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OT board to 'watch' AB 1991 after privacy and implementation concerns over demographic data collection
Summary
The board recommended watching AB 1991, a bill to require workforce demographic data from licensees, citing concerns about mandatory disclosure, privacy for sensitive fields, and an apparent conflict in the bill text about whether licenses can be denied for non-disclosure.
The California Board of Occupational Therapy decided May 3 to take a neutral 'watch' position on AB 1991, a bill that would collect workforce demographic information from licensees. Board members and staff raised privacy and operational questions about the bill’s text, which on one page appears to require specified demographic information and on another states that boards may not deny license applications solely because an applicant declines to provide that data.
Board members asked staff to request clarification from the bill’s authors on how the apparent conflict should operate in practice. Heather Martin, a staff member, told the board that Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) current practice includes a 'decline to state' option and that aggregate reporting is used so individual answers would not be identifiable in board reports.
Members noted the value of demographic data to target scholarships and outreach to underserved groups but also voiced concern about compelling disclosure of sensitive information such as sexual orientation or gender identity. The board’s action was to 'watch' and, if necessary, request clarification of the language from the authors; no formal letter of support or opposition was adopted.
