BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2448
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Date of Hearing: March 29, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Susan Bonilla, Chair
AB 2448
(Burke) - As Introduced February 19, 2016
SUBJECT: CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: education
SUMMARY: Changes certain California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) requirements regarding
permissible welfare-to-work activities in order to facilitate a
recipient's completion of a high school equivalency program.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Includes participation in a high school equivalency program
among the list of permissible welfare-to-work activities a
CalWORKs participant is required to engage in after
orientation and appraisal, as specified.
2)Stipulates that any month in which a CalWORKs recipient
participates in a high school equivalency program, as
specified, shall be prohibited from counting against that
recipient's "24-month clock," the cumulative time limit during
which a broader set of activities are permitted to count as
welfare-to-work activities, and after which a more restricted
list of welfare-to-work activities is permissible. Further,
in accordance with this change, removes participation in a
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secondary school or high school equivalency program from the
list of required activities a CalWORKs recipient must
participate in after exhausting the 24-month clock.
3)Permits, but does not require, a CalWORKs recipient to
participate in a high school equivalency program, as
specified, if it is determined during the appraisal that he or
she has not yet received his or her high school diploma or its
equivalent.
4)Exempts a CalWORKs recipient who is determined to not have yet
received his or her high school diploma or its equivalent from
having to participate in an assessment prior to, or as a
condition of, participation in a high school equivalency
program.
5)Makes technical amendments.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes under federal law the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program to provide aid and
welfare-to-work services to eligible families and, in
California, provides that TANF funds for welfare-to-work
services are administered through the CalWORKs program. (42
U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et seq.)
2)Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
determine eligibility for the program, including net income
below the Maximum Aid Payment (MAP), based on family size and
county of residence, which is around 40% of the Federal
Poverty Level. (WIC 11150 to 11160, 11450 et seq.)
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3)Establishes a 48-month lifetime limit of CalWORKs benefits for
eligible adults, including 24 months during which a recipient
must meet federal work requirements in order to retain
eligibility. (WIC 11454, 11322.85)
4)Requires all individuals over 16 years of age, unless they are
otherwise exempt, to participate in specified welfare-to-work
activities as a condition of eligibility for CalWORKs. (WIC
11320.3, 11322.6)
5)Stipulates the sequence of employment-related activities a
CalWORKs participant must engage in subsequent to the receipt
of aid. (WIC 11320.3)
6)Establishes the number of weekly hours of welfare-to-work
participation necessary to remain eligible for aid, including
requirements for an unemployed parent in a two-parent
assistance unit, as specified. (WIC 11322.8)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
CalWORKs: The CalWORKs program provides monthly income
assistance and employment-related services aimed at moving
children out of poverty and helping families meet basic needs.
Federal funding for CalWORKs comes from the TANF block grant.
The average 2016-17 monthly cash grant for a family of three on
CalWORKs (one parent and two children) is $497.35, and the
maximum monthly grant amount for a family of three, if the
family has no other income and lives in a high-cost county, is
$704. According to recent data from the California Department
of Social Services, around 497,000 families rely on CalWORKs,
including over one million children. Nearly 60% of cases
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include children under 6 years old.
Maximum grant amounts in high-cost counties of $704 per month
for a family of three, with no other income, means $23.46 per
day, per family, or $7.82 per family member, per day to meet
basic needs, including rent, clothing, utility bills, food, and
anything else a family needs to ensure children can be cared for
at home and safely remain with their families. This grant
amount puts the annual household income at $8,448 per year, or
42% of poverty. Federal Poverty Guidelines for 2016 show that
100% of poverty for a family of three is $20,160 per year.
Welfare-to-Work requirements: Welfare-to-work activities within
the CalWORKs program include public or private sector subsidized
or unsubsidized employment; on-the-job training; community
service; secondary school, adult basic education and vocational
education and training when the education is needed for the
recipient to become employed; specific mental health, substance
abuse, or domestic violence services if they are necessary to
obtain or retain employment; and a number of other activities
necessary to assist a recipient in obtaining unsubsidized
employment.
