BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1995
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
1995 (Williams and Gonzalez)
As Amended August 1, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 67-8 |(June 2, 2016) |SENATE: | 33-1 |(August 18, |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY: Requires campuses of the California Community Colleges
(CCC) to grant enrolled homeless students access and usage of
campus shower facilities.
The Senate amendments:
1)Delete the requirement for the access and usage of shower
facilities, as specified, to be administered through the
Student Success and Support Program (SSSP).
2)Specify that the hours of operation (for the shower facilities
access and usage, as specified) shall be consistent with hours
of operation of the facilities in which the showers are
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located, shall be set at a minimum of two hours per weekday,
and shall not conflict with the intercollegiate athletic
program of the campus.
3)Make technical clarifying changes.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes in federal law the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 to ensure
educational rights and protections for youth experiencing
homelessness (42 United States Code (U.S.C.) 11431, et seq.).
2)Defines in federal law "homeless children and youth" to mean
individuals who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime
residence, as specified, including children and youth who are:
a) Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of
housing, economic hardship, or similar reason;
b) Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping
grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate
accommodations;
c) Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
d) Abandoned in hospitals;
e) Awaiting foster care placement;
f) Inhabiting a primary nighttime residence that is a
public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used
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as a regular sleeping accommodation, as specified;
g) Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned
buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or
similar settings; and,
h) Migratory, as defined, and who otherwise qualify as
homeless per this definition (42 U.S.C. 11434(a)(2)).
3)Establishes the Community College Student Financial Aid
Outreach Program and requires the California Student Aid
Commission (CSAC) to develop and administer this program for
the purpose of providing financial aid training to high school
and community college counselors and advisors, as specified.
Further requires the program to:
a) Include training to address the specific needs of
community college students intending to transfer to a
four-year institution of higher education, foster youth,
and students with disabilities;
b) Provide specialized information on financial aid
opportunities available to community college students, as
specified; and
c) Concentrate its efforts on high schools and community
colleges that are located in geographic areas with a high
percentage of low-income families (Education Code (EC)
69514.5).
4)Permits CSAC to, via the Student Opportunity and Access
Program, apportion funds on a progress payment schedule for
the support of projects designed to increase the accessibility
of postsecondary educational opportunities for any elementary
and secondary school pupils who are: from low-income
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families, will be the first in their families to attend
college, or are from schools or geographic regions with
documented low eligibility or college participation rates (EC
69561).
5)Creates the SSSP in order to provide a variety of programs
intended to ensure the success of CCC students (EC 78212).
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)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).
2)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).
COMMENTS: Background. According to the National Association
for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY),
college homelessness is a serious issue that is often
overlooked; there exists an assumption that if someone is
homeless, he/she is so focused on basic needs like food and
shelter that school is not a concern. However, NAEHCY contends
that for homeless youth, education is the answer to providing
homeless youth means to be able to enter into the work force,
earn a living, and no longer be homeless.
To note, there is no concrete estimate for the number of
homeless college students nationwide, but 58,158 college
applicants indicated that they were homeless on federal
financial aid forms for the 2012-13 academic year (most recent
data available to date); which, according to NAEHCY, is up 8%
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from 53,705 in the previous year, according to federal data.
NAEHCY argues that the number is likely understated, since some
students may be staying in a car, relatives' or fellow
classmates' couches, or motels, and do not realize they are
technically homeless, or do not want to admit to it.
Additionally, California has the highest rate of homeless youth
in the nation and twice the rate of homeless students as the
national average (4% in CA vs. 2% nationally).
Purpose of the measure. According to the author, food and
housing insecurity impairs the academic performance of college
students. Students without permanent housing may go without
showering and basic hygienic products. The author states,
"Students are less likely to attend class when they do not take
showers and feel insecure about their physical appearance." The
author contends that homeless students who lack access to shower
facilities and other necessities are at an extreme risk of
dropping out of school.
This measure requires the governing board of a community college
district to create certain protocols when authorizing homeless
students to access and use campus shower facilities.
Previous legislation. AB 1228 (Gipson), Chapter 571, Statutes
of 2015, extends priority for housing at the University of
California, the California State University, and the CCC, to
homeless youth, and requests campuses to develop plans to ensure
that homeless and foster youth have housing during school
breaks.
AB 801 (Bloom) of the current legislative session, which is on
the Inactive File on the Senate Floor, would, among others,
create the Success for Homeless Youth in Higher Education Act.
Analysis Prepared by:
Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960
FN: 0004220
AB 1995
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