BILL NUMBER: AB 2506	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 16, 2016
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 29, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 27, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 30, 2016

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Thurmond
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Gonzalez)

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2016

   An act to add Section 69518.5 to the Education Code, relating to
student financial aid.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2506, as amended, Thurmond. Student financial aid: Chafee grant
awards.
   Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the state
agency primarily responsible for the administration and coordination
of student financial aid programs at California postsecondary
educational institutions. Existing federal law establishes the Chafee
Educational and Training Voucher program for the purposes of
providing financial aid to current and former foster youth who are
attending qualifying postsecondary educational institutions.
   This bill would, to the extent permitted by federal law, establish
the standards to be met by postsecondary educational 
institutions   institutions, commencing with the 2017-18
academic year,  in order to be deemed to be qualifying
institutions in this state with respect to the Chafee Educational and
Training Voucher program.  The bill would provide that,
commencing with the 2017-18 academic year, a current or former foster
youth is entitled to a Chafee grant award, and would require the
commission to allocate that grant award, if the student meets
specified criteria. 
   The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the
memorandum of understanding entered into between the State Department
of Social Services and the Student Aid Commission for the
administration of the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher program
be amended to reflect the provisions of this bill. The bill would
provide that, notwithstanding any of its other provisions, an
individual who has received a Chafee grant award for the 2016-17
academic year, and is enrolled at a postsecondary educational
institution in this state, would be entitled to use a Chafee grant
award for as long as he or she is enrolled at that institution and is
making reasonable progress toward graduation or toward otherwise
completing his or her course of study at that institution.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) There are 66,000 children and youth in California's foster
care system who have been removed from their biological families due
to maltreatment and placed into the care and custody of the State of
California.
   (b) (1) The Legislature recognizes the historic
underrepresentation of foster youth in postsecondary programs and the
need for equitable efforts that enhance the enrollment and retention
of foster youth in public colleges and universities in California.
   (2) Current and former foster youth who attend college experience
a low rate of persistence, transfer, and degree completion. Foster
youth are 85 percent less likely to successfully complete 30 units or
more anytime during community college as compared to the general
student population. 
   (3) Receipt of financial aid plays an important role in
persistence, transfer, and degree completion. Fifty percent of foster
youth who receive the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher
complete three semesters or more of community college, as compared
with 34 percent of foster youth who do not receive the Chafee
Educational and Training Voucher.  
   (4) Access to the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher is
limited. One in four eligible applicants is not awarded a grant due
to limited funding. Without improved access to financial aid, foster
youth experience low educational attainment.  
   (5) Low educational attainment is a factor in the poor adult
outcomes experienced by youth in foster care. Compared to their
same-age counterparts, former foster youth at 26 years of age are 400
percent more likely to have been incarcerated and 300 percent more
likely to be living below the federal poverty level. 

   (c) The Legislature recognizes its responsibility to provide and
adequately fund postsecondary programs and services for students who
are current and former foster youth attending public postsecondary
institutions. 
   (d) 
    (c)  The Legislature recognizes the importance of
quality education, and has taken action in the past to ensure
financial aid is directed to postsecondary institutions at which the
graduation rate and cohort default rate reflect a reasonable
likelihood of student graduation and success. 
   (e) Therefore, it is necessary and appropriate to take steps to
encourage the enrollment, retention, and transfer of current and
former foster youth in California's public colleges and universities
by ensuring that all foster youth who meet the eligibility criteria
for the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher receive a grant.
Providing academic support to current and former foster youth in the
California Community Colleges serves a significant governmental and
public interest, namely the reduction in poverty and criminal justice
involvement among youth who have been in foster care in California.

