BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Senator Carol Liu, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 1995 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Williams | |-----------+-----------------------------------------------------| |Version: |May 31, 2016 Hearing | | |Date: June 22, 2016 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant:|Kathleen Chavira | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Community colleges: homeless students: access to shower facilities SUMMARY This bill requires a community college campus to grant access to shower facilities for enrolled homeless youth, as specified. BACKGROUND Existing federal law defines the term "homeless children and youth" to mean individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, as specified, including, but not limited to, the following: a) children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; b) are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; c) are living in emergency or transitional shelters; d) are abandoned in hospitals; e) are awaiting foster care placement; f) have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; and, g) are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings: h) migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this part because the children are living in circumstances previously described. (42 United States Code § 11434a(2)) AB 1995 (Williams) Page 2 of ? Current law established the Student Success Act, which applies to all community college students, for the purpose of increasing student access and success by providing effective core matriculation services, including orientation, assessment and placement, counseling and other education planning services and academic interventions. Community colleges have the responsibility to provide student services and support, including orientation, assessment, counseling and education planning, referral to specialized support services, and evaluation of each student's progress and referral to appropriate interventions. Students have the responsibility to identify an academic and career goal, declare a specific course of study, be diligent in class attendance and completion of assigned coursework, and complete courses and maintain academic progress toward an educational goal. (Education Code § 78210-78219; 5 California Code of Regulations § 55500-55534) ANALYSIS This bill: 1) Requires the governing board of the community college district that has a campus with shower facilities for student use to grant access to those facilities to any homeless student. It: a) Requires that access be granted to a homeless student enrolled in coursework, who has paid enrollment fees, and is in good standing with the community college district. b) Prohibits any requirement that the student enroll in additional courses to gain this access. 2) Requires the governing board to determine an implementation plan of action for this purpose that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following: a) Hours of operation for the shower AB 1995 (Williams) Page 3 of ? facilities that are: i) Consistent with campus hours of instruction. ii) Do not conflict with the campus' intercollegiate athletic program. b) The minimum number of units a student must be enrolled in to use the facilities. c) A plan of action if hours of operation conflict with an intercollegiate athletic program. d) A definition of homeless student that is both: i) Based on the definition of homeless youth and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. (42 U.S.C. § 11434a(2)) ii) Reflects the age of the campus' homeless student population. 3) Authorizes the use of Student Success Support Program funds for purposes of administering a program to implement these provisions. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill. According to the author, new data from the 2015 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) indicate that 58,000 college students are homeless nationwide, up from 47,200 in 2009. California has the highest rate of homeless youth in the nation and twice the national average rate of homeless students. Students without permanent housing may go without showers, basic hygienic products, and other essential services. Students are also less likely to attend class when they do not shower and feel insecure about their physical appearance. According to the author, this bill will increase the likelihood of educational goal completion for students facing a housing or financial crisis. AB 1995 (Williams) Page 4 of ? 2) Student Success at the Community Colleges. Pursuant to Senate Bill 1143 (Liu, Chapter 409, Statutes of 2010), the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges created the Student Success Task Force (SSTF); 20 individuals (community college chief executive officers, faculty, students, researchers, staff and external stake holders) who spent a year researching, studying and debating the best methods to improve student outcomes at the community colleges. According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by the Board of Governors in January 2012, it was their goal to identify best practices for promoting student success and to develop statewide strategies to take these approaches to scale while ensuring that educational opportunity for historically underrepresented students would not just be maintained, but bolstered. The Student Success Task Force (SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific recommendations focused on the following eight areas: a) Increasing college and career readiness. b) Strengthening support for entering students. c) Incentivizing successful student behaviors. d) Aligning course offerings to meet student needs. e) Improving education of basic skills