BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de León, Chair


          AB 2706 (Hernandez) - Schools: Health Care Enrollment 
          
          Amended: May 27, 2014           Policy Vote: Education 4-2
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: August 4, 2014                                 
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez                       
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 
          
          Bill Summary: AB 2706 requires schools to add to enrollment  
          forms, for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years,  
          information about health care coverage options and enrollment  
          assistance.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Template: Minor costs to the California Department of  
              Education (CDE), to develop the required templates, post  
              them on its website, and make copies available upon request.  

              Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable state mandate  
              on the state's approximately 1,000 school districts, to  
              provide information about health care coverage options and  
              enrollment assistance. See staff comments.

          Background:  Existing law establishes the California Health  
          Benefit Exchange, known as Covered California, as an independent  
          state entity to serve as the marketplace for Californians to  
          purchase health care coverage and as a way to meet the personal  
          responsibility requirements of the federal Patient Protection  
          and Affordable Care Act.

          Existing law authorizes school districts and county offices of  
          education to incorporate into the School Lunch Program  
          application packet or notification of eligibility that the  
          student may qualify for free or reduced-cost health coverage  
          under the California Health Benefit Exchange.  (Education Code §  
          49557.2)

          Proposed Law: This bill requires schools to add to enrollment  
          forms, for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years,  
          information about health care coverage options and enrollment  
          assistance. Schools can either (a) use a template developed by  








          AB 2706 (Hernandez)
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          the CDE, or (b) develop an informational item or amend an  
          existing enrollment form.
          Schools are also authorized to include a factsheet with their  
          enrollment forms explaining basic information about affordable  
          health care coverage options for children and families.

          This bill requires the CDE to develop a standardized template  
          for, and to make available on its website and provide written  
          copies upon request, both of the following: a) the informational  
          item or amended existing enrollment form; b) the fact sheet  
          authorized by this bill.

          Staff Comments: The primary cost of this bill will be to pay the  
          new state mandate on school districts to distribute information  
          about health care coverage options and enrollment assistance to  
          their students/families. Any staff time or district resources  
          spent developing an informational item, amending an existing  
          enrollment form, or distributing the CDE template, would likely  
          be deemed by the Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable  
          mandated activities, because they constitute a higher level of  
          service. While this bill provides for the CDE to create a  
          template that schools can use, it allows schools to develop  
          their own materials or amend existing enrollment forms.

          If a successful mandate claim is filed, all school districts  
          would be eligible to be reimbursed for either distributing the  
          CDE template or creating and publishing their own materials.  
          Even school districts that already provide health care coverage  
          enrollment information within their local resources would become  
          newly eligible to have their costs reimbursed though the state  
          mandate process. If an employee at each of California's  
          approximately 10,000 schools spent 2 hours per school  
          implementing this bill's provisions, at an average staff time  
          cost of $50 per hour including benefits, costs would be  
          approximately $1 million.