  SEC. 2.  Section 69518.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:
   69518.5.  (a) To the extent permitted by federal law, this section
establishes the standards for postsecondary educational institutions
to be classified as qualifying institutions in this state for
purposes of the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher program
authorized by the federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families
Amendments of 2001 (Public Law 107-133). 
   (b) The commission shall certify by October 1 of each year a
postsecondary educational institution's latest three-year cohort
default rate and graduation rate as most recently reported by the
United States Department of Education.  
   (c) 
    (   b)  In accordance with subdivision (a),
 for purposes of the 2017-18 academic year and each academic year
thereafter,  the following standards shall apply in determining
an institution's eligibility for the use of initial and renewal
Chafee grant awards by its students:
   (1) An otherwise qualifying institution with a three-year cohort
default rate that is equal to or greater than 15.5 percent, as
certified by the commission on October 1, 2017, and on October 1 of
any year thereafter, shall be ineligible for the use of initial and
renewal Chafee grant awards at the institution.
   (2) (A) An otherwise qualifying institution that becomes
ineligible under this  paragraph   subdivision
 for initial and renewal Chafee grant awards may regain its
eligibility for the academic year following an academic year in which
it satisfies the requirements established in paragraph (1) or (4),
as applicable.
   (B) If the United States Department of Education corrects or
revises an institution's three-year cohort default rate or graduation
rate that originally failed to satisfy the requirements established
in paragraph (1) or (4), as applicable, and the correction or
revision results in the institution's three-year cohort default rate
or graduation rate satisfying those requirements, that institution
shall immediately regain its eligibility for the academic year to
which the corrected or revised three-year cohort default rate or
graduation rate would have been applied.
   (3) An otherwise qualifying institution for which no three-year
cohort default rate or graduation rate has been reported by the
United States Department of Education shall be provisionally eligible
for Chafee grant awards until a three-year cohort default rate or
graduation rate has been reported for the institution by the United
States Department of Education.
   (4)  For purposes of the 2017-18 academic year, and every
academic year thereafter, an   An  otherwise
qualifying institution with a graduation rate of 30 percent or less
for students taking 150 percent or less of the expected time to
complete degree requirements, as reported by the United States
Department of Education and as certified by the commission, shall be
ineligible for the use of initial and renewal Chafee grant awards at
the institution.
   (5) Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements of this
subdivision do not apply to institutions with 40 percent or less of
undergraduate students borrowing federal student loans, using
information reported to the United States Department of Education for
the academic year two years before the year in which the commission
is certifying the three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate.

   (6) Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements of this
subdivision do not apply to institutions where an eligible Chaffee
grant recipient is attending an institution outside of California.
 
   (7) Nothing in this section shall preclude an eligible Chafee
grant recipient who chooses to attend an institution outside of
California from using Chafee funds at that institution. 

   (d) 
    (   c)  The commission shall do  all
  both  of the following:
   (1) Notify initial recipients seeking to attend, or attending, an
institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal Chafee grant
awards under paragraph (1) or (4) of subdivision  (c)
  (b)  that the institution is ineligible, under
state standards, for the use of initial awards for the academic year
for which the student received an initial award.
   (2) Notify renewal recipients attending an institution that is
ineligible, under state standards, for initial and renewal Chafee
grant awards at the institution under paragraph (1) or (4) of
subdivision  (c).   (b).  
   (3) Provide initial and renewal Chafee grant recipients seeking to
attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial
and renewal Chafee grant awards at the institution under paragraph
(1) or (4) of subdivision (c) with a complete list of all California
postsecondary educational institutions at which the student would be
eligible, under state standards, to receive an unreduced Chafee grant
award.  
   (e) Commencing with the 2017-18 academic year, a current or former
foster youth is entitled to a Chafee grant award, and the commission
shall allocate that award, pursuant to the requirements of this
section, if that current or former foster youth meets both of the
following criteria:  
   (1) He or she meets the Chafee grant requirements as set forth in
the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (42 U.S.C. Sec.
677(i)).  
   (2) He or she submits a Free Application for Federal Student Aid
and a Chafee grant application between January 1 and September 2 of
each calendar year for the academic year beginning in the fall of
that calendar year.  
   (f) The amount of any individual Chafee grant award shall depend
on the cost of attendance at the qualifying institution at which the
student is enrolled. For each applicant, the award amount shall not
exceed the amount of the calculated financial need. 

   (g) 
    (d)  It is the intent of the Legislature that the
memorandum of understanding entered into between the State Department
of Social Services and the Student Aid Commission for the
administration of the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher program
be amended to reflect the provisions of this section. 
   (h) 
    (e)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this
section, an individual who has (1) received a Chafee grant award for
the 2016-17 academic year, and (2) is enrolled at a postsecondary
educational institution in this state, shall be entitled to use a
Chafee grant award for as long as he or she is enrolled at that
institution and is making reasonable progress toward graduation or
toward otherwise completing his or her course of study at that
institution.