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Committee advances bill to repeal CalWORKs immunization documentation penalty
Summary
SB 290 (listed as SB 2 90 in committee) would repeal the CalWORKs sanction that reduces aid when families lack acceptable immunization documentation for children; supporters said the penalty disproportionately harms low-income families and does not improve vaccination rates.
Senator Smallwood Cuevas presented SB 290 to the Assembly Human Services Committee, seeking to repeal the CalWORKs immunization penalty that reduces cash assistance when families cannot provide required immunization documentation.
The author said the penalty can reduce a family's grant by up to $235 monthly and that Sanctions disproportionately affect Black and Latina single-parent households who already face economic insecurity. She and witnesses said families sometimes receive vaccines at clinics or pop-up events that do not issue documentation in a county’s required format, resulting in sanctions despite children being vaccinated.
"This bill seeks to repeal burdensome CalWORKs financial sanctions on families already experiencing poverty," Yesenia Jimenez of Child Poverty California said. She told the committee that sanctions can remove up to one-fifth of a family's CalWORKs benefits and that roughly 3,000 adults annually experience such reductions because of the immunization sanction.
Louann Nguyen of the Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations said sanctions compound hardship, destabilize families and, in some cases, contribute to family separation and child-welfare involvement. She described program participants as low-income and urged a two-generation approach to reduce punitive barriers.
Supporters also included Western Center on Law and Poverty, SEIU California and the County Welfare Directors Association. No witnesses testified in opposition during the hearing.
The committee voted to pass SB 290 as amended to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The author accepted committee amendments.
Votes at a glance: the committee passed SB 290 as amended to the Assembly Appropriations Committee (final vote: 7–0).
