BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1567
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1567 (Campos) - As Amended March 29, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill provides homeless students and students who are in
foster care priority for enrolling in before and after school
programs and prohibits a program that charges family fees from
charging a fee to a family of a homeless or foster care student.
AB 1567
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Specifically, this bill:
1)Prohibits a before school or after school program funded by
state and federal funds from charging family fees to a family
with a child who is identified as a homeless youth or for a
child who is in foster care, if the program charges a fee.
2)Gives first priority for enrollment in programs to homeless
students and students in foster care. With regard to programs
serving middle school students, shifts first priority from
daily attendance to students that are homeless or in foster
youth.
3)Requires a program to inform the parent or caregiver of a
student of the right of homeless children and foster children
to receive priority enrollment and how to request priority
enrollment.
4)Specifies that for purposes of identifying a pupil who is
eligible for priority enrollment on the basis of being
homeless, the administrators of a program may verify the
homeless status of a pupil through the school district liaison
designated for homeless children, provided that the school
district has a waiver on file allowing for the release of this
information. If that information is not available through the
school district, the program must allow the parent or
caregiver of the pupil to verify the homeless status of the
pupil.
5)Specifies that for purposes of identifying a pupil who is
eligible for priority enrollment on the basis of being in
foster care, the administrators of a program may verify that a
pupil is in foster care through the school district, if that
information is available, or through the foster parent of the
AB 1567
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pupil who is enrolling in the program or requesting placement
on a program waiting list.
6)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that an ASES program
not use its core operating funds for mandatory snacks or
meals, but instead seek to qualify program sites as approved
distribution sites for federally funded after school snacks or
meals provided for by the National School Lunch Program, the
Summer Food Service Program, or the Child and Adult Care Food
Program.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Proposition 98/GF cost pressure, potentially in the hundreds
of thousands, to provide additional administrative support to
After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program and 21st
Century after school program grantees. ASES and 21st Century
administrators will need to revise and produce new program
applications. Programs will also need to develop procedures
and train staff on the identification and verification of
homeless and foster youth status. Many ASES programs are run
by subcontractors, not school districts, which may present a
challenge for some programs to verify student status.
There are approximately 4,490 programs that serve roughly
400,000 kindergarten through grade 9 students. The state
provides a continuous appropriation of $550 million for before
and after school programs. Legislation pending in this
committee [AB 2663 (Cooper)] seeks to expand this funding by
$73.2 million on an annual basis due to rising program costs
and increased program demands.
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COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill requires priority for enrollment in before
and after school programs to be given to homeless youth, as
defined by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,
and to foster care students. The author states that there is
strong evidence that access to after school and summer
programs increases the likelihood of success in elementary and
high school, and reduces involvement in the criminal justice
system, but low-income youth are unable to access these
programs due to long wait lists and program fees.
This bill also prohibits programs from collecting fees from
homeless youth or foster care pupils. According to the
sponsor, the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the
Children's Defense Fund - California, children who are
homeless or living in deep poverty are less likely to attend
the same school from year-to-year and less likely to afford
registration fees required by some afterschool programs. This
means that children who could benefit most from having a safe
and supportive place to learn and exercise, with afterschool
snacks, are less likely to be able to participate.
According to the California Homeless Youth Project, there were
approximately 270,000 homeless students in California during
the 2012-13 school year. There are approximately 40,000
foster youth in California.
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2)Family fees. ASES programs are authorized to charge fees, but
data on the number of programs that charge fees is not
available because this information is not required to be
reported to the California Department of Education (CDE).
According to the CDE, some programs may charge a nominal
enrollment fee, while others may charge fees in order to
expand access to the program.
3)Federal meal program. This bill expresses the intent of the
Legislature that programs not use core operating funds for
snacks and meals and instead seek to qualify program sites as
approved distribution sites for federally funded meal
programs. The goal of the sponsors is to increase access to
federally funded meal programs, such as the Free and Reduced
Price Meal program or the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
The sponsors state that tapping into federal funds
specifically for food would free up funds for after school
enrichment activities and enable students to have an early
dinner.
According to CDE, many after school programs are already on a
federally reimbursable meal program, the National School Lunch
Program (NSLP) (snack only) or the Child and Adult Care Food
Program (CACFP) (snack and/or supper).
4)Prior legislation. AB 891 (Campos) of 2015 contained three
proposals related to homeless and low-income children. This
bill is substantially similar to one of the three proposals.
One difference between the bills is that AB 891 required
priority for homeless youth and pupils whose families qualify
AB 1567
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for CalWORKs assistance while this bill requires priority for
homeless and foster care youth. This bill was held in this
committee's Suspense file.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081