the State Treasury the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Grant Fund. The fund shall consist of moneys from state, federal, and other public and private sources to provide grants pursuant to subdivision (e).
(e) Upon the deposit of sufficient moneys into the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Grant Fund, as determined by the department, and upon the appropriation of moneys from the fund by the Legislature for this purpose, the department shall provide grants for pilot projects to implement and test the supplemental benefits mechanism in existing retail settings. The goal of the pilot project is to develop and refine a scalable model for increasing the purchase and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by delivering supplemental benefits to CalFresh recipients in a way that can be easily adopted by authorized retailers of various types, sizes, and locations in the future. The department, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, shall develop and adopt guidelines for awarding the grants, which shall include, at a minimum, all of the following requirements:
(1) (A) A minimum of three grants shall be awarded to nonprofit organizations or government agencies.
(B) At least one of the grants shall provide the ability to test the supplemental benefit mechanism at farmers’ markets. A farmers’ market that operates a centralized point-of-sale terminal and a scrip system and that also participates as a pilot project pursuant to this section may disburse scrips for supplemental benefits and for fresh fruits and vegetables concurrently.
(2) Selection criteria shall require that grant applicants demonstrate all of the following:
(A) Previous experience and effectiveness in administering CalFresh nutrition incentive programs, or similar supplemental benefits programs.
(B) Partnership commitment from at least one existing authorized retailer that already accepts CalFresh benefits and sells fresh fruits and vegetables.
(C) Ability to ensure that supplemental benefits are only accrued and delivered when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables with CalFresh benefits and will be used only to make purchases authorized under the CalFresh program.
(D) Status as a nonprofit organization or government agency.
(E) Ability to provide the minimum data deemed necessary for the department to successfully evaluate the pilot project, as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (f).
(F) Any other criteria that the department deems necessary for successful pilot project implementation, such as the level of need in the community, the size of the CalFresh population, and the need for geographic diversity.
(3) Grantees shall be responsible for all of the following:
(A) Securing the commitment of at least one authorized retailer willing to participate in the pilot project.
(B) Conducting community outreach.
(C) Providing evaluation data to the department.
(D) Ensuring the integrity of the pilot project following guidelines adopted by the department pursuant to this subdivision.
(f) (1) The department shall evaluate the pilot projects and make recommendations to further refine and expand the supplemental benefits mechanism. These recommendations shall also include a strategy for CalFresh client education, developed in consultation with county CalFresh administrators and advocates. The evaluation shall examine the efficacy of supplemental benefits accrual, delivery, and redemption from the perspective of CalFresh recipients, participating retailers, and state administrators. The evaluation shall also provide recommendations for further modifications that would make the mechanism easier for CalFresh recipients to use, for a variety of authorized retailer types to adopt, and for the department to administer. The department may contract with an independent evaluator to conduct this evaluation.
(2) Nine months after the department has received sufficient data to evaluate the pilot projects, but no later than September 1, 2025, the department shall submit a report to the Legislature that includes the results of the evaluation required pursuant to paragraph (1).
(3) (A) The department shall submit a report to the Legislature by March 1, 2026, January 1, 2025, pursuant to Section 9795 of the Government Code, on the timing and steps that would be necessary to transition the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project to a supplemental benefits program that is fully state-managed, state managed, without grantee intermediaries.
(B) The report to be submitted under this paragraph shall include, but is not limited to, scoping the staff or other resources and timelines for all of the following:
(i) Engaging with and enrolling interested retailers directly on an ongoing basis, if the state makes additional funding available for further expansion.
(ii) The staffing and technical resources needed by the Office of Technology and Solutions Integration to certify new retailers’ EBT systems when they are onboarded into the program.
(iii) Resources needed to align the EBT system and the California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS) to fully automate financial reconciliation of fruit and vegetable supplemental benefits as the program expands.
(iv) Expansion to include online CalFresh transactions and grocery delivery services.
(g) Notwithstanding any other law, all of the following apply for the purposes of this section:
(1) Contracts or grants awarded pursuant to this section shall be exempt from the personal services contracting requirements of Article 4 (commencing with Section 19130) of Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(2) Contracts or grants awarded pursuant to this section are exempt from the Public Contract Code and the State Contracting Manual, and are not subject to the approval of the Department of General Services or the Department of Technology.
(3) The state is immune from any liability resulting from the implementation of this section.
(4) Notwithstanding the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), the department may implement, interpret, or make specific this section without taking any regulatory action.
(h) Notwithstanding Sections 18927 and 11004, the supplemental benefits described in this section are not subject to recovery for an overissuance caused by intentional program violation, fraud, inadvertent household error, or administrative error, and are not subject to review under Section 10950.
(i) The supplemental benefits described in this section are not entitlement benefits, and the department shall provide those benefits pursuant to this section only to the extent that funding is appropriated in the annual Budget Act for purposes of this section.
(j) The department shall seek any necessary federal approvals to establish this pilot project.
(k)  This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2027, and as of that date is repealed.