students. f) Revitalizing and re-envisioning professional development. g) Enabling efficient statewide leadership and increase coordination among colleges. h) Aligning resources with student success recommendations. Implementation of these recommendations is being accomplished by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges via the "Student Success Initiative" AB 1995 (Williams) Page 5 of ? through regulatory changes, system-wide administrative policies, local best practices and legislation. These implementation efforts include the following: a) SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of 2013) recast the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 in order to target funding to services such as orientation, assessment, and counseling and advising to assist students with the development of education plans. It also required that students define goals, required that students declare a course of study and mandated student participation in assessment, orientation and education planning. b) At a regulatory level, the Board of Governors approved regulations that provide enrollment priority to students who have participated in assessment, orientation, and who have developed an education plan. In addition, statutory priority enrollment extended to veterans, foster youth, Extended Opportunity Program & Services students, and disabled students requires participation in these Student Success Services and programs. Students are now required to complete core services as well as to declare a course of study. In addition, districts are now required to notify students that accumulating 100 degree applicable units or being on academic or progress probation for two consecutive terms will result in the loss of enrollment priority. c) Since 2012, the State has increased ongoing funding for community college student success and support by nearly $600 Million. These funds have been designated to support the Student Services Support Program (SSSP) established by SB 1456 (Lowenthal) to provide targeted services such as orientation, assessment, and counseling and advising to assist students with the development of education plans. In addition these funds support the creation of Student Equity Plans to improve access and outcomes for disadvantaged groups, as well as a number of Chancellor's Office Initiatives to provide related support to districts. AB 1995 (Williams) Page 6 of ? In February 2016, this Committee held an informational hearing, California's Community Colleges: Implementation of Student Success where the committee received an update on the use of these funds, the progress made in implementing student success strategies both systemwide and at the campus level, and heard preliminary reports on student outcomes. 3) Related report expected. SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of 2012), in addition to establishing the Student Success Act of 2012, required the Legislative Analyst (LAO) to submit a report to the Legislature evaluating progress on implementation of the Act and impacts on student completion, by July 1, 2016. According to the LAO, this report should be available in mid-September 2016. According to the LAO, the report will focus on implementation of the Student Success and Support Program and Student Equity Program. The LAO report will evaluate how the system and individual colleges and districts have implemented student success initiatives, including how they have used state categorical funding for these programs. The LAO will also examine the extent to which colleges have hired additional counselors, and the extent to which colleges are providing mandatory services to entering students. In addition, the LAO will attempt to determine the early effects of these programs on student success rates and student equity. Should any expansion of the use of these funds be authorized prior to the LAO evaluation of the use/need for these funds for their original purpose? 4) Dilution of SSSP efforts. As noted in staff comment #2, the State has allocated substantial funding to provide direct matriculation services to students through the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP). This bill authorizes the use of SSSP funds to pay for any administrative costs related to the use of shower facilities. Should this committee authorize the use of SSSP funds for purposes unrelated to the 6-year effort to implement strategies to incentivize successful student behaviors and improve completion at the community colleges? Would this AB 1995 (Williams) Page 7 of ? bill set a precedent that dilutes SSSP funds intended for critical academic support services for the provision of nonacademic services? Are there other more appropriate funding sources for this purpose? Staff recommends the bill be amended to delete the authorization to use SSSP funds for this purpose. 5) Less disruption. As currently drafted, the bill requires that hours of operation be consistent with campus hours of instruction and prohibit any conflict with the campus intercollegiate athletic program. Campus hours of instruction may not be consistent with gym hours of operation. Consistent with the request of the author, staff recommends the bill be amended on page 3 in subdivision (c) to require consistency with gym hours of operation rather than campus hours of instruction. 6) Similar legislation. AB 2822 (Chiu), also on the Committee's agenda today, authorizes the use of up to 3 percent of SSSP funding received by a community college campus or district for the provision of emergency student financial assistance. SUPPORT California Coalition for Youth Faculty Association of California Community Colleges North Orange County Community College District OPPOSITION None received on this version. -- END --