BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 177 (Liu) - Homeless Youth Education Success Act
Amended: April 11, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0, Hum.
Serv. 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 177 requires the State Interagency Team on
Children and Youth to develop policies and practices to support
homeless children and youths and to ensure that child abuse and
neglect reporting requirements do not create barriers to the
school enrollment and attendance, as specified. This bill also
extends to homeless children or youths existing requirements
specific to foster youth, which require those students be
immediately enrolled in school and deemed to meet all residency
requirements for participation in interscholastic sports or
other extracurricular activities.
Fiscal Impact:
Workgroup: The requirement that the State Interagency Team
on Children and Youth develop specified recommendations,
will likely result in minor additional workload. The group's
recommendations will likely create cost pressure to
implement them.
Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable costs for
local educational agencies (LEAs) to implement new
enrollment and eligibility requirements.
Background: The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and
Youths Program requires state educational agencies to ensure
that homeless children and youth have equal access to the same
free public education as is provided to other youth. States are
required to review and undertake steps to revise laws,
regulations, practices, or policies that may act as barriers to
the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless
children and youth. (United States Code, Title 42, � 11431 et
seq.)
SB 177 (Liu)
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The McKinney-Vento Act requires each LEA to designate a staff
person as a liaison for homeless children and youth, and carry
out specific duties, such as ensuring immediate enrollment,
access to educational opportunities offered to other students,
and providing notice of the rights of homeless youth. (42 USC �
11432(g)(1)(j)(ii))
Current state law generally mirrors the federal McKinney-Vento
Act. State law relative to evidence of residency prohibits those
provisions from being construed as limiting access to pupil
enrollment in a school district as otherwise provided by law,
including immediate enrollment and attendance guaranteed to a
homeless child or youth without any proof of residency or other
documentation. (Education Code � 48204.1)
Current state law, consistent with the McKinney-Vento Act,
prohibits schools from requiring proof of residency of a parent
of an unaccompanied youth, and requires schools to accept a
declaration of residency executed by the youth in lieu of a
declaration of residency executed by his or her parent or legal
guardian. (EC � 48204.1)
Existing law requires that a foster child who changes residences
pursuant to a court order or decision of a child welfare worker
to be immediately deemed to meet all residency requirements for
participation in interscholastic sports or other extracurricular
activities. It further requires educators, county placing
agencies, care providers, advocates, and the juvenile courts to
work together to maintain stable school placement and to ensure
that each pupil who is in foster care, or who is homeless, is
placed in the least restrictive educational programs, and has
access to the academic resources, services, and extracurricular
and enrichment activities that are available to all pupils,
including interscholastic sports administered by the California
Interscholastic Federation. (EC � 48850)
Proposed Law: SB 177 requires the CDE and DSS to convene a
workgroup to develop policies and practices that improve
educational supports for homeless youth. This bill also requires
that LEAs:
1) Immediately enroll a homeless youth, as defined, in a
school at which he or she seeks enrollment, and to
immediately deem the homeless youth as meeting all
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residency requirements for participation in interscholastic
sports or other extracurricular activities.
2) Places in state law the federal requirement (to receive
McKinney-Vento Act federal funds at the state level) that
the LEA liaison for homeless children and youths ensure
that public notice of the educational rights of homeless
children and youths is disseminated in schools within the
liaison's LEA that provide services pursuant to
McKinney-Vento requirements.
3) References the McKinney-Vento Act federal definition of
"homeless child or youth" and "homeless children and
youths."
Staff Comments: This bill requires the CDE and DSS to convene a
workgroup to develop policies and practices "to support homeless
children and youths and to ensure that child abuse and neglect
reporting requirements do not create barriers to the school
enrollment and attendance of homeless children or youth".
Convening a workgroup is common, and the departments are
unlikely to incur significant costs to do so. They may, however,
experience a significant workload increase, depending the level
of detail and complexity included in the policies and practices
they develop. The workgroup's recommendations are also likely to
create cost pressure to implement the substance of those
policies and practices.
This bill will likely create new reimbursable mandates for LEAs,
by requiring in state law that every LEA immediately enroll a
homeless youth, and to immediately deem the homeless youth as
meeting all residency requirements for participation in
interscholastic sports or other extracurricular activities, as
specified. To the extent that implementation activities are
required to comply with the new state mandate, those activities
could be reimbursable even if LEAs are already performing them,
if an LEA does not specifically receive McKinney-Vento Act
funding. According to the CDE, 83 LEAs currently receive
dedicated funding.
The McKinney-Vento Act requires that states (including
California) that receive federal funding through the program
ensure that all of their LEAs (whether or not those LEAs
actually receive that specific federal funding) comply with
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various requirements outlined in the Act. The CDE has indicated
that all LEAs comply with the requirements of the McKinney-Vento
Act that the CDE has assured the federal government it would
enforce. The federal government can withhold McKinney-Vento Act
funding if the state is not in compliance with the requirement,
and the CDE monitors LEA compliance through its Federal Program
Monitoring Office.
For practical purposes, the CDE can likely enforce the
requirements of McKinney-Vento by communicating its expectations
directly with LEAs. Making the federal program requirements
(imposed on a participating state) cited in this bill into state
law, imposed on an LEA by the state, however, will likely be
deemed a reimbursable state mandate on school districts.
AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED: Amend per author to remove the DSS
work group, and instead require recommendations to be developed
by the State Interagency Team on Children and Youth.