Unless they are exempt, single parent adults must participate
for at least 30 hours per week in welfare-to-work activities,
whereas the minimum participation requirement for two-parent
families is 35 hours per week. After receiving aid for up to a
maximum of 24 months, adults without an exemption must meet
federal work requirements, with more restrictive employment
settings and allowable employment activities. If a CalWORKs
recipient who is not exempt from participation does not meet his
or her welfare-to-work requirements, the recipient is sanctioned
for noncompliance, and that recipient's portion of the family's
grant subtracted from the amount provided to the family to meet
basic needs.
CalWORKs time limits: Passage of the Personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), which
was the final piece of federal welfare reform legislation,
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marked the end of the previous Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC) program and the beginning of the block-granted
TANF program, under which CalWORKs was established in California
state law. Among the numerous programmatic changes included
within the TANF program was a requirement that eligible parents
work or participate in work training or other activities that
lead to employment. The TANF program provides a great deal of
flexibility in how states implement their respective programs,
including the ability for states to establish more truncated
time limits than the 60-month lifetime limit on aid for adult
recipients authorized within it. As of 2011, California has
limited aid to adult CalWORKs recipients to a lifetime limit of
48 months.
Need for this bill: In Federal Fiscal Year 2013, it was
reported that only 52.3% of heads-of-household in single-parent
CalWORKs families had completed high school or the equivalent,
and only 56.1% of heads-of-household in two-parent families had.
The impact of having a high school diploma or its equivalent on
employment and income is well-documented. For example, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2015 for adults ages
25 and over, those without a high school diploma or equivalent
saw median weekly earnings of $493, compared to their
counterparts with a high school diploma whose median weekly
earnings were $678. Amongst the same population, the
unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma was
8.0%, compared to 5.4% for those with a high school diploma.
According to the author, "The ultimate goal of the CalWORKs
program is to provide support to recipients who need assistance
making the transition to work and this bill makes sure high
school equivalency is obtained without the 24 month time limit
being reached first. This effectively ensures they have enough
time to get the education and training needed before entering
the workforce full time, increasing their odds of avoiding
chronic unemployment and other obstacles in the way of
self-sufficiency."
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Suggested amendments: In order to make clear that allowable
high school equivalency education per this bill is not
restricted to just general educational development (GED)
certificate instruction, but includes a broader range of high
school equivalency programs, committee staff recommends the
following amendments to Section 11322.6 of the bill:
1)Starting on line 29 of page 4:
28
(k)Adult basic education, which shall include reading,
writing,
29
arithmetic, high school proficiency, or general educational
30
development certificate of instruction a high school equivalency
program , and English as a second
31
language. Participants under this subdivision shall be referred
to
32
appropriate service providers that include, but are not limited
to,
33
educational programs operated by school districts or county
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offices
34
of education that have contracted with the Superintendent of
Public
35
Instruction to provide services to participants pursuant to
Section
36
33117.5 of the Education Code.
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2)Starting on line 8 of page 5:
(p)Satisfactory progress in secondary school or in a course of
8
study leading to a certificate of general educational
development completion of a high school equivalency program ,
9
in the case of a recipient who has not completed secondary
school
10
or received such a certificate. certificate a high school
equivalency program , as described in Section
11
11325.3.
RELATED LEGISLATION:
AB 1994 (Lopez), 2016, creates the CalED program to provide a
one-time $500 supplement to eligible CalWORKs participants upon
successful completion of a high school equivalency examination.
The bill will be heard in Assembly Human Services on March 29,
2016.
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AB 2058 (Mayes), 2016, creates the CalWORKs Educational
Opportunity and Attainment Program and awards grant increases to
CalWORKs recipients upon completion of educational milestones,
as specified. The bill will be heard in Assembly Human Services
on April 12, 2016.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Alternative Payment Program Association (CAPPA)
California Catholic Conference
County Welfare Directors Association of CA (CWDA) - sponsor
National Association of Social Workers, CA Chapter (NASW-CA)
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by:Daphne Hunt / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089