California Senate Bill SB1183 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: SB 1183AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 26, 2012 INTRODUCED BY Senator Lieu FEBRUARY 22, 2012 An act to amend Section  7503   4980.54  of the Business and Professions Code, relating to  repossessors   healing arts  . LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 1183, as amended, Lieu.  Repossessors: licensure.   Marriage and family therapists: continuing education.   Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of marriage and family therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and imposes continuing education requirements for license renewal. Existing law requires the board to approve continuing education providers and authorizes the board to revoke or deny the right of a provider to offer coursework if the provider fails to comply with specified requirements.   This bill would prohibit training regarding sexual orientation change efforts from being included in the approved continuing education coursework.   Existing law, the Collateral Recovery Act, authorizes the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services to license and regulate the persons engaged in the business of repossessing personal property. Existing law provides that a person who declares as true any material matter relative to the submission of an application for licensure, a qualification certificate, or application for registration that he or she knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor, and requires an applicant to sign his or her application for licensure and qualification certificate.   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.  Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  no   yes  . State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:  SECTION 1.   Section 4980.54 of the   Business and Professions Code   is amended to read:  4980.54. (a) The Legislature recognizes that the education and experience requirements in this chapter constitute only minimal requirements to assure that an applicant is prepared and qualified to take the licensure examinations as specified in subdivision (d) of Section 4980.40 and, if he or she passes those examinations, to begin practice. (b) In order to continuously improve the competence of licensed marriage and family therapists and as a model for all psychotherapeutic professions, the Legislature encourages all licensees to regularly engage in continuing education related to the profession or scope of practice as defined in this chapter. (c) Except as provided in subdivision (e), the board shall not renew any license pursuant to this chapter unless the applicant certifies to the board, on a form prescribed by the board, that he or she has completed not less than 36 hours of approved continuing education in or relevant to the field of marriage and family therapy in the preceding two years, as determined by the board. (d) The board shall have the right to audit the records of any applicant to verify the completion of the continuing education requirement. Applicants shall maintain records of completion of required continuing education coursework for a minimum of two years and shall make these records available to the board for auditing purposes upon request. (e) The board may establish exceptions from the continuing education requirements of this section for good cause, as defined by the board. (f) The continuing education shall be obtained from one of the following sources: (1) An accredited school or state-approved school that meets the requirements set forth in Section 4980.36 or 4980.37. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as requiring coursework to be offered as part of a regular degree program. (2) Other continuing education providers, including, but not limited to, a professional marriage and family therapist association, a licensed health facility, a governmental entity, a continuing education unit of an accredited four-year institution of higher learning, or a mental health professional association, approved by the board. (g) The board shall establish, by regulation, a procedure for approving providers of continuing education courses, and all providers of continuing education, as described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (f), shall adhere to procedures established by the board. The board may revoke or deny the right of a provider to offer continuing education coursework pursuant to this section for failure to comply with the requirements of this section or any regulation adopted pursuant to this section. (h) Training, education, and coursework by approved providers shall incorporate one or more of the following: (1) Aspects of the discipline that are fundamental to the understanding or the practice of marriage and family therapy. (2) Aspects of the discipline of marriage and family therapy in which significant recent developments have occurred. (3) Aspects of other disciplines that enhance the understanding or the practice of marriage and family therapy.  (i) Training, education, or coursework by approved continuing education providers shall not include sexual orientation change efforts. For purposes of this subdivision, sexual orientation change efforts, also known as conversion therapy or reparative therapy, means practices aimed at changing an individual's sexual orientation.   (i)   (j)  A system of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists shall include courses directly related to the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the client population being served.  (j)  (k)  The board shall, by regulation, fund the administration of this section through continuing education provider fees to be deposited in the Behavioral Sciences Fund. The fees related to the administration of this section shall be sufficient to meet, but shall not exceed, the costs of administering the corresponding provisions of this section. For purposes of this subdivision, a provider of continuing education as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) shall be deemed to be an approved provider.  (k)   (l)  The continuing education requirements of this section shall comply fully with the guidelines for mandatory continuing education established by the Department of Consumer Affairs pursuant to Section 166.  SECTION 1.   Section 7503 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read: 7503. An application for a repossession agency license shall be made in writing to, and filed with, the bureau in the form that may be required by the director and shall be accompanied by the original license fee prescribed by this chapter. The director may require the submission of any other pertinent information, evidence, statements, or documents. Every application for a repossession agency license shall be signed by the applicant and state, among other things that may be required, the name of the applicant and the name under which the applicant will do business, the location by number and street and city of the office of the business for which the license is sought, and the usual business hours the business will maintain. An applicant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to this section that he or she knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor. The residence address, residence telephone number, and driver's license number of each licensee, principal owner of each licensee, and any applicant for a license, if requested, shall be confidential pursuant to the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code) and shall not be released to the public. No license shall be issued in any fictitious name which may be confused with or which is similar to any federal, state, county, or municipal governmental function or agency, or in any name that may tend to describe any business function or enterprise not actually engaged in by the applicant, or in any name that is the same as or so similar to that of any existing licensee as would tend to deceive the public, or in any name that would otherwise tend to be deceptive or misleading. The application form shall contain a statement informing the applicant that a false or dishonest answer to a question may be grounds for denial or subsequent suspension or revocation of a repossession agency license.