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
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          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 








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            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