Bill Text: CA SB982 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: CalWORKs: maximum grant amount.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-06-27 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 26). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [SB982 Detail]

Download: California-2017-SB982-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 982

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Introduced by Senator Mitchell

February 01, 2018

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An act relating to public social services.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 982, as introduced, Mitchell. CalWORKs: grant amount.

Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing law specifies the amount of cash aid to be paid each month to CalWORKs recipients, including an allowance for recurring special needs, as specified.

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to the CalWORKs grant amount and makes related findings and declarations.

Digest Key

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

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Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program serves the poorest families with children in the state by providing a basic needs cash grant and support services for employment or job training.

(b) The current average CalWORKs grant for a family is 41 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and 23 percent of the supplemental poverty level.

(c) When children live in deep poverty, which is defined as living below 50 percent of the FPL, they endure hardships that will impair their ability to thrive by impacting their capacity to learn and develop, among many other harmful impacts.

(d) One study found that growing up in deep poverty more negatively impacts a child’s life chances than neonatal exposure to cocaine.

(e) One of the reasons that deep poverty is so dangerous for families with children is because it forces them to live in households where basic needs are going unmet. Children living in these conditions experience the depravity of not having their needs met and the toxic stress that results from chronically unmet needs.

(f) The accumulated burdens of toxic stress can literally rewire children’s brains, disrupting their ability to succeed in school and in life and increasing the likelihood of low educational achievement, unstable employment, adult poverty, chronic illness, adult mental health disabilities, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

(g) Unmet basic needs not only impact the physical and mental health of a child, but also their future potential. This is, in part, because parents who lack the resources to adequately care for their children are more likely to experience maternal or parental depression, a condition associated with reduced maternal-child interaction known to undermine school readiness among poor children.

(h) Deep poverty is also known to impair the development of young children’s brains in such a way as to reduce the ability of children to cope during difficult situations. Coping is the very skill they need most as a child living in poverty or a young adult trying to exit it.

(i) Research shows deep poverty damages the chance for children to escape poverty and achieve a better future. Forty percent of those born in deep poverty are in the bottom income quintile as adults, compared to 30 percent of the poor, but not deeply poor, and 18 percent of those born in the middle.

(j) California has the moral obligation and utilitarian imperative to establish a floor to CalWORKs grants, so that no child in the program is ever forced to endure the disabling effect of deep poverty and to ensure each child has a fair chance of escaping poverty.

(k) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to the CalWORKs grant amount.