BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 379
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|Author: |Gordon |
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|Version: |June 17, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: June 24, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Foster youth: complaint of noncompliance
SUMMARY
This bill expands the Uniform Complaint Procedures to include
complaints of non-compliance with certain rights and
responsibilities regarding the education of students who are in
foster care or who are homeless, including school placement
decisions, responsibilities of foster youth liaisons, provisions
regarding school transfers, exemption from locally-imposed
graduation requirements, and the awarding of partial credit for
completed coursework.
BACKGROUND
Existing law:
1)Existing law establishes rights for youth who are in foster
care or who are homeless (where indicated), including:
a) Attend a regular public school when residing in a
licensed children's institution, except under specified
circumstances. (Education Code § 48853)
b) 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)
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c) Not have grades and credits be lowered as a result of a
placement change or court appearance. (EC § 49069.5)
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) Students who are in foster care or who are homeless must
be awarded 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)
f) Students who are in foster care or who are homeless must
be exempt from local graduation requirements which exceed
state requirements. (EC § 51225.1)
1)Requires each local educational agency (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)
2)Requires each LEA to designate a staff person as the education
liaison for homeless youth, and requires that person to ensure
public notice of the educational rights of students who are
homeless, and to provide services pursuant to the federal
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. (United States Code,
Title 42, § 11432)
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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 § 1530.91)
4)Though regulation requires LEAs to adopt uniform complaint
procedures through which the public can register complaints
regarding educational programs and rights. (California Code of
Regulations, Title 5, § 4600 et seq.)
5) Establishes the Office of the State Foster Care
Ombudsperson within the California Department of Social
Services. The Ombudsperson is responsible, among other
things, for accepting and resolving complaints relating to the
rights (primarily non-educational) of foster youth.
(Welfare and Institutions Code § 16160 et seq.)
ANALYSIS
This bill expands the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP) to
include complaints of non-compliance with certain rights of
students who are in foster care or are homeless, including
school placement decisions, responsibilities of foster youth
liaisons, provisions regarding school transfers, exemption from
locally-imposed graduation requirements, and the awarding of
partial credit for completed coursework. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Authorizes a complaint of non-compliance of certain educational
rights afforded to students in foster care and students who
are homeless to be filed with a LEA under the UCP.
2)Authorizes a complainant who is not satisfied with the decisions
of a LEA to appeal the decision to the California Department
of Education (CDE) through the existing UCP appeal process,
and requires that the complainant receive a written decision
regarding the appeal within 60 days of the California
Department of Education (CDE's) receipt of the appeal.
3)Requires the LEA to provide a remedy to the affected student if
the LEA or the Superintendent of Public Instruction finds
merit in a complaint.
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4)Requires that information regarding the rights and
responsibilities be included in the annual notification
required by the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP).
5)Provides that the following educational rights and
responsibilities are subject to the UCP:
a) A student in foster care who resides in a licensed
children's institution or foster family home must attend a
school operated by the LEA except under specified
circumstances.
b) Students in foster care must be allowed to remain
enrolled in their school of origin when a placement change
occurs and pending resolution of a dispute regarding school
placement.
c) All educational and school placement decisions regarding
students in foster care must be made to ensure that the
student is placed in the least restrictive educational
programs and have access to academic resources, services,
and extracurricular and enrichment activities that are
available to all students.
d) Each LEA must designate a staff person as the
educational liaison for foster youth, who is responsible
for ensuring the proper educational placement and
enrollment of students, assisting in school transfer, and
coordinating with other personnel regarding expulsion
proceedings.
e) Students in foster care must be immediately enrolled
when transferring to a new school, even if the student has
outstanding fees or fines or is unable to produce school
records, and the transfer of the student's records must
occur within two business days of receipt of a request for
records.
f) The LEA must compile the complete educational record for
a student in foster care, including a determination of seat
time, full or partial credits earned, and current classes
and grades.
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g) The LEA must ensure that if a student in foster care is
absent due to a placement change made by the court or
placing agency, or a court required appearance or activity,
the student's grades and credits will not be lowered due to
this absence.
h) A school district must exempt a student who is in foster
care or is homeless, who transfers schools after the second
year of high school, from locally-imposed graduation
requirements.
i) LEAs must award and accept full or partial credit for
coursework satisfactorily completed by students in foster
care or students who are homeless while attending other
schools, even if the student did not complete the entire
course. The credits must be applied to the same or
equivalent course, the LEA cannot require a student to
retake a course if the student has satisfactorily completed
the course, and the student must be allowed to complete the
same or equivalent course when partial credit is awarded.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, "Numerous laws in
California give foster children extra protections aimed at
improving their ability to be successful in school. Despite
these laws, California's foster children still have the worst
educational outcomes of all of our state's children. In order
to improve education outcomes, foster youth need a mechanism
to enforce the educational rights afforded to them. Granting
them access to the Uniform Complaint Procedure under the
California Department of Education will allow foster youth to
stand up for their educational needs."
