Existing law, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act of 1991, requires the State Department of Public Health to adopt regulations establishing a standard of care at least as stringent as the most recent United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screening guidelines. Existing law provides that the standard of care shall require a child who is determined to be at risk for lead poisoning to be screened. Existing regulations require every health care provider who performs a periodic health assessment of a child to order a child who receives services from a publicly funded program for low-income children to be screened for lead poisoning.
This bill would make it a goal of the state that all children at risk of lead exposure receive blood lead screening tests, and would require the department to take action, and to require local
agencies to take action, necessary to ensure these goals are met. By requiring local agencies to take action to meet these goals, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would require the department to annually notify health care providers who perform periodic health assessments for children about, and would require those health care providers to annually inform parents and guardians about, the tests.
Existing law requires the department to, by March 1, 2019, and by March 1 of each year thereafter, prepare and prominently post on its Internet Web site information that evaluates the department’s progress in meeting the program goals.
This bill would require the information to include a lead screening report aggregated to show the total number of children enrolled in Medi-Cal, and not enrolled in Medi-Cal, broken down by county and by year of age, who have
received and who have not received blood lead screening tests.
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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.