The 2025-26 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 19, 2025 - Due to this policy change, and a decades-long effort to increase CalFresh en rollment, CalFresh caseload was at a then historic high prior to the COVID-19 public health crisis (about 2.2  million households in February 2020).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4971

The 2026-27 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 18, 2026 - As part of its oversight of the SNAP program, the federal government calculates the payment error rate, which measures the extent to which benefit payments are higher or lower than they should be based on individual household circumstances.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5126

The 2026-27 Budget: County Administration and H.R. 1 Implementation

Mar 5, 2026 - Research on the impacts of the SNAP work requirement indicate that it results in increased disenrollment, in part driven by otherwise eligible enrollees not complying with paperwork or tracking requirements (commonly referred to as “administrative burden ”).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5149

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Oct 2, 2024 - The federal Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023 mandated federal reimbursement of SNAP (or CalFresh in California) food benefit theft. States may use federal funds to replace SNAP benefits stolen through card skimming, cloning, or scamming from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2024.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4933/3

California’s Child Welfare System: Addressing Disproportionalities and Disparities

Apr 24, 2024 - This report examines disproportionalities and disparities across California’s child welfare system in terms of income and race/ethnicity. The report provides background on the child welfare system, describes child welfare system disproportionalities and disparities, and lays out potential drivers of these inequities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4897

The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Nov 6, 2023 - The federal Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023 mandated federal reimbursement of food benefit theft from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or CalFresh in California). The spending plan includes $31  million in federal funds for stolen food benefit reimbursements and $12  million in federal funds for county administration and automation related to this theft.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4812/3

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Welfare

Mar 3, 2026 - For the Behavioral Health Community-Based Organized Networks of Equitable Care and Treatment (BH-CONNECT) program, the implementation status of certain components —the joint behavioral health home visits and the activity funds initiative —is unclear.
https://lao.ca.gov/publications/report/5147

The 2024-25 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 16, 2024 - This post provides background and caseload trend updates for the state’s major food assistance programs--CalFresh and the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP)--and analyzes the Governor’s proposed food assistance budget, which includes no major new proposals.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4845

Nonreporting Entities' Information Security Compliance

Mar 30, 2023 - However, wages for entry ‑level IT specialist staff are at least 20  percent lower relative to the private sector in March  2021. Total compensation, including health care and retirement benefits, appears to be more comparable between private sector companies and state government, however.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4756

The 2023-24 Budget: Overview of Information Security Proposals

Mar 23, 2023 - How these smaller en tities will separate their IS and privacy officers and programs without additional funding is unclear. Shared IS Needs Identified, but Centralized Shared Service Contracts Not Yet Available.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4748