BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2506|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2506
Author: Thurmond (D), et al.
Amended: 8/19/16 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.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 strike all existing
provisions of the bill, and recast provisions that require
Chafee grants to be awarded to a student only if the student
attends a qualifying institution that is eligible for
participation in the Cal Grant program or an institution that is
located outside of California (thereby shifting the
administrative details from this bill to the Memorandum of
Understanding between the California Student Aid Commission and
the Department of Social Services).
AB 2506
Page 2
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.)
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)
4)Provides that CSAC, through an interagency agreement with the
Department of Social Services, operates a federally funded
scholarship program that provides grant aid to provide access
to California's current and former foster youth to
postsecondary education. (EC § 69519)
This bill requires the CSAC, beginning with the 2017-18 award
year, to make a new Chafee grant award to a student only if the
student attends either of the following:
1)A qualifying institution that is eligible for participation in
the Cal Grant Program.
2)An institution that is not located in California that
AB 2506
Page 3
satisfies the "qualifying institution" requirements of the Cal
Grant Program.
Comments
Chafee eligibility requirements. To qualify for a Chafee
Educational and Training Voucher (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
program is approximately $11.5 million, which is evenly split
between federal funds ($5.6 million) and the state General Fund.
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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: (Verified8/19/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/19/16)
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,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
AB 2506
Page 5
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
8/22/16 23:05:44
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