(a)  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1)  Hearing loss occurs in newborns more frequently than any other health condition for which newborn screening is currently required.

(2)  Early detection of hearing loss, early intervention, and followup services before six months of age, have been demonstrated to be highly effective in facilitating the development of a child’s health and communication and cognitive skills.

(3)  The State of California supports the National Healthy People 2000 goals, which promote early identification of children with hearing loss.

(4)  Children of all ages can receive reliable and valid screening for hearing loss in a cost-effective manner.

(5)  Appropriate screening and identification of newborns and infants with hearing loss will facilitate early intervention during this critical time for development of communication, and may, therefore, serve the public purposes of promoting the healthy development of children and reducing public expenditure for health care and special education and related services.

(b)  The purposes of this article shall be to do all of the following:

(1)  Provide early detection of hearing loss in newborns, as soon after birth as possible, to enable children who fail a hearing screening and their families and other caregivers to obtain needed confirmatory tests or multidisciplinary evaluation, or both, and intervention services, at the earliest opportunity.

(2)  Prevent or mitigate delays of language and communication development that could lead to academic failures associated with late identification of hearing loss.

(3)  Provide the state with the information necessary to effectively plan, establish, and evaluate a comprehensive system of appropriate services for parents with newborns and infants who have a hearing loss.

(Added by Stats. 1998, Ch. 310, Sec. 23. Effective August 19, 1998.)