BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 578 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 17, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair SB 578 (Negrete McLeod) - As Amended: June 29, 2011 Policy Committee: Education Vote:10-0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: N006F Reimbursable: No SUMMARY This bill requires a school district and county office of education (COE) to accept coursework satisfactorily completed by a pupil in foster care while attending another public school, a juvenile court school, or a nonpublic school even if the pupil did not complete the entire course. Further requires the pupil receive full or partial credit for the coursework completed. Specifically, this bill: 1)Prohibits a district or COE from requiring the pupil in foster care to retake a course if the pupil has satisfactorily completed the entire course in a public school, a juvenile court school, or nonpublic school. 2)Prohibits the school district or COE, if the pupil did not complete the entire course, from requiring the pupil to retake the portion of the course the pupil completed, unless the district or COE finds the pupil reasonably able to complete the requirements in time to graduate from high school, as specified. 3)States a pupil in foster care is not prevented from retaking or taking a course to meet eligibility requirements of the University of California or California State University. FISCAL EFFECT Minor, absorbable GF/98 state mandated costs to implement this measure. Current law requires each public school and COE to accept credit for full or partial coursework satisfactorily completed by pupils, including foster care pupils. This bill SB 578 Page 2 simply clarifies these provisions, as specified. COMMENTS 1)Background . Current law requires each public school district and COE to accept for credit full or partial coursework satisfactorily completed by a pupil while attending a public school, juvenile court school, or a nonpublic school/agency. Statute further requires the coursework to be transferred via a transcript. This provision is located in the statutes governing juvenile court schools; the Superintendent of Public Instruction, however, issued a statewide advisory in June 2007 indicating this statute applies to all pupils, regardless if they are attending juvenile court schools. 2)Rationale . As of January 2011, there were 61,000 foster children in California. Of these children, 42,121 (69%) are school age. Several research studies have documented the impacts school mobility has on the educational success of foster children. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) policy brief entitled: Educating Children in State Foster Care (March 2008), "An estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of children and youth who enter the foster care system must change schools. One study found that almost 65% of children entering foster care had to transfer to a new school in the middle of the school year." According to the author, "While statute requires credits to be accepted, there is nothing in statute requiring that schools to apply the accepted credits towards the core curriculum and graduation requirements. Often the transferred credits are applied towards elective requirements rather than to the core curriculum, i.e. partial Algebra 1 credits are applied as credits toward the elective requirement, instead of being applied towards the core math requirement. This practice often results in foster youth lagging behind their peers losing months of academic progress with each change in school placement through no fault of their own. In order to ensure that these youth continue to advance academically, it is vital that school districts provide opportunities for them to earn the credits they are missing." 3)AB 490 (Steinberg), Chapter 862, Statutes of 2003 , instituted a number of reforms designed to promote school stability and SB 578 Page 3 ensure that pupils residing in foster care have a meaningful opportunity to meet the academic achievement standards to which all students are held. For example, this measure required each county COE to appoint a staff person to act as education liaison for foster youth. Among this staff person's responsibilities is to facilitate the prompt transfer of educational records between educational institutions when placement changes are necessary. Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 319-2081