BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session AB 1567 (Campos) - Before and after school programs: enrollment: fees: homeless and foster youth: snacks or meals ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: June 22, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: No | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: Beginning July 1, 2017, this bill: (1) establishes first priority for enrollment in before and after school programs to be students who are identified as homeless and in foster care, and (2) prohibits programs from charging a family for a child that the program knows to be a homeless youth or a foster care youth. Fiscal Impact: Though this bill does not expand services, it creates a potentially significant Proposition 98 cost pressure to the extent children whose families are currently able to pay AB 1567 (Campos) Page 1 of ? family fees are displaced due to priority enrollment for homeless and foster youth, whose fees would be waived. This would result in forgone revenue that would have otherwise supported local programs, thereby creating cost pressures on the After School Education and Safety (ASES) program. See staff comments. Background: Existing law establishes the ASES program, a three year grant program, to create incentives for establishing locally driven before and after school enrichment programs that partner with public schools and communities to provide academic and literacy support and safe, constructive alternatives for youth. The ASES program serves students in kindergarten and grades 1 through 9. Local educational agencies (LEAs) may operate a before school component of a program, an after school component, or both, on one or multiple school sites. (Education Code § 8482 and 8482.3) Existing law specifies that every student attending a school operating an ASES program is eligible to participate in the program, subject to capacity. Priority for funding is required to be given to schools where a minimum of 50 percent of the students in elementary schools and 50 percent of the students in middle and junior high schools are eligible for free or reduced cost meals through the school lunch program of the United States Department of Agriculture. A program is not required to charge family fees or conduct eligibility determinations based on need. Existing law continuously appropriates to the California Department of Education (CDE) $550 million from the General Fund for the ASES program. (EC § 8482.6, 8482.5, and 8483.5) The federal McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youths Program requires state educational agencies to ensure that homeless children and youth have equal access to the same free public education as is provided to other children and youth. States are required to review and take steps to revise any laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as barriers to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youth. (United States Code, Title 42, § 11431, et seq.) AB 1567 (Campos) Page 2 of ? Proposed Law: Beginning July 1, 2017, this bill: Requires that if an ASES program charges family fees, it is prohibited from charging a family for a child that the program knows to be a homeless youth or a foster care youth; Establishes first priority for enrollment in before and after school programs to be students who are identified as homeless and in foster care; Establishes second priority for programs serving middle and junior high school students to students who attend daily; Requires a program to inform the parent or caregiver of the right of homeless children and foster children to receive priority enrollment and how to make a request; and Requires program administrators to allow self-certification of a student for purposes of identifying a student who is eligible for priority enrollment. This bill provides that nothing in it be construed to require a program to verify, or a school district to disclose to an after school program, that a student applying for or participating in the program is a homeless youth or a foster youth. Administrators may obtain this information through the school district liaison designated for homeless children if the school district has the appropriate waiver. Finally, this bill provides legislative intent that an ASES program be prohibited from using its core operating funds for mandatory snacks or meals, but be required to 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. AB 1567 (Campos) Page 3 of ? Related Legislation: AB 2615 (Wood, 2016) among other things, requires programs that charge family fees to waive or reduce the cost of these fees for students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. This bill prohibits, if a program charges family fees, charging a family for a child if it is known that the child is a homeless youth or is in foster care. AB 2615 is pending in this committee. AB 1426 (Cooper) increases the per-student daily and weekly rates for ASES. AB 1426 is pending in this committee. Staff Comments: According to the author, some of the poorest and most vulnerable children do not have access to ASES programs because they are unable to secure a spot on the waiting list or to pay the minimal fee required by some programs. This bill seeks to ensure that state funded after school programs are available to the neediest of children by giving priority access and waiving fees for homeless or foster care youth. Priority for ASES funding is provided for schools that have a minimum of 50 percent of students that are eligible for free- or reduced-price meals, and funding priority is given to programs serving the highest percentages of students eligible for those meals. Though the intent of the program is to not deny a child access to an ASES program due to inability to pay, programs may still charge family fees. There are a number of payment structures that programs employ such as donations, sliding scale fees depending upon family income, and flat fees with scholarships available. Some programs do not charge fees at all. However, some programs use the revenue to help meet the required local match of one-third of the total grant they receive. This bill provides that if an ASES program charges family fees, it is prohibited from charging a family for a child that it knows to be a homeless youth or a foster care youth. Because funding is capped at the $550 million annual appropriation, some programs may have waitlists or limited slots in their programs. AB 1567 (Campos) Page 4 of ? Providing priority enrollment and family fee waivers to homeless and foster youth will likely displace other participants who may be able to afford the fee which would be used to support the program. For example at Lake County Office of Education, family fees range from $25 to $100 per month based on income level. To the extent 10 students in the highest income bracket are displaced by this priority enrollment, the program could lose $10,000 over the course of the school year. The maximum grant level for middle or junior high schools is $150,000. However, the priority enrollment ensures that some of the most disadvantaged are served first. -- END --