BILL ANALYSIS
AB 81
Page A
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 81 (Audra Strickland)
As Amended April 14, 2009
Majority vote
EDUCATION 11-0
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, | | |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | | |
| |Buchanan, Carter, Eng, | | |
| |Garrick, Miller, Solorio, | | |
| |Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Provides that a foster child who changes residences
pursuant to a court order or decision of a child welfare worker
is immediately deemed to have met all residency requirements for
participation in interscholastic sports or other extracurricular
activities.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Recognizes that the California Interscholastic Federation
(CIF) is a voluntary organization that consists of school and
school-related personnel with responsibility for administering
interscholastic athletic activities in secondary schools.
2)Provides that all children in foster care shall have the right
to attend school and participate in extracurricular
activities, consistent with the child's age and developmental
level.
3)Requires educators, county placing agencies, care providers,
advocates, and the juvenile courts to work together to
maintain stable school placements and to ensure that each
pupil in foster care is placed in the least restrictive
educational programs, and has access to the academic
resources, services, and extracurricular and enrichment
activities that are available to all pupils.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
AB 81
Page B
COMMENTS : The CIF, established in 1914, is a voluntary
organization through which member high schools may mutually
adopt rules and regulations relating to interscholastic
athletics in grades 9 through 12, and may establish agreed upon
standards for various aspects of interscholastic athletics.
Member schools are responsible for monitoring and assuring
compliance with those standards, rules, and regulations, and
membership is contingent upon each school's compliance with the
rules and regulations of the organization's constitution and
bylaws.
CIF bylaws establish residential eligibility requirements for
interscholastic athletic participation. A student remains
eligible to participate in interscholastic sports when he or she
"changes schools with a valid change of residence by the
student's parent(s)/guardian(s)/caregiver provided there is a
valid change of residence."<1> A valid change of residence is
determined upon certain facts, including, that the "student's
entire immediate family must make the change and take with them
the household goods and furniture appropriate to the
circumstances."<2>
Students can obtain a "hardship waiver" of these transfer
eligibility requirements if there is "an unforeseeable,
unavoidable and uncorrectable act, condition or event, that
causes the imposition of a severe and non-athletic burden upon
the student or his/her family."<3> These hardship requests need
to have sufficient documentation to support the claim and to
receive approval.
Youth in foster care are frequently moved from one residential
placement to another resulting in frequent school changes.
Foster youth also generally move by themselves, and therefore
under the CIF bylaws, they are not immediately eligible to play
sports when they transfer to a new school. They can apply for a
"hardship waiver," but a student in the same circumstances who
moved with his or her entire family would not have to request
such a waiver, thus creating unequal treatment for youth in
foster care. This bill seeks to address this problem.
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<1> CIF Bylaw 206 www.cifstate.org
<2> Ibid.
<3> CIF Bylaw 208 www.cifstate.org
AB 81
Page C
In October of 2008, the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section found that a
high school student who had been in foster care since birth and
had moved to Auburn to live in a foster care placement with his
aunt and joined the football team had not been eligible to play
in the first five games of the football season at Placer High
School (PHS) because he had not submitted the "hardship waiver"
paperwork required by CIF bylaws. Consequently, PHS's football
team was forced to forfeit league wins they had earned, thus
disqualifying the team from the playoffs.
The PHS student challenged the CIF's decision in the Superior
Court in Alameda County, and on November 24, 2008, the Court
held in Dyer v. California Interscholastic Federation, et al,
Alameda County Superior Court Case No. RG08421517 that the CIF's
bylaws violated numerous provisions of California law and the
Constitution. The Court found that the CIF bylaws violate the
rights of foster youth to participate in age appropriate
extracurricular activities and school activities, as well as
provisions of the Education Code that ensure foster youth have
the same access to educational and extracurricular opportunities
as other pupils.
Furthermore, the Court held that the CIF's bylaws, which treat
foster youth different than youth living with their immediate
family, violate California's Equal Protection Clause. The Court
stated, "As the Bylaws are applied here, they serve to erect a
barrier to immediate participation for foster children who, by
virtue of being sent to a new foster home, must transfer to a
new school. Thus the Bylaws as applied to foster children
violate equal protection."
The basis for some of the strict eligibility requirements in the
CIF bylaws stem from concerns that students transfer schools for
athletic reasons. This argument does not apply to foster youth
given that foster youth can only move pursuant to a decision
made by a child welfare worker or juvenile court.
CIF is in the process of amending its bylaws and constitution to
address the issue of residential eligibility for foster youth.
Consistent with this bill, CIF Bylaw 206 establishing
residential eligibility, as proposed to be amended by CIF, will
stipulate that a student in foster care who has changed
residences pursuant to a court or a social worker order shall be
AB 81
Page D
immediately residentially eligible for interscholastic athletics
provided all other CIF rules and regulations are met.
The author states, "This bill will remove additional burdens on
foster children who already have to deal with numerous obstacles
and hardships due to frequent moves and school changes."
Analysis prepared by : Marisol Avi?a / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0000315