BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 216
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Date of Hearing: March 20, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 216 (Stone) - As Introduced: January 31, 2013
SUBJECT : High school graduation requirements: pupils in
foster care
SUMMARY : Changes provisions of law regarding graduation
requirements for foster youth who transfer from one high school
to another. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that a foster youth who transfers to a new school
after completing his or her second year of high school shall
be exempt from the graduation requirements of the new school
that exceed state requirements unless the school district
makes a finding that the pupil is reasonably able to complete
the school's graduation requirements in time to graduate from
high school by the end of his or her fourth year of high
school.
2)Requires that either the number of credits the pupil has
earned to the date of transfer or the length of the pupil's
school enrollment shall be used to determine eligibility for
the exemption and stipulates that whichever criterion
qualifies the pupil for the exemption shall be used.
3)Requires school districts to notify the pupil and the adult
holding the right to make educational decision's for the pupil
of the availability of the exemption and whether the pupil
qualifies for the exemption within 30 days of the transfer.
4)Prohibits a school district from requiring that a pupil
graduate before the end of his or her fourth year in cases
where the pupil qualified for the exemption and completed the
state graduation requirements early.
5)Requires that, when a pupil qualifies for an exemption from
local graduation requirements, the school district notify the
pupil and the adult holding the right to make educational
decisions for the pupil whether and how any of the
requirements that are waived will affect the pupil's ability
to gain admission to a postsecondary education institution and
to provide information about transfer opportunities available
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through the California community colleges.
6)Clarifies that pupils who qualify for an exemption and are
otherwise entitled to remain in attendance at the school are
not required to accept the exemption and cannot be denied
enrollment in courses for which they are otherwise eligible.
7)Provides that if a pupil is not exempted from local graduation
requirements, the pupil shall be granted an exemption any time
if he or she requests it and qualifies for it.
8)Prohibits a district from revoking an exemption once it has
been granted.
EXISTING LAW requires a school district to exempt a transfer
pupil in foster care from district graduation requirements that
are in addition to statewide requirements if the pupil transfers
to the school while he or she is in grade 11 or 12, unless the
district makes a finding that the pupil is reasonably able to
complete the additional requirements in time to graduate from
high school while he or she remains eligible for foster care
benefits pursuant to state law.
FISCAL EFFECT : State mandated local program
COMMENTS : Existing law was established by AB 167 (Adams),
Chapter 224, Statutes of 2009. As AB 167 was going through the
legislative process, it was amended in anticipation of a change
in federal and state law that allows states to receive federal
funding to provide services to foster youth up to age 21,
instead of age 18 (or 19 for youth pursuing specified
education-related goals. That change was enacted by AB 12
(Beall), Chapter 559, Statutes of 2010. To be consistent with
the extended timeline for foster youth services, AB 167 was
written to allow a district to deny an exemption to a transfer
foster youth pupil if it finds that the pupil is reasonably able
to complete the additional requirements in time to graduate from
high school while he or she remains eligible for foster care
benefits, or up to age 21 under the new law. This inadvertently
allows districts to delay graduation for foster transfer youth
beyond the normal graduation age of 18 or 19. According to the
author, "This has raised concerns that foster youth presented
with having to pursue a fifth, sixth or even seventh year to
high school to achieve their diploma could have the unintended
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consequence of incentivizing rather than dis-incentivizing a
foster youth to drop out of high school. It can be daunting to
face the possibility of additional years to meet a district's
local graduation requirements, when s/he could have met the
state's graduation requirements in their fourth year and
graduated with their peers."
This bill changes this by allowing districts to deny an
exemption only if they find that the pupil can reasonably
complete local requirements in time to graduate by the end of
his or her fourth year of high school. In addition, this bill
makes the following changes to existing law:
1)Provides that pupils who qualify for the exemption are not
required to accept it, but may request it at any time.
2)Clarifies the criteria used to determine eligibility for the
exemption.
3)Prohibits a district from revoking an exemption once it has
been granted.
4)Requires districts to provide specified information regarding
the potential consequences of accepting an exemption.
5)Prohibits a district from requiring that a pupil graduate
before the end of his or her fourth year in cases where the
pupil qualified for the exemption and completed the state
graduation requirements early.
6)Ensures that pupils who do not take the exemption can remain
in attendance at the school if they are otherwise eligible to
do so and can enroll in classes for which they are otherwise
eligible.
Foster Youth Face Difficult Challenges . As of July 2008, there
were 68,475 children in California's foster care system.
Children in our state's foster care system often experience
multiple residential placements and multiple changes in
educational placements. The frequent changes in the lives of
foster youth can have detrimental effects on their academic
achievement.
According to a 2012 report from the CDE, "Studies? show that 75
percent of foster youth students are working below grade level,
83 percent are being held back by the third grade, and 46
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percent become high school dropouts. Other studies indicate that
44 percent of foster youth entering the system in grades three
through eight are in the bottom quartile in reading; and on
statewide achievement scores, foster youth perform 15 to 20
percentile points below their peers. This results in significant
numbers of foster youth who continue to struggle academically
throughout their kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) career
and ultimately fail to graduate."
The Legislature has in the past attempted to address the poor
educational outcomes of foster youth. In 1981, the Legislature
declared that the instruction, counseling, tutoring, and
provision of related services for foster youths are a state
priority and created the Foster Youth Services (FYS) Core
District Programs. The goals of the FYS Program are to identify
the educational, physical, social, and emotional needs of foster
youths; determine gaps in service provision and provide
educational and social support services; identify inadequacies
in the completion and timely transfer of health and education
records to facilitate appropriate and stable care and
educational placements; improve student academic achievement;
reduce incidence of juvenile delinquency, and reduce rates of
student truancy/dropouts; and, provide advocacy to promote the
best interests of foster youths throughout California.
AB 490 (Steinberg), Chapter 862, Statutes of 2003, created
several protections to provide school stability for children in
foster care by allowing them to remain in their school of origin
for the duration of the school year when their residential
placement changes and when remaining in the same school is in
the child's best interest. The protections in AB 490 also
included a requirement for school districts to calculate and
accept credit for full or partial coursework satisfactorily
completed by the student and earned during attendance at a
public school, juvenile court, or nonpublic, nonsectarian
school.
The original intent of AB 167 was to remove another barrier to
high school graduation for foster youth.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Children Now
Children's Law Center of California
Children's Rights Project
East Bay Children's Law Offices
National Center for Youth Law
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087