SECTION 1.Section 16521.6 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
16521.6.

To ensure that coordinated, timely, and trauma-informed services are provided to children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma, all of the following shall occur:

(a)(1)By January 1, 2026, each county shall develop and implement a memorandum of understanding setting forth the roles and responsibilities of agencies and other entities that serve children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma. Participants in the development and implementation of the memorandum of understanding shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(A)The county child welfare agency.

(B)The county probation department.

(C)The county behavioral health departments.

(D)The county office of education.

(E)The regional center or centers that serve children and youth with developmental disabilities in the county.

(F)Foster care or other child welfare advocacy groups, as deemed appropriate by the organizations that will be parties to the memorandum, serving in an advisory capacity.

(2)The memorandum of understanding shall include, at a minimum, provisions addressing all of the following:

(A)Establishment and operation of an interagency leadership team.

(B)Establishment and operation of an interagency placement committee, as defined in Section 4096.

(C)Commitment to implementation of an integrated core practice model.

(D)Processes for screening, assessment, and entry to care.

(E)Processes for child and family teaming and universal service planning.

(F)Alignment and coordination of transportation and other foster youth services.

(G)Recruitment and management of resource families and delivery of therapeutic foster care services.

(H)Information and data sharing agreements.

(I)Staff recruitment, training, and coaching.

(J)Financial resource management and cost sharing.

(K)Dispute resolution.

(L)Processes, as developed through tribal consultation with the federally recognized tribes within each county, for engaging and coordinating with these tribes in the ongoing implementation of the memorandums of understanding described in this section.

(3)(A)No later than October 1, 2021, members of the interagency leadership team, or its designees, shall establish a process to provide, arrange for, or ensure the provision of, at least six months of family-based aftercare service to children and youth, as described in Section 4096.6, and acknowledgment that federal financial participation under the Medi-Cal program is only available if all state and federal requirements are met and the service is medically necessary.

(B)Members of the interagency leadership team described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2), or its designees, may, to the extent permitted by federal law, and subject to the limitations described in subparagraph (C), disclose to, and exchange with, one another information or a writing that may be designated as confidential under state law if the member of the team having that information or writing reasonably believes it is generally relevant to the identification, reduction, or elimination of barriers to services for, or to placement of, children and youth in foster care or to improve provision of those services or those placements.

(C)Members of the interagency leadership team, or its designees, who receive disclosed or exchanged information or a writing pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall destroy or return that information or writing once the purposes for which it was disclosed or exchanged are satisfied. The information or writing shall be used only for the purposes described in subparagraph (B). Any information or writing disclosed or exchanged pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection, unless the information or writing is aggregated and deidentified in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual who is a subject of that information or writing. Any discussion concerning the disclosed or exchanged information or writing during a team meeting shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.

(D)Members of an interagency placement committee, as defined in Section 4096, child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined in Section 18961.7, or child and family team, as defined in paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 16501, that is convened for the purpose of implementing the provisions of the memorandum of understanding developed pursuant to this subdivision shall comply with applicable statutory confidentiality provisions for that committee or team. Members of teams convened for purposes of implementing the memorandum of understanding shall comply with applicable records retention policies for their respective agencies or programs.

