BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 379| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 379 Author: Gordon (D) Amended: 6/17/15 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/24/15 AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan, Vidak SENTATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15 AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/2/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Foster youth: complaint of noncompliance SOURCE: Alliance for Childrens Rights DIGEST: 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. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Establishes rights for youth who are in foster care or who are AB 379 Page 2 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) 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 AB 379 Page 3 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) 3)Requires the Office of the State 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)Requires, though regulation, 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.) 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 Uniform Complaint Procedures (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 CDE's receipt of AB 379 Page 4 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. 4)Requires that information regarding the rights and responsibilities be included in the annual notification required by the 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. AB 379 Page 5 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. 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. Background Uniform Complaint Procedures. 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 services. The UCP process generally involves the following steps: 1)The filing of a complaint by an individual, agency, or organization. 2)The investigation and written response by the LEA within 60 days. AB 379 Page 6 3)An appeal by the complainant to the CDE within 15 days of receiving the LEA response. 4)The response by the CDE to the appeal, with the investigation completed within 60 days. 5)A request for reconsideration by the complainant or LEA within 35 days of receiving CDE's response to the appeal. 6)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. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill could drive a significant increase in state costs, depending on how many complaints and appeals are filed. Mandate: Unknown, potentially significant ongoing reimbursable state mandate costs for LEAs to investigate and resolve complaints. LEAs would also incur one-time costs to update the annual UCP notice. See staff comments. The CDE indicates that this bill requires 1.5 positions and $192,000 General Fund. Actual workload would depend on the number of appeals received. The CDE currently receives between 45 and 50 appeals per year related to pupil fees but the Department experienced an initial surge in appeals when pupil fees was first added. Assuming 10% of school districts receive complaints for noncompliance and submit a reimbursable state mandate claim, AB 379 Page 7 costs could be between $47,000 and $1.8 million based on the range of costs incurred by school districts for the existing UCP mandate. If the Commission on State Mandates determines the requirements of this bill to be a state reimbursable mandate, this could create pressure for the state to increase funding in the K-12 mandate block grant to reflect its inclusion. SUPPORT: (Verified8/27/15) Alliance for Children's Rights (source) All Saints Foster Care Project American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes Public Counsel OPPOSITION: (Verified8/27/15) None received ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the Alliance for Children's Rights, "although foster youth have possessed many educational rights for over ten years, the reality is that the education rights of foster youth are routinely ignored, One reason for this is the lack of an appropriate enforcement mechanism. This problem can be remedied by including foster youth education rights in the California Department of Education's existing Uniform Complaint Procedure." ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/2/15 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, AB 379 Page 8 Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Grove Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105 8/30/15 19:42:05 **** END ****