(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(1) Every year 70 adolescents die from work injuries in the United States and 200,000 are injured, 70,000 seriously enough to require hospital treatment. Most of these injuries are preventable.

(2) A recent report by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council has brought national attention to the need for better education and interventions to aid injury and illness prevention efforts aimed at young workers.

(3) Since 1996, the California Study Group on Young Workers’ Health and Safety, consisting of 30 representatives from key agencies and organizations involved with California youth employment and education issues, including representatives from government agencies, business, labor, parent and teacher organizations, and others, has met to develop recommendations to better protect and educate California’s young workers.

(4) The study group recommended the establishment of a Resource Network on Young Workers’ Health and Safety, to assist in increasing the ability of young workers and their communities to identify and address workplace hazards in order to prevent young workers from becoming injured or ill on the job.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Industrial Relations, the University of California, the State Department of Education, the State Department of Health Services, and the Employment Development Department cooperatively and individually conduct activities aimed at the prevention of occupational injuries and illnesses among young workers.

(c) The Department of Industrial Relations shall contract with a coordinator to establish a statewide young worker health and safety resource network. The primary function of the resource network shall be to assist in increasing the ability of young workers and their communities statewide to identify and address workplace hazards in order to prevent young workers from becoming injured or ill on the job. The network shall coordinate and augment existing outreach and education efforts and provide technical assistance, education materials and other support to schools, job training programs, employers and other organizations working to educate students and their communities about workplace health and safety and child labor laws.

(d) The resource network shall provide, and the lead center shall coordinate, services to all key groups throughout the state involved in education and protecting young workers, including, but not limited to:

(1) Teachers.

(2) Schools.

(3) Job training programs.

(4) Employers of youth.

(5) Parent groups.

(6) Youth organizations.

(7) Work permit issuers.

(e) The resource network shall be advised by a statewide advisory group, including, but not limited to, representatives from the Department of Industrial Relations, the Commission on Health and Safety and Worker’s Compensation, the University of California, the State Department of Education, the Department of Health Services, and the Employment Development Department, as well as business, labor, parents, and others experienced in working with youth doing agricultural and nonagricultural work. The advisory group shall represent diverse geographic regions of the state.

(f) This section shall be implemented subject to the availability of funding for the purposes of this section in the 2000–01 Budget Act.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 598, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001.)