Existing law establishes a State Department of Public Health within the California Health and Human Services Agency. Existing law requires the department to license and regulate clinical laboratories and various clinical laboratory personnel, including medical laboratory technicians. Existing law prohibits a person from operating a school, as defined, or conducting any course for the purpose of training or preparing persons to perform duties subject to those provisions, as specified, without having first secured the approval of the department. Existing law imposes on the department specified duties related to the approval and regulation of schools and clinical laboratory scientist programs for instruction in clinical laboratory technique.

This bill would authorize the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a grant program to provide funding to schools training programs that both offer training programs for clinical laboratory scientists or medical laboratory technicians, and are approved by the department or accredited by a recognized accrediting program approved by the department. The bill would also authorize the department to award grants to those schools training programs in the amount of no more than $600,000, to be used within 3 years of receiving a grant.