BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 177
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 2, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
SB 177 (Liu) - As Amended: June 19, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : Homeless Youth
SUMMARY : Establishes the Homeless Youth Education Act.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that a homeless child or youth is immediately deemed
to meet all residency requirements for purposes of eligibility
to participate in interscholastic sports or other
extracurricular activities.
2)Pursuant to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance
Act, requires all schools and school districts to
automatically enroll a homeless child or youth, unless it is a
charter school, as specified.
3)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) and the
California Department of Social Services (DSS) to identify
representatives from other state agencies with experience in
homeless youth issues to develop policies and practices to
support homeless children and to ensure that child abuse and
neglect reporting requirements do not create barriers to the
enrollment of children who are homeless.
4)Requires the representatives to present policies and practices
to the CDE and DSS for adoption.
5)Defines a "homeless child or youth" as defined by the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Act.
6)Requires school district homeless education liaisons to ensure
that a public notice of the educational rights for homeless
youth, as established by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act, is
disseminated in schools.
EXISTING LAW
1)States the intent of the Legislature that homeless youth are
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entitled to a meaningful opportunity to meet the same academic
opportunities and standards to which all pupils are held.
(EDC 48850(a)(1))
2)Requires local educational agencies (LEAs), county placing
agencies, juvenile courts, care providers and advocates to
work together to maintain stable school placements in the
least restrictive environment possible for homeless and foster
youth, and to ensure access to academic resources, services,
and extracurricular and enrichment activities for these youth.
(EDC 48850(a)(1))
3)Provides that a pupil in foster care is considered to
immediately meet all residency requirements for participation
in interscholastic sports or extracurricular activities when
they change residences due to county or court placement. (EDC
48850(a)(2))
4)Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,
defines homeless children or youth as individuals who lack a
fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, which
includes children and youth who:
a) Share housing with other individuals due to the loss of
housing, economic hardship;
b) Are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping
grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate
accommodations;
c) Are living in emergency or transitional shelters;
d) Are abandoned in hospitals;
e) Are awaiting a foster care placement;
f) Are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned
buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or
similar settings; and,
g) Are migratory children, as specified. (42 U.S.C.
Section 11302)
5)Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,
requires an LEA to designate a staff person to act as a
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liaison for homeless children and youth. (42 U.S.C. Section
11303)
6)For purposes of county community schools, deems the county
superintendent of schools providing educational services to
homeless children to be the district of residence of those
children. (EDC 1982(c))
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento)
McKinney-Vento protects the educational rights of children and
youth experiencing homelessness. The Act applies to all local
educational agencies (LEAs) and includes a supplemental,
competitive grant program of additional funding to fulfill its
intent and requirements.
The intent of the law is to make certain that homeless students
have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education
provided to other students. Homeless students have the right to
enroll in and attend school, participate fully in the school
program, and have the opportunity to meet the same challenging
academic achievement standards to which all students are held.
The Act also requires every LEA to designate an appropriate
staff member as a liaison for homeless students. These liaisons
are required to ensure that the rights of homeless children and
youth are protected.
Homeless Youth in California : According to the California
Research Bureau's (CRB) Homeless Youth Project (HYP), based upon
national survey estimates and California's youth population, it
is estimated that there are 200,000 youth under the age of 18
and potentially thousands of persons aged 18 - 24 who are
homeless.
Although this is an approximation of the number of homeless
youth in California, the number is likely to be greater given
the difficult challenges involved with the identification of
homeless youth. For purpose of this population, homeless youth
are typically considered to be minors age 17 and under, and 18 -
24-year-olds who are economically and/or emotionally detached
from their families and have an unstable and inadequate living
environment, or are periodically homeless or homeless.
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Established by the CRB in 2006 in collaboration with the Council
on Youth Relations (CYR), the HYP is a multi-year research and
policy initiative tasked with highlighting and raising awareness
about the homeless youth population and its challenges, and
presenting solutions to help address California's homeless youth
population.
The causes of youth homelessness are varied and complex. They
range from runaway youth to emancipated youth who have fallen
through the cracks of the child welfare system, to disengaged
youth due to the lack of an adult figure in their life or a lack
of access to appropriate services. Due to their unique
circumstances, research has shown that homeless youth are at a
greater risk of physical and sexual abuse, sexual exploitation,
alcohol and drug abuse, mental health disabilities, and death.
Additionally, the social, emotional, medical, economic and
personal challenges homeless youth face, when coupled with the
lack of effective, coordinated services to help them find and
keep stable housing as well as reach self-sufficiency, can lead
to ongoing and chronic cycles of homelessness throughout their
lifetime.
The number of state agencies and departments that administer a
program or service for homeless youth can vary annually
depending on the availability of funding, grants and other
resources to administer or implement a program. However, it is
generally estimated that there are 10 to 12 state agencies and
departments currently operating some level of homeless service.
Still, it is unclear how many of them specifically target or
help to facilitate services for homeless youth. In a 2010 survey
of local, state and federal programs, the HYP was able to
identify 53 programs that offer just over 1,000 beds for
homeless youth throughout the state. Given that the current
estimate of homeless youth amounts to more than 200,000
individuals, this demonstrates a significant gap between the
size of California's homeless youth population and the number of
programs and services available to meet their needs.
Educational Outcomes for Homeless Youth : According to the
National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE), funded by the
United States Department of Education, California has the
highest number of homeless youth enrolled in school than any
other state. In the most recently published Education for
Homeless Children and Youth Program Data Collection Summary,
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released in June, 2011, which is an annual comparison report of
three years of homeless education data collected under
McKinney-Vento, homeless youth are much more likely to perform
below grade level and need additional supportive services such
as counseling, health care and immunizations, and
transportation. Specifically, of those homeless youth who
participated in state assessments and mathematics, 48% performed
below proficiency in English language arts and 50% performed
below proficiency in mathematics. Further, within these
numbers, there is a disproportionate number of homeless youth
with special needs who are designated as being limited English
proficient or are migrant children.
Federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RYHA): In response to
concerns emerging during the early 1970s that little if any
federal and state services were available to youth who were
either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, Congress
established the RHYA in 1974. The Family Youth Services Bureau
(FYSB), under the United States Department of Health and Human
Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families,
oversees the issuance of Basic Center Program grants. The
purpose of these grants, according to the FYSB, is to "establish
or strengthen community-based programs that meet the immediate
needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families." Under
these grants, recipient organizations and agencies provide youth
up to age 18 with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling
and referrals to youth services. Although the intent is to help
reunite youth with their families through counseling and
supportive services whenever possible, they also help to locate
appropriate alternative placements that can help keep youth off
the streets and avoid becoming chronically homeless.
Funding for these programs is extremely limited due to the
nation's ongoing budget deficit. In federal fiscal year 2012,
321 programs received a total of $48.2 million.
State Interagency Team (SIT) for Children, Youth and Families
Established in 2003, the SIT is an informal group of state
agencies that serve children, youth and their families, which
was created to better coordinate services and programs in order
to leverage enhanced collaboration and eliminate unnecessary
duplicative efforts. Chaired by DSS, it includes
representatives from the Departments of Education, Health
Services, Alcohol and Drug Programs, Developmental Services and
Employment Development, as well as the Attorney General's
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Office, the California Children & Families Commission and the
California Workforce Investment Board.
The SIT is an informal initiative of the participating agencies
to improve the coordination of policy development and to develop
effective strategies for collaborative programmatic and services
implementation to better serve children, youth and their
families in California. The SIT does not provide direct
services, rather it works to make more efficient the provision
of programs and services its departments provide so as to reduce
redundancy and target or redirect funds that can help to serve
more individuals in need.
Need for the Bill : Like many children who face difficult and
significant challenges at a young age, such as interactions with
the child welfare system, suffering from abuse or neglect, or
experiencing destitute poverty, homeless youth encounter
numerous unique barriers to accessing needed programs and
services that can improve their outcomes in life. Principle
among them is equal access to a quality education and the
associated benefits of interscholastic and extracurricular
activities.
Although it is difficult to estimate, according to the NCHE,
using the most recent data available from the 2009-10 school
year, California's homeless youth population grew by 30% between
the 2004-05 and 2009-10 school years. Unfortunately, although
LEAs can draw down additional funding under McKinney-Vento, not
all LEAs receive these funds. Homeless youth have long been
documented to struggle academically and socially in school due
to the struggles they face as a result of their homelessness.
Oftentimes focused on where their next meal will come from or
where they will safely sleep each night rather than being
concerned with their homework that is due the next day, it is
understandable that many children who are homeless are unable to
meet their academic potential.
This bill makes a modest yet positive step towards utilizing
existing state and local expertise and available data and best
practices, born from the work funded by McKinney-Vento and other
efforts, to develop policies and practices that could further
benefit homeless youth. At a time when the demand for
publicly-funded programs and services far outweighs the supply
of available funding, this bill could help improve and
potentially expand needed educational support for homeless
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children and youth.
Expressing the need of the bill, the author states:
School is a critical source of stability for homeless young
people, whose lives are in utter chaos. They might not
know where they will sleep or where they'll find their next
meal, yet they come to school and strive to learn and
succeed. SB 177 will make it easier for these students to
attend school. First, SB 177 emphasizes existing federal
requirements that school districts enroll homeless students
in school immediately and post public notice of educational
rights. To help ensure that youth who are homeless can
enroll and succeed in school, the federal McKinney-Vento
Act requires every local education agency to designate a
homeless liaison. Even in a small district, one person,
usually with many other job duties, cannot identify and
serve every student experiencing homelessness. Homeless
liaisons must be experts in efficiency.
The author goes on to state:
In addition, SB 177's provision establishing a workgroup is
imperative. Extensive research shows that homeless young
people tend not to seek out services from schools or other
providers. They are afraid of what might happen to them or
their families if they ask for help, and they prefer to
stay "under the radar." Federal law recognized this
barrier and now requires State Departments of Social
Services to address the unique needs of unaccompanied
homeless youth. SB 177 essentially provides a vehicle for
California to meet this requirement. California's work on
this issue could be a national model promoted through the
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children
and Youth and replicated in other states.
Policy Consideration : Under this bill, CDE and DSS would be
required to establish a workgroup of staff persons with
experience in serving homeless youth. It would further require
this workgroup to submit policies and practices to the CDE and
DSS for consideration of adoption. However, it is unclear what
this means. Most services and programs for homeless youth are
provided by LEAs or local social services agencies, and not
directly by CDE or DSS. What does it mean for the CDE and DSS
to adopt policies and practices and how would they be
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implemented? Is it the intent of the author to establish
policies and practices that could be used as best practices?
Should the committee choose to pass this measure, it may want to
consider encouraging the author to further explore how the
policies and practices recommended by the established workgroup
would be used and implemented. Such examples could include
dissemination of the recommendations as best practices, guidance
to LEAs and social services agencies, or as opportunities to
guide current or future public funding opportunities.
DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill has been double-referred. Should
this bill pass out of this committee, it will be referred to the
Assembly Education Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Eureka City Schools, Homeless Education Project
Hillsides
California Federation of Teachers
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California State PTA
California Coalition for Youth
Children Now
Disability Rights California
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089