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Approved Legislation - 2006

For further information regarding legislation see California's Legislative Information website which provides the bill's language, history, status, and analysis as provided by the California State Legislature. For further information regarding approved legislation, contact the Board office at (916) 574-7830.

You can download the current version of the Board's Statutes and Regulations Relating to the Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy, Educational Psychology, and Clinical Social Work. The Board's Statutes and Regulations contain sections of the California Business and Professions Code and the California Code of Regulations. The publication also contains miscellaneous code sections from the California Health and Safety Code and the California Welfare and Institutions Code.

The following legislation became effective January 1, 2006:

AB 1888 (Wolk)
This legislation creates consistency in the penalty structure for failing to make or for impeding a mandated report, such as child abuse or neglect, and elder or dependent adult abuse or neglect.

SB 229 (Committee on Professions and Vocations)
This bill extends the Board of Behavioral Sciences as a board through July 1, 2008; caps MFT pre-degree hours at 1,300; reorganizes and consolidates MFT experience provisions to make the law easier to read; reinforces the Legislature's intent that revocation be required after a finding of fact that a licensee or registrant had sexual contact with a patient; prohibits the board from staying the revocation; and defines "discovers" as the date the board received a complaint or a release of information from the complainant, whichever arrives later.

The following legislation of interest to the profession became effective January 1, 2006:

AB 776
This bill would permit mandated reporters of child abuse who are unable, after reasonable efforts, to submit a report by telephone to make an automated written report. It would also prohibit agencies that are required to accept reports of child abuse or neglect from refusing to accept a report. Additionally, it would require the Department of Social Services to report on the reasons mandated reporters stated they filed an automated written report in lieu of the initial telephone report.

AB 800
This bill would require all health facilities and primary care clinics to include a patient's principal spoken language on the patient's health records.

AB 1662
This bill would make various revisions generally conforming state special education law to federal requirements relating to pupil identification, assessment, and eligibility; IEP development, including notice, representation, and hearing procedures and requirements; and pupil data confidentiality.

SB 231
This bill would require an LEP, MFT Intern, or Associate Clinical Social Worker or his or her counsel to report to the BBS within 30 days any judgment, settlement, or arbitration award over $3,000, resulting from a claim or action for damages for death or personal injury, when the LEP or registrant does not possess professional liability insurance for that claim.
This bill would require an MFT, LCSW, or his or her counsel to report to the BBS within 30 days any judgment, settlement, or arbitration award over $10,000, resulting from a claim or action for damages for death or personal injury, when the MFT or LCSW does not possess professional liability insurance for that claim.

SB 726
This bill would authorize a court to order that a social worker conduct a home visit within 3 months of placing a child with a noncustodial parent and to file a report with the court after conducting that home visit. The bill would also require a social worker to provide a "Caregiver Information Form" to a caregiver of a child in order to provide information to a noncustodial parent who is seeking placement or custody of the child and to ensure that, if the foster parent completes the form, the completed form is returned to the court for review and consideration before the child is placed with the noncustodial parent.

Updated: January 28, 2008