BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1068
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1068 (Bloom)
As Amended April 1, 2013
Majority vote
Education 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Campos, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Chávez, Nazarian, Weber, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Williams | |Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| | | |Hall, Ammiano, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Restricts the release of directory information for
pupils who are identified as a homeless child or youth and
allows access of pupil records to specified individuals for
those pupils who are identified as a homeless child or youth.
Fiscal Effect : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, General Fund/Proposition 98 state reimbursable
mandated costs, between $75,000 and $125,000, to local education
agencies (LEAs) will be required to comply with this measure.
These costs are associated with staff time necessary to revise
directory and pupil record procedures and to ensure proper
documentation is received regarding the release of pupil
information, as specified.
COMMENTS : According to the author, unaccompanied homeless
youth are defined as youth who are experiencing homelessness and
who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
Most of these students have left home due to severe family
dysfunction, including abuse and neglect. In the 2011-12 school
year, California's LEAs identified 65,812 homeless high school
students. The author's office estimates that over 18,000 of
these students were unaccompanied youth.
Directory Information . According to the author, unlike most
students, the temporary address of homeless children and youth
is not generally known, and in fact, is something that most
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families and youth desperately wish to remain private. In the
case of homeless students, disclosing the student's address can
produce extremely harmful results. For example:
1)Many homeless youth are survivors of domestic violence.
Disclosing their address to a third party who may pass it on
to an abusive adult can result in kidnapping and severe
physical injury.
2)The most common living situation for homeless youth is staying
temporarily with others. These temporary arrangements often
violate the host's lease or even local zoning codes. Schools
never should contact a landlord or other outside agency with
information about where a youth is staying. However, because
addresses technically are directory information, schools have
on occasion made such contacts, resulting in eviction for both
the host and the homeless youth.
3)Disclosure of address information can result in stigmatization
of homeless youth.
To prevent these dangerous consequences for homeless students,
this bill prevents the release of directory information for
homeless students unless a parent, caregiver, or student
specifically consents to the release. Under current law, every
parent and eligible student has the right to refuse the release
of directory information. Schools already have procedures to
record and respect any parent or eligible student's refusal to
release this information. Schools also have procedures to
identify and report on homeless students. By simply linking
existing procedures, schools can ensure that any identified
homeless student automatically would be added to the list of
students whose directory information cannot be released. Any
parent of a homeless student or eligible homeless student could
override this refusal and allow directory information to be
released.
Unaccompanied homeless youth and school records . The federal
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits a
school from disclosing personally identifiable information from
a student's education records without the consent of a parent or
eligible student, unless an exception to FERPA's general consent
rule applies. "Parent" includes a natural parent, a guardian, or
an individual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or a
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guardian. An "eligible student" is one who is 18 or over, or
who is attending a school beyond the high school level.
Unaccompanied youth in high school who have not yet turned 18
are not "eligible students." Therefore, they cannot access their
own educational records and cannot give consent for the school
to disclose their records to advocates, community agencies,
health care providers, tutoring programs, or other agencies or
individuals that do not fall within one of FERPA's exceptions.
This creates a barrier to youth advocating for themselves and
receiving community services.
Many unaccompanied youth seek services from agencies that are
not part of the school district, such as Boys & Girls Clubs,
tutoring programs, and legal services. To be effective, tutors
and coaches need basic educational information about the youth,
such as how many credits the youth have, what they need, what
classes are most challenging for them, test scores, any special
education issues, etc. However, schools cannot release this
kind of educational information without parental consent. For
unaccompanied homeless youth, who do not have parents who are
able or willing to consent, the agencies or individuals have no
way to access this information. It is almost impossible to be
effective with the youth and navigate them through high school
graduation without this educational information. This bill
permits unaccompanied homeless youth age 14 and over to access
their education records, thus eliminating this barrier for
unaccompanied youth and supporting their educational success.
Many unaccompanied homeless youth, particularly those under age
14, are staying with other adults who could be considered to be
"individuals acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or
guardian." However, the phrase itself is vague and open to
varying interpretations. In California, the Caregiver's
Authorization Affidavit established in Section 6550-6552 of the
Family Code provides objective guidelines for determining that
an individual is acting as a parent in the absence of a parent
or guardian. The Affidavit allows caregivers to enroll children
in school and consent to medical care. It is logical that such
caregivers will need to access education records, as well. This
bill also ensures that caregivers, using the Caregiver's
Authorization Affidavit, can access and consent for the
disclosure of records for children in their care.
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Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087FN:
0000850