BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) - Pupils: educational liaison for foster
children
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: April 7, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to develop a standardized notice of educational
rights of a foster youth, post the notice on its website, and
provide the notice to foster youth liaisons. This bill also
places additional requirements upon foster youth liaisons to
disseminate the notice to new and existing foster youth
students.
Fiscal
Impact:
The CDE cites costs between $15,000 and $20,000 General Fund
for staff time to develop the notice and provide technical
assistance to the field.
Potential reimbursable state mandate costs in the tens of
thousands for foster youth liaisons to ensure notices are
disseminated or posted. To the extent this requirement takes
each district one hour to complete, at a rate of $50 per hour,
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) Page 1 of
?
statewide costs could be $50,000. School districts also have
the option to consolidate a mandate claim with their county
office of education to reach the required $1,000 threshold to
submit a claim.
Background: Existing law:
1) Establishes rights for youth who are in foster care as
follows:
a. Be educated in the least restrictive
environment and have equal access to academic
resources, services, and extracurricular activities,
including interscholastic athletics. (Education Code
Section 48850)
b. Attend a regular public school when residing
in a licensed children's institution, except under
specified circumstances. (EC 48853)
c. Remain in his or her school of origin when a
new placement occurs, and while the resolution of a
dispute regarding educational placement is pending.
(EC 48853 and 48853.5)
d. Be promptly transferred between schools and
have educational records transferred within two
business days, and be immediately enrolled in a new
school, even if he or she has outstanding fees, fines,
textbooks, or money due to the prior school, or is
unable to produce clothing or records required for
enrollment. (EC 48853.5 and 49069.5)
e. Be deemed to have met residency requirements
for the purpose of participation in interscholastic
sports and other extracurricular activities. (EC
48850)
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) Page 2 of
?
f. Receive full or partial credit for coursework
satisfactorily completed at another school, even if he
or she hasn't completed the entire course, and not be
required to retake some or all of a course he or she
has taken at another school. (EC 49069.5 and 51225.2)
g. Be exempt from local graduation requirements
which exceed state requirements. (EC 51225.1)
h. Not have grades and credits be lowered as a
result of a placement change or court appearance. (EC
49069.5)
i. Have a meeting with specified personnel
present when a local educational agency (LEA) proposes
a change of placement due to expulsion. (EC 48911 and
48915.5)
j. Among other rights, to live in a safe,
healthy, and comfortable home where he or she is
treated with respect, be free from physical, sexual,
emotional, or other abuse, or corporal punishment,
receive adequate and healthy food, and adequate
clothing. (Welfare and Institutions Code Section
16001.9)
2) Requires each LEA to designate a staff person as the
educational liaison for foster youth, and requires that
person to ensure and facilitate the proper educational
placement, enrollment in school, and checkout from school
of foster youth, and to ensure proper transfer of credits,
records, and grades when students change schools or school
districts. (EC 48853.5)
3) Requires the Foster Care Ombudsperson to produce a
poster delineating the rights of foster children and youth,
and post it in specified foster care settings. (Health and
Safety Code Section 1530.91)
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) Page 3 of
?
Proposed
Law: This bill requires the Department, in consultation with
the California Forster Youth Education Task Force, to develop a
standardized notice of the educational rights of foster
children, including information about the process for foster
youth to file a complaint.
The Department must post the notice on its website and make
copies of the notice available to educational liaison for foster
youth.
This bill also adds the following duties of a local educational
agency educational liaison: (1) ensure that public notice of the
educational rights of foster children is disseminated or posted
in a public area at schools where students that are foster
children are in attendance; and (2) at a time a foster child
seeks enrollment in a school and by the most cost efficient and
effective means possible, provide notice of the educational
rights of foster children, to the foster child and to the
parent, guardian, or educational rights holder for the foster
child.
Related
Legislation: AB 379 (Gordon, 2015) expands the Uniform
Complaint Procedures to include complaints of noncompliance with
certain rights and responsibilities regarding the education of
students who are in foster care or who are homeless. AB 379 is
pending in this committee.
AB 854 (Weber, 2015) expands the uses of Foster Youth Services
(FYS) funding to support students in all foster care placements,
makes significant changes to the FYS program, and establishes a
State Foster Youth Services Coordinator in the CDE. This bill
is pending in the Senate Education Committee
Staff
Comments: This bill requires foster youth liaisons to ensure
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) Page 4 of
?
that public notice of the educational rights of foster children
is disseminated or posted in a public area at schools where
students that are foster children are in attendance; and upon
enrollment, the liaison must provide the notice of the
educational rights of foster children, to the foster child and
to the parent, guardian, or educational rights holder.
It is unlikely that providing the notice of a foster youth's
educational rights upon the student's enrollment will result in
significant increases in costs to the district as the CDE will
make the notice available to them. Potential reimbursable state
mandate costs could arise related to foster youth liaisons
ensuring that the public notice developed by the CDE is
disseminated or posted in a public area at schools where foster
students are in attendance. Depending on the number of foster
youth liaisons employed at a district, significant staff time
could be spent on ensuring the notice is disseminated at all
schools within the district's jurisdiction. To the extent the
Commission on State Mandates determines this to be a
reimbursable state mandate; this could create a pressure to
increase the K-12 mandates block grant to account for this
mandate.
-- END --