Legislative Updates

 This legislative year, Seneca is supporting: 

• Assembly Bill (AB) 1470 (Quirk-Silva), a bill that will standardize Medi-Cal documentation across all counties
• AB 2173 (Addis), a bill that allows school staff to use the term “emotional disability” rather than “emotional disturbance” when describing youth who are eligible for certain services under state law
• AB 2224 (Santiago), a bill that expands services to youth with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
• AB 2508 (McCarty), a bill that expands foster youth eligibility for CalKIDS college saving funds
• AB 2544 (Low), a bill that address current workforce shortages by allowing Short Term Residential Therapeutic Programs (STRTPs) to hire individuals who come from out of state prior to their out-of-state background check being cleared so long as they are not left alone with youth
• AB 2711 (Ramos), a bill that requires schools to take a public health approach when students are found using substances on campus, before suspending or expelling students
• AB 2752 (Calderon), a bill that requires juvenile courts to order unsupervised visitation when a child is removed from their home unless there is a factual basis to order supervised visitation
• AB 2802 (Maienschein), a bill that allows for gender flexibility in Transitional Housing Programs
• Senate Bill (SB) 9 (Cortese), a bill that establishes the Raising the Age for Extended Foster Care Pilot Program Act
• SB 294 (Wiener), a bill that establishes an automatic grievance process and automatic Independent Medical Review (IMR) when insurance plans refuse to pay for mental health and substance use disorder services

Seneca centers our legislative engagement in our Policy Priorities and staff voice. If you have any questions about our policy work or legislative efforts, please reach out to our Policy Advocate, Esperanza, at [email protected]

Seneca & Current LGBTQ+ Policies

Seneca is continuing to monitor current legislative efforts that seek to impact the LGBTQ+ community negatively.

In recent months, several California school districts have adopted Parental Notification policies that will require staff to notify parents and caregivers when their student is exploring their gender identity, ask to use a name or pronoun different than what was assigned at birth, and/or engage in activities or use spaces designed for the opposite sex.

While some school districts have made their Parental Notification policy explicitly about gender and gender identity, other school districts have made Parental Notification about mental health along with the argument that Gender Dysphoria is a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5^th edition and therefore a student’s gender identity and exploration can be disclosed under Parental Notification policies centered on mental health.

As a result, Seneca has ramped up their local advocacy efforts and is advocating for Parental Notification policies to contain explicit protections for LGBTQ+ students.

Check out our advocacy tool kit to learn more about how you can get involved in this issue.

Legislative Resources

To learn more about California’s legislative and budget cycle, check out the California Budget and Policy Center. You can also look up your California State representatives here. In Washington, you can submit a comment of support for or opposition to a bill by searching the bill number on the Washington State Legislature site; you can also find your state representative there.