BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1091
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1091 (Eduardo Garcia) - As Amended April 30, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill:
1)Authorizes the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to
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require that verification of high school graduation or its
equivalent be electronically submitted for those who graduated
from public schools in the prior academic year, except for
those who opted out of having their information sent to the
commission during their senior year, and declares legislative
intent that this be accomplished by districts within
established deadlines.
2)Declares legislative intent that the commission make available
to each school district listing seniors who have and have not
completed a (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) FAFSA
or Dream Act application.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)For graduation verification, CSAC will need $120,000 GF for an
additional position to program and implement the additional
data system function. (CSAC has an aging Grants Delivery
System, and the Governor's 2015-16 budget proposal includes
$840,000 and three positions for a system upgrade.) CSAC
indicates that the FAFSA and Dream Act application information
can be provided to districts within existing resources.
2)To the extent CSAC requires districts to submit verification
data, this will create a state-reimbursable mandate. At least
some districts could incur additional programming costs to be
able to provide the information electronically in a format
specified by the commission. These one-time costs could exceed
$150,000 statewide. [GF-Prop 98]
COMMENTS:
1)Background. To apply for a Cal Grant award, students (or
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parents of dependent students) are required, by March 2nd, to:
(1) complete and submit the FAFSA; and, (2) file a verified
GPA with CSAC. In 2013, the Education Trust-West (ETW) issued
a report finding that only 54% of California's 12th graders
completed a FAFSA in 2012, and only 50% completed both steps
of the requirements to apply for a Cal Grant by the March 2nd
deadline. ETW found that districts' use of electronic GPA
verification and other data-driven practices resulted in a 15%
increase in Cal Grant completion. In 2014, AB 2160 (Ting),
Chapter 679, required all high schools to submit GPAs for all
high school seniors to CSAC electronically.
2)Purpose. Currently, students are required to submit graduation
verification at the back-end of the Cal Grant process to
ensure that they in fact graduated, yet many fail to complete
this important step that makes a difference in their
eligibility for state financial aid. This bill builds on AB
2160 by requiring school districts to also verify a student's
graduation.
In addition, through CSAC's Webgrants system, high schools can
identify which students have or have not completed the FAFSA
or California Dream Act. However, particularly as it relates
to the FAFSA, the list accessible to the high schools contains
the names of all students in the state, as well as those who
graduated as long as five to ten years ago. This creates a
tedious and costly task for schools when trying to identify
their senior who have or have not completed their FAFSA. AB
1091, by requiring a list containing only those seniors within
a particular district, will allow high schools to more
effectively following-up with students who have not completed
their financial aid applications.
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Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081