BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair AB 194 (Beall) Hearing Date: 08/25/2011 Amended: 06/16/2011 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 10-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: AB 194 requires the California State University (CSU) and each California community college (CCC) district, and requests of the University of California (UC) to grant priority enrollment for registration to any current or former foster youth. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Mandate on CCCs Potentially significant reimbursable mandate General _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. Existing law requires the CSU and each community college district, and requests the UC to give priority for registration for enrollment to any member the Armed Services for any academic term attended at one of these institutions within two years of leaving active duty, if the institution already administers a priority enrollment system. (Education Code § 66025.8) This bill would require that priority registration for enrollment be extended to foster youth and former foster youth up to the age of 24, as well. The CSU has indicated that this change would result in only minor costs, absorbable within its existing resources and workload. The UC, which is requested to implement the provisions of this bill, has indicated that it would pass on that request to individual campuses. UC campuses would have the discretion to determine whether and how to implement this bill, and the UC estimates that campuses which choose to grant priority registration would incur minimal costs to do so. Both the UC and CSU currently grant priority registration to certain veterans, consistent with existing law. AB 194 (Beall) Page 1 Unlike the CSU and the UC, the CCCs can file mandate reimbursement claims through the state mandates claims process for requirements that constitute new duties or higher levels of service for their campuses. Requiring that an additional group of students be given priority registration could constitute a significant reimbursable mandate. For example, the CCCs could claim the costs of any reporting, database, or enrollment forms changes; any additional time spent registering foster youth or verifying former foster youth status; any costs associated with training registration clerks or developing additional processes. The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) has indicated that it considers this bill's requirements to be minor and implementation absorbable; further, that CCC campuses would add queries to existing forms, and any necessary updates would not incur additional costs. If no mandate claim is sought, there would be no additional state costs for this bill. Staff also notes that the CCCs did not file a mandate claim for the provisions of SB 272 (Runner, 2007) which set in statute the requirement to give priority registration to specified veterans. The state has not reimbursed the CCCs for any changes they may have made to implement that similar system. The CCCs continue, however, to sustain substantial budget reductions, and may be more likely to file claims in the future. It is also unclear how the costs could change in the future as additional categories of underserved students are added to priority registration groups. The specified subgroup of veterans in existing law, and the specified subgroup of (current and former) foster youth covered by this bill, are both small populations in the CCCs. If additional groups continue to be added in legislation, CCCs could eventually incur significant costs to work through the interaction of priority registration groups in a consistent way. AB 194 (Beall) Page 2