2)Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP). Required by federal law, the
UCP was established in 1991 as a means of creating a "uniform
system of complaint processing" for educational programs. The
authority for this process is located in regulations, not
state statute. These regulations require the adoption of the
UCP by school districts, county offices of education, charter
schools receiving federal funds, and local public or private
agencies which receive direct or indirect state funding to
provide school programs or special education or related
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services. The UCP process generally involves the following
steps:
a) The filing of a complaint by an individual, agency, or
organization.
b) The investigation and written response by the local
education agency (LEA) within 60 days.
c) An appeal by the complainant to the California Department
of Education (CDE) within 15 days of receiving the LEA
response.
d) The response by the CDE to the appeal, with the
investigation completed within 60 days.
e) A request for reconsideration by the complainant or LEA
within 35 days of receiving CDE's response to the appeal.
f) A response by the CDE within 35 days.
Complaints regarding pupil fees, harassment,
discrimination, bullying, intimidation, local control
accountability plans and some charter school requirements
generally follow the UCP, but differ slightly in terms of
timelines, anonymity of complainants, confidentiality, and
with whom a complaint can be filed.
3)Fiscal impact. According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill imposes:
a) Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98/General Fund state
mandated costs related to the expansion of the UCP. The
existing UCP mandate is currently included in the K-12
Mandate Block Grant. If the Commission on State Mandates
determines the
requirements of this bill imposes a higher level of
service, this could place pressure on the Legislature to
increase funding under the K-12 Mandate Block Grant.
b) Unknown administrative costs to the California Department
of Education (CDE) to process appeals. For illustration,
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when complaints related to charging pupil fees was added to
the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP) process in 2013, 121
new claims were submitted in the first nine months. Annual
claims have since leveled to around 40 claims per year. CDE
may need additional limited-term staff should this bill
result in a similar increase.
4)Related legislation. AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer) requires the CDE to
develop a standardized notice of educational rights of foster
youth, post the notice on its website, and provide the notice
to foster youth liaisons, foster youth, parents or educational
rights holders. AB 224 is scheduled to be heard by this
Committee on June 24.
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. AB 854 is pending in this Committee.
AB 1391 (Gomez, 2015) an urgency measure, expands the Uniform
Complaint Procedures to include complaints of non-compliance
with the required minimum instructional minutes for physical
education.
AB 412 (Chavez, 2015) authorizes complaints of non-compliance with
the required minimum instructional minutes for physical
education to be filed with a local complaint process or
through the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP). AB 412 was
never heard.
SB 81 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, 2015) among other
things, expands the UCP to include complaints regarding an
alleged violation by a local agency of federal or state law or
regulations governing adult education programs or regional
occupational centers and programs. SB 81 is passed both
houses of the Legislature and is pending in Engrossing and
Enrolling.
SB 425 (Hernandez, 2015) among other things, expands the UCP to
include complaints regarding an alleged violation by a local
agency of federal or state law or regulations governing adult
education programs or regional occupational centers and
programs, including allegations of unlawful discrimination,
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harassment, intimidation, or bullying. SB 425 is pending in
the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
AB 907 (Burke, 2015) is nearly identical to SB 425. AB 907 is
pending in this Committee.
AB 1012 (Jones-Sawyer, 2015) prohibits a school district from
assigning any students in grades 7-12 to any "course period
without educational content" for more than one week in any
semester, or to a course that the student has previously
completed with a grade sufficient to meet the A-G requirements
and graduation requirements, unless specifically authorized.
AB 1012 also expands the UCP to include complaints of
noncompliance with these requirements. AB 1012 is pending in
this Committee.
AB 302 (Cristina Garcia, 2015) requires local educational
agencies (LEAs) to provide reasonable accommodations to a
lactating pupil on a school campus to express breast milk,
breast-feed an infant child, or address other needs related to
breast-feeding, and expands the UCP to include complaints of
non-compliance with this requirement. AB 302 is scheduled to
be heard by this Committee on July 1.
SUPPORT
Alliance for Children's Rights
All Saints Church Foster Care Project
John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes
Public Counsel
OPPOSITION
None received.
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