Legislative Updates

By Lydia Bourne, Legislative Advocate 10/24/2021

The Legislature officially ended on October 10th when the Governor signed
or vetoed all bills on his desk.

We were successful this year the 2021-2022 budget contained:

Office of School Based Health (OSBH) – will assist in the development of a
collaborative relationship between CDE and DHCS
Within OSBH will be the School Nurse Consultant (SNC) and the School
Health Demonstration Project –includes $5 million to assist LEAs in billing and
claiming LEA/MAA reimbursement

In the 2019 budget, there was a charge to assess and recommend programs and services that would improve the coordination and expansion of federal funds to address school health issues – through LEA BOP, SMAA and EPSDT. CSNO was represented on the work groups.

The SB 75 Workgroup submitted their report on October 1, 2021: The Part C to B for CA Kids Final Recommendations Report and Addendum have been submitted to the Legislature and Department of Finance and are ready for download at https://www.medi-calforstudents.org.

Also on October 13th a legislative hearing was held to discuss the SB 75 report:
The background paper for the hearing - https://aedn.assembly.ca.gov/sites/aedn.assembly.ca.gov/files/Briefing%20Paper_School%20Based%20Health_Oct%202021.pdf

AB 890 – removes physician supervision for NPs, the BRN and 2 workgroups are developing regulatory language. Should you wish to be involved, the next meeting is Oct 26th meeting – NP Advisory Committee Interested Parties Meeting
https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/meetings/npac_materials_oct21.pdf

Nov 4th meeting of the Advanced Practice Registered Nursing Advisory Committee
https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/meetings/aprnagenda_nov21.pdf

Sheri and I collaborated on a letter to the BRN relating to a request regarding
a child being administered medical cannabis in the school setting under an IEP.
We sent off this week a similar letter to the LVN board relating to the same case. Each board has been asked to determine “Does a registered nurse commit misconduct subject to disciplinary action when the nurse administers medicinal cannabis to a qualified patient student on a school campus pursuant to a physician’s care plan?”
We explained the difference between an RN, LVN and a school nurse and the Ed Code
requirements as well as NASN statement on SNs and the use of medical cannabis in the schools.

You are aware of the Governor’s notification on the mandate for all students to be vaccinated for school entry once the FDA and CDC approved the COVID vaccine by age:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/California-Becomes-First-State-in-Nation-to-Announce-COVID-19-Vaccine-to-List-of-Required-School-Vaccinations.pdf

Because this mandate will take effect through regulations, the PBE is back. Likely there will be legislation as some point to remove or change; at least there are discussions on this issue. Religious exemptions are also a topic of discussion.