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Labor and Employment

Disability and Employment

California Workforce Inclusion Act CA AB 925

Summary based on Chaptered Version, No. 1088

The Legislature finds that since 1998 employment-focused reforms for adults with disabilities in the workforce have been enacted into Medicare, Medicaid, the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI), the Social Security Disability Insurance Program (SSDI), the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the Ticket to Work program (TTW) and U.S. Department of Education programs. The Legislature further finds that uninterrupted access to health care coverage and meaningful access to employment development services, as intended by the previously mentioned federal initiatives, are designed to increase employment options for Californians with disabilities.

This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, using existing resources, to create a sustainable, comprehensive strategy to accomplish various goals aimed at bringing persons with disabilities into gainful employment, which includes the following:

• Bring adults with disabilities into gainful employment at a rate that is as close as possible to that of the general adult population.

• Support the goals of equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for these individuals.

• Ensure that state government is a model employer of individuals with disabilities.

• Support coordination with benefits planning training and information dissemination projects supported by private foundations and federal grants.

Labor and Workforce Development Agency

This bill requires the Labor and Workforce Development Agency will monitor and enforce the non discrimination provisions established in Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, as well as require local workforce investment boards to report as follows:

• By July 1, 2003, each local workforce investment board shall report to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or its designated department on the steps it has taken to ensure compliance with Section 188 of WIA, as it applies to persons with disabilities.
• By October 31, 2003, each local workforce investment board that chooses to participate in the TTW program shall report to the California Workforce Investment Board on its readiness to meet the eligibility standards to serve as an employment network.

The Labor and Workforce Development Agency shall report of its findings to the Governor and the Legislature.

The California Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities

The bill requires the Governor to rename the existing California Governor's Committee on Employment of Disabled Persons in order to establish the "California Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities," within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

Membership on the California Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (CGCEPD) would include:

• Four individuals with disabilities representing disabled persons, two appointed by the governor and one each appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules and the Speaker of the Assembly.
• The directors of the departments of Employment Development, Health Services, Mental Health, Developmental Services and Rehabilitation.
• A representative from the State Department of Health Services' California Health Incentive Improvement Project.
• A representative from the California Workforce Investment Board.
• Representatives from any other department or program that may have a role in increasing the capacity of state programs to support the employment-related needs of individuals with disabilities.
• A representative from a local one-stop or local workforce investment board, to be appointed by the Governor.
• A business representative with experience in employing persons with disabilities, to be appointed by the Governor.

The CGCEPD shall:

• Select a chair from among the members, and hold an open meeting no less than quarterly.
• Consult with and advise the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the California Health and Human Services Agency on all issues related to full inclusion in the workforce of persons with disabilities.
• Report annually to the Legislature and the Governor on the employment status of Californians with disabilities.
• Provide support to the State Workforce Investment Board and the local one-stop centers in their efforts to achieve full compliance with Sections 18002, 18004, 18006, and 18008 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, as found in AB 925, and shall identify the extent to which any one-stops are not in full compliance with those sections and the reasons for the lack of compliance, including the need for additional resources.
• Meet quarterly with the California Health Incentive Improvement Project, administered by the State Department of Health Services, and the project's steering committee.
• Facilitate, promote and coordinate collaborative dissemination of information on employment supports and benefits, which shall include the Ticket to Work program and health benefits, to individuals with disabilities, consumers of public services, employers, service providers and state and local agency staff.
• Receive primary administrative and staff support from the State Employment Development Department.

In conjunction with the Department of Rehabilitation, to the extent that funds are available, the CGCEPD shall make grants available to counties and local workforce investment boards, through collaborative efforts of public agencies and private organizations in order to accomplish the following:

• To develop local strategies, including, but not limited to, regular cross-agency staff training, for enhancing employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
• To fund comprehensive local or regional benefits planning and outreach programs to assist individuals with disabilities in removing barriers to work.

This bill would require that workforce preparation services provided through California's One-Stop Centers, including electronic services, are accessible to employers and jobseekers with disabilities. In addition, this bill would require one-stop centers to provide appropriate services to individuals with disabilities to enhance their employability.

This bill would further require each local workforce investment board to establish at least one comprehensive one-stop center in each local workforce investment area. The local workforce investment board would have to impose several requirements in order to ensure that the one-stop centers provide services for persons with disabilities pursuant to WIA.

Under this bill, the local workforce investment board shall schedule and conduct regular performance reviews of their one-stop centers to determine whether the centers and providers are providing effective and meaningful opportunities for persons with disabilities.

One-Stop center counselor staff shall provide accurate information to beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income and the State Supplemental Program and Social Security Disability Insurance on the implications of work for these individuals. The information shall include, but not limited to, referrals to appropriate benefits' planners. One-Stop center staff shall also provide accurate information to individuals with disabilities on how they may gain access to Medi-Cal benefits in the California 250% Working Disabled Program.

The local workforce investment boards shall report to the Governor and the Legislature by September 30, 2004, on the status of one-stop services to individuals with disabilities and implementation of the Ticket to Work program in California.

If permitted by federal law, the California Workforce Investment Board and local workforce investment boards shall include persons with disabilities or their representatives, with a particular effort to include such persons who are not employees of the state or local government.

Personal Care Services

Personal care services, as defined in this bill, are available in the recipient's place of employment if the services are relevant and necessary in supporting and maintaining employment. However, workplace services shall not be used to displace any reasonable accommodations required of an employer by the Americans with Disabilities Act or other legal entitlements or third-party obligations.

Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Services known as personal care option services, and that are similar to those provided under the IHSS program, are provided under the Medi-Cal program to certain Medi-Cal recipients. These Medi-Cal personal care option services provisions are inoperative on July 1, 2002, and will be repealed on January 1, 2003.

This bill would extend the inoperative and repeal dates of these provisions to July 1, 2003, and January 1, 2004.

This bill would provide that personal care services under both the IHSS and Medi-Cal programs shall be available if the services are provided in the beneficiary's home or other locations as may be authorized by the Director of Social Services for the IHSS program and the Director of Health Services for the Medi-Cal program, including the recipient's place of employment if certain conditions are met.

Existing law specifies procedures under which personal care services meeting certain conditions, when provided to a categorically needy person, as defined, are a covered Medi-Cal benefit to the extent federal financial participation is available. Under existing law, these provisions become inoperative on July 1, 2002, and as of January 1, 2003, are repealed.

The bill would also delete the inoperative and repeal dates described above, thereby extending these Medi-Cal benefit coverage provisions indefinitely.

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