BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 801
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
801 (Bloom) - As Introduced February 26, 2015
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| |Human Services | |5 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill provides financial and other opportunities in
postsecondary education for current and former homeless youth,
as defined. Specifically, this bill:
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1)Expands the requirement that every community college district
(CCD) and the California State University (CSU), and the
request to the University of California (UC), for each of
their respective campuses that administer a priority
enrollment system, to grant priority for registration and
enrollment to a current or former homeless youth, as well as a
current or former foster youth pursuant to current law.
2)Makes the above operative until January 1, 2020, which extends
the existing January 1, 2017 sunset on the provisions
currently applying to foster youth.
3)Defines homeless youth as a person age 24 or younger who has
been homeless at any time during the current calendar year,
and former homeless youth as someone age 24 or younger not
currently homeless but determined to have been homeless within
the preceding six years.
4)Requires a public or private postsecondary educational
institution that participates in the Cal Grant program to
designate a liaison for homeless and foster youth, having
specified responsibilities, within the institution's financial
aid office.
5)Provides that a college student, age 19 or older at the time
of enrollment, is entitled to residency status until they have
resided in the state for the minimum time to achieve residency
status if they are determined to have been homeless at any
time during the two years prior to enrollment.
6)Establishes the Community College Financial Aid Outreach
Program, and requires the California Student Aid Commission
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(CSAC), in consultation with the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges (CCC), to provide training, as specified,
to high school and community college counselor and advisors,
which shall include addressing the needs of students seeking
to transfer, foster and homeless youth and students with
disabilities.
7)Allows CSAC to allocate funds for its Student Opportunity and
Access Program (Cal-SOAP) to pupils who are or were homeless
youth or foster youth.
8)Makes any current or former homeless CCC student eligible for
a CCC Board of Governors fee waiver.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)CSU costs would be around $1 million GF annually for a
half-time position at each campus specifically to provide the
services required in the bill.
2)Assuming similar staffing requirements at the community
colleges, reimbursable state-mandated costs would be $5.7
million annually. In addition, the community colleges indicate
that, because the bill's definition of homeless is different
from federal financial aid standards for establishing
independence, districts may have to modify their electronic
records processing systems, which would cost several million
dollars systemwide. The cost of CCC fee waivers would likely
be small, as most students that would be covered under this
bill would already qualify for the waiver based on income.
3)UC indicates no additional cost to implement the bill.
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COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, in 2012-13 in California,
there were 18,000 homeless pupils in grade 12 alone; yet only
10,208 California college students in total indicated a status
of being homeless and unaccompanied. The author contends the
data indicates many homeless youth are not matriculating into
higher education and/or are not receiving the financial aid to
which they are entitled. The author states, "This bill seeks
to address state barriers to financial assistance for homeless
youth." This measure will also bring parity among current and
former homeless youth to that of current and former foster
youth, who already receive some exemptions and waivers in
current law, such as priority enrollment status.
2)Related Legislation. AB 1228 (Gipson and Atkins), pending in
the Assembly, expands current provisions, which request the
public higher education segments to help accommodate the
campus housing needs of current and former foster youth, to
also encompass current and former homeless youth.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 801
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