BBS strategic planning workshop debates DEIA wording, sets modernization priorities
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Summary
At a Feb. 19 strategic planning workshop the Board of Behavioral Sciences debated mission/vision wording and how to embed diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility across objectives, and directed staff to pursue administrative modernization (forms standardization, paperless processes, improved web resources) while developing measurable action plans.
The California Board of Behavioral Sciences spent large parts of its Feb. 19 public meeting in a facilitated strategic planning session to set priorities for a 2026–2030 plan. Facilitators from Solid, Sarah Irani and Tricia Saint Clair, led the board through an environmental scan, DEIA training, and iterative drafting of objectives across administrative, licensing, examinations, enforcement, outreach and legislative goal areas.
Much of the conversation centered on how explicitly to include diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) in the board’s mission and objectives. Board members debated whether to retain the word "competent" in the mission (a legally grounded term used across licensing functions) or to adopt aspirational phrasing such as "highest quality" in the vision. Several members pushed to insert "culturally responsive" language and to require that objectives carry a DEIA lens rather than a single, perfunctory reference.
On administrative modernization, staff proposed a set of measurable objectives: update and standardize board forms for clarity and accessibility; transition external and internal processes toward paperless and accessible operations where feasible; create communication and language protocols; and establish internal audits of workflows to identify processing inefficiencies. Board members pressed staff to build measurable outcomes (for example, tracking form updates, language access and user-experience benchmarks) and asked that language access (Spanish, Mandarin and other priority languages) and accessibility features be explicitly considered when redesigning web and forms.
Board members and staff agreed to record detailed action plans that assign tasks, set deadlines and provide a public tracker the board can review — a step intended to keep objectives practical and to allow the board to evaluate progress without repeatedly revising the strategic plan itself. Staff said the action-plan tracker will include tasks, deadlines and status updates and will be available for board oversight.
Facilitators asked the board to refine language offline with staff and legal counsel where necessary; several items — notably how to describe DEIA commitments and whether to set hard deadlines for the paperless transition — were earmarked for follow-up and wordsmithing before a final draft is returned to the board for approval.
