BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1995|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1995
Author: Williams (D) and Gonzalez (D), et al.
Amended: 8/1/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-1, 6/22/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan
NOES: Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 6-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 67-8, 6/2/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Community colleges: homeless students: access to
shower facilities
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires a community college campus to grant
access to shower facilities for enrolled homeless youth, as
specified.
ANALYSIS: 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
AB 1995
Page 2
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))
Existing state law establishes 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)
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
enrolled in coursework, who has paid enrollment fees, and is
in good standing with the community college district.
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 facilities that are
consistent with campus hours of instruction in which the
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showers are located, set at a minimum of two hours per
weekday, and 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 based on
the definition of homeless youth and the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act. (42 U.S.C. § 11434a(2)) and
reflects the age of the campus' homeless student
population.
Comments
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.
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
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while ensuring that educational opportunity for historically
underrepresented students would not just be maintained, but
bolstered.
The SSTF effort resulted in 22 specific recommendations focused
on the following eight areas:
1)Increasing college and career readiness.
2)Strengthening support for entering students.
3)Incentivizing successful student behaviors.
4)Aligning course offerings to meet student needs.
5)Improving education of basic skills students.
6)Revitalizing and re-envisioning professional development.
7)Enabling efficient statewide leadership and increase
coordination among colleges.
8)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" through regulatory changes,
system-wide administrative policies, local best practices and
legislation. These implementation efforts include SB 1456
(Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of 2012), which 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. 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
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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.
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.
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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
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According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill
results in:
Potential ongoing reimbursable state mandate costs of up to
$1.7 million statewide to regulate the shower facilities for
at least two hours per weekday. (Proposition 98)
One-time reimbursable state mandate costs likely in the low
hundreds of thousands for each community college district to
determine a plan of action that includes the specified
components. (Proposition 98)
SUPPORT: (Verified8/12/16)
California Coalition for Youth
City of Santa Monica
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
North Orange County Community College District
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 67-8, 6/2/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Melendez,
Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone,
Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Travis Allen, Grove, Harper, Jones, Mathis, Mayes,
Obernolte, Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher,
Steinorth
Prepared by:Lenin DelCastillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
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