California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - January 26, 2004

The year 2004 marks the beginning of a new era in our Division's ongoing Paraphrased Regulation (ParaReg) Project as we institute some changes in our maintenance procedures.

There will be two major changes.

First, we are committed to updating the ParaRegs on a far more frequent basis. Updates will occur on at least a bimonthly basis.

Second, we are changing the method for issuing "hard copy" versions of the Pararegs that have been added or revised. The responsibility for issuance is being shifted to the individual ALJ's regional office staff. We are doing this because Pat Coony has greatly simplified the process needed to issue the hard copy revisions. From now on, Regional Office staff need only log onto our revised Web page and identify the particular section of the pararegs they would like printed. There will be 85 different sections that could be identified. (For example, Medi-Cal Managed Care is one section, CalWORKs personal property is another.)

The advantage to this new process is that:

(1) Judges will have almost immediate access to revised pararegs since they will not have to wait for photocopying that had previously been done in Sacramento;

(2) There will no longer be any need to file and replace individual pages throughout their pararegs binder. Instead, an entire section will be replaced; and

(3) A Judge's system of notations to indicate which section is new or revised and where it could be found in his/her binder will no longer be necessary since the Judge will now be able to have the entire section replaced.

We will also notify each Judge both by email and the issuance of a Newsletter each time the ParaRegs have been updated. The e-mail and Newsletter will include the index reference for the specific paraphrased regulation that has been modified or added.

To print out the pertinent updated section, the Judge or support staff can:

1) Simply type in the following as the address for internet access:

www.dss.cahwnet.gov/shd/Paraphrase_1526.htm

2) Once on this page, click on ParaRegs Text.

3) Then go to desired program and you will see which section contains revisions as indicated by a date next to that section. Then click on the PDF icon to print the hardcopy for your binder.

To print out revised sections of the Index, simply click ParaRegs Index and find revised sections. You will find only one Cross Reference file that will need to be printed after each update.

The additions to the paraphrased regulations in the most recent update are the following:

Revised

New