The corps shall do all of the following:
(a) (1) Administer and oversee scholarships and stipends for new reproductive health students, loan repayment for graduates who have acquired debt from attending a reproductive health professional school in the past, and other types of direct financial support for scholars, in exchange for a three-year term of obligated service in California at a corps-approved site.
(2) Pay a learning institution, teaching facility, or approved clinical training site directly on behalf of scholar, including for tuition, fees, facility costs, teaching costs, and preceptor time.
(3) Provide an annual payment for education-related costs and a monthly stipend to cover living expenses directly to a scholar. The corps shall consider family size and numbers of dependents when determining stipend amounts.
(4) Offer existing reproductive health professionals an option for loan forgiveness for each year of service.
(5) Offer scholars stipends or reimbursement for childcare, eldercare, housing, health care coverage with coverage for mental health services, and transportation to eliminate known obstacles of educational completion for scholars.
(6) Notwithstanding paragraphs (2) to (5), inclusive, scholarships, stipends, and obligated service shall be independently assessed for doula education due to the diverse pathways for education.
(b) (1) Identify and create opportunities for scholars to receive supplemental trainings in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, including miscarriage management, aspiration abortion, and medication abortion, through partnerships with and financial support for California-based external partners providing and enabling clinical abortion training.
(2) Identify and create a postgraduate practice integration and retention program by funding organizations providing technical assistance and support to scholars, placement sites, or both to support incorporation of abortion services at service site or into a scholar’s practice.
(3) The Legislature finds that external contracts are critically important to the success of the corps to supplement the lack of training in abortion currently available at medical, nursing, or health care professional schools and to support service integration and retention posttraining. Supplemental programs are needed for scholars to be adequately trained before graduation.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 561, Sec. 2. (AB 1918) Effective January 1, 2023.)