BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2506|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2506
Author: Thurmond (D), et al.
Amended: 8/16/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/22/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-1, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Student financial aid: Chafee grant awards
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires postsecondary education
institutions to meet eligibility requirements to receive Chafee
funds, similar to existing provisions of the Cal Grant program.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) for
the purpose of administering specified student financial
programs. (Education Code § 69510, et seq.)
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Page 2
2)Establishes requirements for postsecondary education
institutions to participate in the Cal Grant program, and
requires, for the 2012-13 and subsequent academic years, an
institution to maintain a graduation rate above 30% and a
three-year cohort student loan default rate of less than
15.5%. (EC § 69432.7)
3)Establishes the federal John H. Chafee Foster Care
Independence Program to provide, among other benefits,
education and training vouchers to qualifying current and
former foster youth. (United States Code, Title 42, § 677)
This bill:
1)Establishes the standards for postsecondary educational
institutions to be classified as qualifying institutions for
the purposes of the Chafee Educational and Training Voucher
(ETV) program, to the extent permitted by federal law.
2)Requires the following standards to apply, beginning with the
2017-18 academic year, in determining an institution's
eligibility for the use of initial and renewal Chafee grant
awards by its students:
a) Provides that an otherwise qualifying institution with a
three-year cohort default rate that is 15.5% or higher, as
certified by the CSAC, is ineligible for the use of Chafee
grant awards.
b) Authorizes an otherwise qualifying institution that
becomes ineligible to regain eligibility for the subsequent
academic year after satisfying a) - d). This bill provides
that an institution is to immediately regain its
eligibility if the United States Department of Education
corrects or revises the institution's three-year cohort
default rate or graduation rate such that the requirements
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Page 3
in a) - d) are met.
c) Provides that an otherwise qualifying institution for
which no three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate
has been reported is 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.
d) An otherwise qualifying institution with a graduation
rate of 30% or less for students taking 150% of less of the
expected time to complete degree requirements, as reported
by the United States Department of Education and certified
by the CSAC, is ineligible for the use of Chafee grant
awards.
3)Exempts from these standards institutions with 40% or less of
undergraduate students borrowing federal student loans, using
information reported to the United States Department of
Education for the prior two academic years.
4)Entitles an individual who has received a Chafee grant for the
2016-17 academic year and who is enrolled at a postsecondary
educational institution 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 otherwise
completing the course of study.
5)Requires the CSAC to notify initial or renewal recipients
seeking to attend, or attending, an institution that is
ineligible for Chafee grant funds that the institution is
ineligible for the use of Chafee grant awards.
6)States legislative intent that the memorandum of understanding
between the Department of Social Services and the CSAC for the
administration of the Chafee grant be amended to reflect the
provisions of this bill.
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7)States legislative findings and declarations relative to the
importance of quality education and the poor educational
outcomes for foster youth.
Comments
Chafee eligibility requirements. To qualify for a Chafee ETV,
students must:
1)Be a current or former foster youth, with dependency
established or continued by the court between ages 16-18.
2)Be under the age of 22 years as of July 1 of the award year.
Students must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student
Aid, or California Dream Act Application, and the California
Chafee grant application. The Chafee ETV is not an entitlement,
unlike the Cal Grant program.
Qualifying institutions. The Chafee ETV may be used at any
eligible California college as well as colleges in other states.
In California, students may use the Chafee grant at career and
technical schools, California Community Colleges, the California
State University, the University of California, independent
colleges, and private colleges.
Existing law requires postsecondary education institutions to
maintain, in order for students to use Cal Grants to attend
those institutions, a graduation rate above 30% and a three-year
cohort student loan default rate of less than 15.5%. This bill
requires institutions to meet the standards established in
statute for participation in the Cal Grant program.
Funding. In California, the Chafee ETV provides up to $5,000 in
grants to current and former foster youth. The budget for the
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program is approximately $11.5 million, which is evenly split
between federal funds ($5.6 million) and the state General Fund.
State funding for the program is accounted for in the
Department of Social Services budget. The 2016 Budget Act
includes an additional $3 million for the Chafee ETV.
The maximum Chafee grant is $5,000 per academic year; the
average awarded grant in 2014-15 was $3,251. The program serves
about 2,228 California students.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the CSAC
indicates that verifying institutions' eligibility for the use
of Chafee grant awards by its students would impose minor and
absorbable costs to the CSAC.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/15/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/15/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-1, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
AB 2506
Page 6
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Harper
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/16/16 18:02:10
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