(4)To the extent possible, the implementation of the memorandum of understanding shall utilize existing processes and structures within and across the respective organizations that are parties to it.

(b)(1)(A)No later than June 1, 2019, the Secretary of California Health and Human Services and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall establish a joint interagency resolution team consisting of representatives from the State Department of Social Services, the State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of Developmental Services, and the State Department of Education.

(B)(i)The primary roles of the joint interagency resolution team shall be to develop guidance to counties, county offices of education, and regional centers with regard to developing the memoranda of understanding required by this section, to support the implementation of those memoranda of understanding, and to provide technical assistance to counties to identify and secure the appropriate level of services to meet the needs of children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma.

(ii)The agencies shall ensure that a process is developed for counties and partner agencies that are parties to the memorandum of understanding to request interdepartmental technical assistance from the joint interagency resolution team.

(2)(A)No later than January 1, 2020, the joint interagency resolution team, in consultation with county agencies, service providers, and advocates for children and resource families, shall review the placement and service options available to county child welfare agencies and county probation departments for children and youth in foster care who have experienced severe trauma and shall develop and submit recommendations to the Legislature addressing any identified gaps in placement types or availability, needed services to resource families, or other identified issues. The joint interagency resolution team shall update its review and provide recommendations to the Legislature no later than December 31, 2022, that take into account the specific needs and characteristics of youth with unplanned discharges from short-term residential therapeutic programs and youth for whom counties were unable to, or have difficulty with, securing placements and providing trauma-informed services, which may include, but is not limited to, as applicable, youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation, youth with acute behavioral needs, and youth with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The recommendations shall also articulate a statewide plan for any additional development needed for a trauma-informed, therapeutic continuum of care to support youth in-state in the least restrictive setting.

(B)A report submitted to the Legislature pursuant to this paragraph shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(3)No later than June 1, 2020, the joint interagency resolution team, in consultation with county agencies, service providers, behavioral health professionals, schools of social work, and advocates for children and resource families, shall develop a multiyear plan for increasing the capacity and delivery of trauma-informed care to children and youth in foster care served by short-term residential therapeutic programs and other foster care and behavioral health providers.

(4)(A)Members of the joint interagency resolution team described in this subdivision may, to the extent permitted by federal law, and subject to the limitations described in subparagraph (B), disclose to, and exchange with, one another information or a writing that may be designated as confidential under state law if the member of the team or committee having that information or writing reasonably believes it is generally relevant to the identification, reduction, or elimination of barriers to services for, or to placement of, children and youth in foster care or to improve provision of those services or those placements.

(B)Members of the joint interagency resolution team who receive disclosed or exchanged information, or a writing, pursuant to subparagraph (A), shall destroy or return that information or writing once the purposes for which it was disclosed or exchanged are satisfied. The information or writing shall be used only for the purposes described in subparagraph (A). Any information or writing disclosed or exchanged pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection, unless the information or writing is aggregated and deidentified in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual who is a subject of that information or writing. Any discussion concerning the disclosed or exchanged information or writing during a team meeting shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.

(5)The joint interagency resolution team shall track and report deidentified information of children and nonminor dependents in foster care who have been assisted to preserve, or secure new, intensive therapeutic options. This information shall be posted on the internet website of the California Health and Human Services Agency beginning July 1, 2022, shall be updated annually, and shall include the number of children and nonminor dependents served through its technical assistance process, characteristics of individuals served, and, as applicable, local and statewide systemic issues identified by the team.

SEC. 2.

To the extent that this act has an overall effect of increasing the costs already borne by a local agency for programs or levels of service mandated by the 2011 Realignment Legislation within the meaning of Section 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, it shall apply to local agencies only to the extent that the state provides annual funding for the cost increase. Any new program or higher level of service provided by a local agency pursuant to this act above the level for which funding has been provided shall not require a subvention of funds by the state or otherwise be subject to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.

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