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) Page 1 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.