Bill Text: CA AB366 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: County human services agencies: workforce development.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-11 - Read second time. Ordered to third reading. [AB366 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB366-Introduced.html
Bill Title: County human services agencies: workforce development.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-11 - Read second time. Ordered to third reading. [AB366 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB366-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 366
| Introduced by Assembly Member Petrie-Norris |
February 01, 2023 |
An act relating to human services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 366, as introduced, Petrie-Norris.
Human services.
Existing law generally provides for various human services, including public social services, developmental services, and mental health services.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to improve and increase recruitment and retention of county human services staff to support county operations.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) County human services agencies are struggling, like many other service sectors, to recruit and retain staff due to competition with other industries for a limited supply of workers.
(b) A human services labor shortage impacts all program areas, including child welfare and foster care services, adult protective services, in-home supportive services, Medi-Cal eligibility, California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program (CalWORKs), CalFRESH, and housing and homelessness services. This threatens the ability of counties to deliver critical public safety net services, which in turn threatens the ability
of counties to meet their federal and state mandates and implement new federal and state initiatives to eliminate poverty and protect children and older adults from abuse and neglect.
(c) Many county human services agencies are experiencing significant staff vacancies and turnover, which can undermine counties’ efforts at system improvements across all programs and, in some instances, such as child welfare programs, can lead to fiscal sanctions for the state and counties.
(d) Higher employee vacancy rates and turnover among human services agencies impacts remaining staff who are taking on increasingly higher caseloads and workloads, resulting in worker burnout and further attrition.
(e) Constantly hiring new staff also has negative impacts, as those staff are less experienced and have less knowledge of complex
program requirements, which results in lost productivity as new workers take time to learn the work. County costs also have increased due to this turnover, requiring constant recruiting, hiring, and training.
(f) Many counties rely upon the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) and Merit System Services to recruit, screen, and hire county human services staff, and counties statewide regardless are all required to abide by certain policies put forth by CalHR in their screening and hiring practices.
(g) Post-pandemic labor shortages and recent investments in health and human services programs necessitate new and updated approaches in recruitment and retention of human services staffing in order to remain competitive with other industries.
