BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          SB 1568 (DeSaulnier) - Former Foster Children: School of 
          Attendance.
          
          Amended: As Introduced          Policy Vote: Education 8-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: May 24, 2012      Consultant: Jacqueline 
          Wong-Hernandez
          
          SUSPENSE FILE.  AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          
          Bill Summary: SB 1568 extends the duration of time that a pupil 
          who was in foster care may remain in his or her school of origin 
          after exiting the foster care system to the end of the highest 
          grade maintained at that school.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Potentially significant reimbursable state mandate for 
              local education agencies (LEAs) to train staff on 
              implementing the bill's provisions, including identifying 
              eligible students, verifying pupils' statuses, and 
              communicating the information to other LEAs, to the extent a 
              pupil exercises his or her new right to matriculate to a new 
              school with his or her peers.
              Potentially significant cost pressure to provide school 
              transportation. 

          Background:  Existing law provides that if the jurisdiction of 
          the court is terminated prior to the end of an academic year, a 
          foster youth must be allowed to continue in the school of origin 
          through the duration of the school year. If the foster youth is 
          transitioning between grade levels, including transitions to 
          middle or high school and even if the school designated for 
          matriculation is in another school district, the school district 
          must allow the foster youth to matriculate with his or her 
          peers. (EC § 48853.5(d)(2) & (3))

          Proposed Law: This bill requires an LEA to allow, if the 
          jurisdiction of the court is terminated, the former foster child 
          to continue his or her education in the school of origin through 
          the end of the highest grade maintained at that school. This 
          bill also requires that LEAs allow former foster youth (as is 








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          required for foster youth) to matriculate between grade levels 
          with their peers, including transitions to middle or high 
          school, even if the school designated for matriculation is in 
          another school district. This bill provides that LEAs are not 
          required to provide transportation to allow foster youth to 
          attend a school.

          Related Legislation: AB 490 (Steinberg) Chapter 862/2003 
          required LEAs to allow foster youth to remain in their school of 
          origin for the duration of the school year when their 
          residential placement changes.  

          Staff Comments: The requirements of this bill on LEAs will 
          likely constitute a state reimbursable mandate. The bill 
          specifies activities to be completed by LEAs, in order to ensure 
          a former foster youth's successful transition between schools. 
          LEAs will have to develop procedures for former foster youth who 
          wish to stay in their schools and matriculate to higher-grade 
          schools in the future with their peers. Staff in most LEAs will 
          likely need to be trained immediately on how to verify the pupil 
          information that entitles a student to stay within a district, 
          whether or not pupils exercise this right in large numbers. 

          Additional local costs and state cost pressures driven by this 
          bill are difficult to approximate because they will be 
          determined by individual decisions and actions. Approximately 
          17,000 foster youth ages 6-17 exit foster care in a given year. 
          Children younger and older than that age range exit, as well, 
          but it is unclear the degree to which the younger are in school 
          and to which the older would continue to be in their schools 
          beyond the end of the school year (which is already guaranteed 
          in current law). Of that population, this bill would only apply 
          to those pupils who: (a) exit foster care to a home that would 
          not be eligible to continue that pupil in the same school; (b) 
          wish to stay in their school of origin beyond the end of the 
          school year; (c) exit foster care and do not return to foster 
          care in the same placement or another in the same geographic 
          area; and, (d) are not already at the highest grade that the 
          pupil's school offers (or are also seeking to matriculate with 
          peers).

          This bill does not require LEAs to provide transportation to and 
          from school for former foster youth who choose to continue 
          attendance, but also specifies that it does not prohibit 








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          providing such transportation. To the extent that the same child 
          was being provided transportation in his or her foster care 
          placement, there may be additional cost pressure to continue 
          that transportation.

          Proposed Author Amendments: The proposed amendments would 
          specify the activities mandated for school districts to comply 
          with this bill, and clarify that the requirements on a school 
          would be initiated by a student's request.