BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 999 (Liu) - CalFresh: Community College Student Eligibility
Amended: May 7, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 19, 2014 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: This bill requires the California Community
Colleges (CCC) Chancellor's Office and the Department of Social
Services (DSS) to establish detailed guidelines identifying
categories of students that may qualify for federal exemptions
that would allow them to receive CalFresh benefits, and
recommends that the California State University (CSU)
Chancellor's office, and the University of California (UC)
President's office do the same. This bill requires CCCs to
provide specific documentation to students who may qualify for
an exemption. This bill authorizes a county that elects to
participate in the CalFresh Employment and Training (E&T)
program to enter into an agreement with a CCC or a CSU campus to
establish an E&T program, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Develop guidelines: Potentially significant costs to the
CCC Chancellor's office and the DSS to analyze and interpret
federal regulations, and collaboratively develop detailed
guidelines, as required. Significant cost pressure to
"recommend" that the CSU Chancellor's office and the UC
President's office do the same.
Documentation: Potentially substantial new reimbursable
state mandate on CCCs to provide specified documentation
upon request. Statewide, potential costs in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
CalFresh E&T program: Potentially significant cost pressure
to establish E&T programs.
Background: Federal law establishes the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) for the purpose of promoting the
general welfare and to safeguard the health and well-being of
the nation's population by raising the levels of nutrition among
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low-income households. (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 7, §
271.1)
State law establishes the CalFresh program to administer the
provision of federal SNAP benefits to families and individuals
meeting the eligibility criteria.
(Welfare and Institutions Code § 18900-18927)
Federal requirements prohibit an individual who is enrolled at
least half-time in an institution of higher education from SNAP
eligibility, unless the student qualifies for one of the
following exemptions:
a) Be younger than age 17 or older than 50.
b) Be physically or mentally unfit.
c) Be receiving TANF (or CalWORKs) benefits.
d) Be enrolled in school as a result of
participation in the Job Opportunities and Basic
Skills program, as specified.
e) Be employed for a minimum of 20 hours per
week, as specified;
f) Be participating in a state or federally
financed work study program during the regular school
year, as specified.
g) Be participating in an on-the-job training
program, as specified.
h) Be responsible for the care of a dependent
household member under the age of 6.
i) Be responsible for the care of a dependent
household member who has reached age 6-12 when the DSS
has determined that adequate child care is not
available to enable the student to attend class and
comply with the work requirements of items (e) or (f).
j) Be a single parent enrolled in an institution
of higher education on a full-time basis and be
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responsible for the care of a dependent child under
age 12, as specified.
aa) Be assigned to or placed in an institution of
higher education through a federally identified
program, as specified. (CFR, Title 7, § 273.5)
State law established the CalFresh E&T program for
non-assistance CalFresh recipients. Non-assistance recipients
are people who receive CalFresh benefits each month, but do not
receive a cash grant under the CalWORKs program. CalFresh E&T
assists members of CalFresh households in gaining skills,
training, work, or experience that will increase their ability
to obtain regular employment. (WIC § 18926.5.)
State law provides funding for CCCs with students who are
enrolled in the CalWORKs program, for the purpose of designing
specific curriculum offerings, and creating work experience and
internships, among other specifics. (Education Code § 79202 and
§ 79203)
Proposed Law: SB 999 requires the CCC Chancellor's Office and
the DSS to examine and interpret federal regulations, and create
detailed guidelines identifying categories of students that may
qualify for federal exemptions that would allow them to receive
CalFresh benefits. This bill "recommends" that the CSU
Chancellor's office, and the UC President's office also examine
and interpret federal regulations, and create detailed
guidelines identifying categories of students that may qualify
for federal exemptions that would allow them to receive CalFresh
benefits.
This bill requires CCCs to provide related "documentation" to
students who may qualify for an exemption when they create their
education plans, as specified.
This bill authorizes a county that elects to participate in the
CalFresh E&T program to enter into an agreement with a CCC or a
CSU campus to establish an E&T program, as specified. It also
authorizes the CCC Board of Governors to enter into an
interagency agreement with the DSS to establish an E&T program,
as specified.
Staff Comments: The costs of this bill are unclear, because its
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vague language makes the requirements on state and local
entities ambiguous.
This bill requires the CCC Chancellor's office and the DSS to
work together to examine and interpret federal regulations and
determine "categories" of CCC students who might be eligible for
CalFresh benefits through a federal exemption. The Chancellor's
office and DSS must then "establish clear and detailed
guidelines identifying the categories of students who may
qualify for an exemption and the programs in which enrollment
may qualify a student for an exemption." The term "category" is
not defined in the bill, and the requirement implies that it
could include anything from special program enrollments to
demographic and socioeconomic information. This bill also
recommends that the CSU Chancellor's office, and the UC
President's office examine and interpret federal regulations and
determine "categories" of students who may be eligible for an
exemption; this creates cost pressure for those segments to
undertake the activities.
This bill mandates that once the CCC student categories are
identified, a CCC "shall provide documentation to each student
identified pursuant to Section 79220 as qualifying for an
exemption to the prohibition on student eligibility for CalFresh
benefits? at the time that the student develops an education
plan, as required by Section 78215, and at any other time a
student requests that documentation." This requirement seems to
imply that the CCCs are supposed to identify specific students
who could qualify for an exemption, and provide them
documentation. It is unclear whether the CCCs are to provide
documentation that informs students of their possible
eligibility for CalFresh benefits, or whether they are to
provide documentation that would "prove" that the student is
eligible (to the satisfaction of county welfare agencies). The
bill sponsor has indicated that the intention is the latter, but
the language of the bill leaves the requirement (and, thus, the
reimbursable mandate) open to interpretation. Whatever the
documentation is, the requirement for CCCs to provide it to
every student identified as categorically eligible during their
education plan development and upon any request from the
student, will be a new reimbursable state mandate on CCCs.
To the extent that providing information and documentation to
certain students results in those students accessing Cal Fresh
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benefits, CalFresh administrative costs (which are normally
shared 50% federal, 35% state, and 15% county) could increase.
Additional administrative costs would increase commensurate with
the participating caseload and ratio of new to existing
households receiving benefits. Additional costs to the state
would also be partially offset by a likely increase in sales tax
revenue. Studies show that low-income families spend a
significant portion of their money on food, and increasing
CalFresh access would allow them to spend that money on taxable
items.
This bill authorizes a county that elects to participate in the
CalFresh E&T program to enter into an agreement with a CCC or a
CSU campus to establish an E&T program. Nothing currently
prevents CCCs or CSUs from entering into these agreements;
specifically authorizing the agreements in statute creates cost
pressure to enter into them.