Frazier bill increasing representation for individuals with disabilities on Apprenticeship Board signed by governor

SACRAMENTO – Last night, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1019 by Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay) that would add two additional seats to a statewide advisory committee on apprenticeships and had overwhelming and bi-partisan support in both the Assembly and Senate.

AB 1019 would add both the Director of Rehabilitation and the Executive Director of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities to the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeships (IACA). This move would be to specifically address job and apprenticeship rates for Californians living with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) by the creation of a subcommittee with that exact purpose.

“Since 2013, California has had an employment first policy for the IDD community,” Assemblymember Frazier said. “Yet California has seen minimal growth in the employment rate for persons living with disabilities despite continued economic growth since the great recession.”

The American Community Survey reports that in 2017, the employment rate of working age people living with a disability (ages 21 to 64) in California was 36.9 percent compared to the percentage of working age people without a disability which was 77.3, a stark difference of 40.5 percent. Additional data from 2017 shows that 23.1 percent of working age people living with a disability on California are living in poverty.