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. 








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          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. 















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