BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 854 (Weber) - Educational services: pupils in foster care
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|Version: August 18, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 24, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill restructures the existing Foster Youth
Services program by shifting the primary function from direct
services provided by the county offices of education and six
school districts, to a program of coordination to assist school
districts in meeting their statutory obligation to improve the
educational outcomes of foster youth pursuant to the Local
Control Funding Formula.
Fiscal
Impact: If enacted, this bill would implement the $25.4 million
Proposition 98 allocation included in the Budget Act of 2015 to
fund foster youth services.
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates the
need for two positions and about $274,000 to implement this
bill. (General Fund)
Potential reimbursable state mandates that may drive
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significant state costs. See staff comments. (Proposition
98)
Background:1) SB 97 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Ch. 11, 2015)
among other things, appropriates $25.4 million to fund foster
youth services pursuant to legislation enacted in 2015 that
aligns program requirements to reflect the establishment of the
Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). This is about a $10
million increase over the 2014-15 fiscal year.
AB 97 (Committee on Budget, Ch. 47, Statutes of 2013)
established the LCFF and provides local educational agencies
with additional funding to serve foster youth. Local
educational agencies are required to identify ways in which they
will improve the educational outcomes of foster youth in their
local control and accountability plans (LCAPs).
Existing law:
1)Provides funding for the instruction, counseling, tutoring and
related services for foster youth to the following unified
school districts and consortia that have successfully operated
foster youth services program sites: Elk Grove, Mount Diablo,
Sacramento City, San Juan, and Paramount, and the
Placer-Nevada consortium. (Education Code § 42920)
2)Authorizes any county office of education, or consortium of
county offices of education, (in addition to the six program
sites listed above) to apply to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction for grant funding to operate an education-based
foster youth services (FYS) program to provide educational and
support services for foster youth who reside in a licensed
foster home or county-operated juvenile detention facility. A
FYS program is authorized to prescribe the methodology for
determining which youth may be served, including specific age
groups, specific geographic areas with the highest
concentration of foster youth, or youth with the greatest
academic need. (EC § 42921)
3)Requires each FYS program to have at least one person
identified as the foster youth educational services
coordinator, to facilitate the provision of educational
services to any foster child in the county who is under the
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jurisdiction of the juvenile court and who is placed in a
licensed foster home or county-operated juvenile detention
facility. (EC § 42921)
4)Requires each school district operating a FYS program to
report, by January 1 of even-numbered years, to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) any information
required by the SPI.
5)Requires the SPI to form an advisory committee to make
recommendations regarding the allocation of available funds to
applicant school districts. (EC § 42925)
Proposed Law:
This bill establishes the Foster Youth Services Coordinating
Program. This program provides supplemental funding to county
offices of education, or a consortium of county offices of
education, to coordinate and ensure that local educational
agencies within their jurisdictions are providing services to
foster youth students.
The SPI is required to administer the Foster Youth Services
Coordinating Program, including monitoring, facilitating data
sharing necessary for required reporting, and ensuring a county
office of education's LCAP address the needs of foster youth as
required by this bill. The SPI is also required to use up to 5
percent of funding allocated to contract with a local
educational agency to administer the program, including
providing technical assistance to county offices of education as
they implement this program.
In addition, this bill:
Establishes a "transition requirement" in which a county
office of education or consortium of county offices of
education and their respective local educational agencies must
coordinate services to ensure that for the 2015-16 and 2016-17
fiscal years, the level of services provided to foster youth
is not less than what was provided in the 2014-15 fiscal year
under the existing program. This bill provides Legislative
intent that county offices of education include information on
this transition requirement when describing the coordination
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of services for foster youth pupils in their LCAPs.
Expands the program eligibility to all foster youth, including
those placed in kinship care, by aligning the definition of
"foster youth" with the definition used for purposes of the
LCFF and establishes priority for students who are living in
out-of-home placements.
Requires each program to establish a local interagency
Executive Advisory Council that reviews recommendations to the
foster youth services plan described below. Eliminates the
state-level Advisory committee that makes recommendations
regarding the allocation of funds to school districts that
apply to the program.
Requires each county office of education with a program to
develop and enter into a memorandum of understanding,
contract, or formal agreement with the county child welfare
agency to leverage federal funds and any other funds that may
be used to address the educational needs of students in foster
care, or explain annually in writing why it is not feasible.
Requires, as a condition of receiving funding, each program
operated by a county office of education or consortium to
develop and implement a coordinating plan for providing
supports for foster care students that also is aligned with
specified population priorities. The plan must include how
the program will establish coordination with various entities
including local educational agencies, county child welfare
agencies, and county probation departments. Consultation with
these entities and others, as specified, is to ensure that all
educational programmatic options are considered and to
minimize changes in school placement.
In addition, the plan must include policies on ensuring
educational placement of foster youth students is not delayed,
including the establishment of an individualized education
program for special education services and transfer of
records. Finally, the plan must also include coordination
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with local postsecondary educational institutions to ensure
foster youth students meet admission requirements.
Related
Legislation: AB 379 (Gordon, 2015) 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. AB 379
is pending in this Committee.
AB 224 (Jones-Sawyer, 2015) 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 pending in this Committee.
Staff
Comments: This bill contains provisions that could be
interpreted and determined to be a reimbursable state mandate.
Such provisions place requirements on local educational agencies
related to school transfers as well as a requirement to
coordinate services to ensure the at least the same level of
services are maintained as was provided in the 2014-15 fiscal.
To the extent such a determination is made, costs would rise
beyond the funding provided for foster youth services in the
Budget Act of 2015 and there would be pressure to increase the
mandate block grant to reflect the inclusion of any new
mandates.
This bill also expands the definition of foster youth to include
those in kinship care settings. According the author's office,
students in these settings comprise an estimated 67 percent of
California's foster youth.
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