BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 252 (Leno) - Pupils: diploma alternatives: fees
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|Version: April 7, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 4, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill prohibits a fee from being charged to
homeless youth for the high school proficiency exam and the high
school equivalency tests.
Fiscal
Impact:
This bill could create costs in the low to mid hundreds of
thousands to cover the loss of fee revenue. Minimum costs are
estimated to be about $100,000.
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates that
this bill imposes minimal costs to the department.
Background: CDE has designated the California High School Proficiency
Examination (CHSPE) as the test by which students may verify
proficiency in high school basic skills. Generally, students
that can take the test must be at least 16 years old. Some
students take the test and leave high school early to work or
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attend college. The State Board of Education awards a
"certificate of proficiency" to people who achieve a passing
score on the proficiency exam. The certificate of proficiency
is equivalent to a high school diploma.
The State Board of Education has approved the use of three high
school equivalency tests for students 18 years old and older,
and 17 years old in some instances, for the purpose of receiving
a California High School Equivalency Certificate. These tests
include: (1) the General Educational Development Test (GED); the
High School Equivalency Test; and (3) the Test Assessing
Secondary Completion. Current law provides that a California
high school equivalency certificate is deemed to be a high
school diploma for the purpose of meeting the requirements of
employment by all state and local public agencies in California.
(Education Code § 51420 and § 51425)
The federal McKinney-Vento Act defines "homeless children and
youths" as children and youths who lack a fixed, regular, and
adequate nighttime residence, and includes children and youths
who, among other situations, are sharing the housing of other
persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar
reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping
grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations.
(United States Code, Title 42, § 11431 et. seq.)
Proposed Law:
This bill prohibits CDE from charging a fee for the high
school proficiency exam to a homeless child or youth for the
high school proficiency exam who can verify his or her status as
a homeless child or youth, defined by the federal McKinney-Vento
Act, and is under the age of 25.
This bill also prohibits a scoring contractor or testing center
for the high school equivalency tests from charging the fee to a
homeless child or youth that meets the same criteria for the
high school proficiency exam. This bill does not waive the $20
fee charged by CDE to students upon registering for the test.
Related
Legislation:1. AB 872 (Brown, 2015) requires the State Board of Education to
adopt a rule or regulation that grants a waiver to a low-income
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person, as specified, of the GED examination fee. This bill has
been re-referred to the Assembly Committee on Education.
SB 445 (Liu, 2015) requires homeless students to be allowed to
remain in the school of origin through the duration of
homelessness. SB 445 is pending in this committee.
SB 177 (Liu, Ch. 491, 2013) required, among other things, school
districts, charter schools and county offices of education to
immediately enroll a homeless youth.
Staff
Comments: This bill could create costs in the low hundreds of
thousands to cover the loss of fee revenue. The fee to take the
CHSPE is $110. CDE indicates that there were 49,603 homeless
youth in grades 10, 11, and 12 in 2013-14. Assuming the same
proportion of all students that take this test (0.31 percent)
can be applied to the homeless population in these grades, it is
estimated that 154 homeless students would take the CHSPE. At a
retake test rate of 21 percent, it is estimated that costs to
waive CHSPE fees for homeless youth would be about $20,000.
The cost to administer the equivalency tests in English language
arts, math, science, and history social science per individual
is about $140, depending on the test center. According to the
author's office, these costs can range from $150 to $200.
Retaking the exam costs $25 per content area. CDE estimates
there to be about 29,198 homeless youth between the ages of 18
to 24 without a diploma in California and about 1.8 percent of
adults without a high school diploma will take the GED.
Therefore, it is estimated that waiving test fees to homeless
youth for high school equivalency tests would result in costs of
about $77,000, assuming a test retake rate of 26 percent. To
the extent fees exceed $140 per individual, costs to waive these
fees would increase.
To the extent this bill encourages more homeless students to
take these tests, it could drive additional costs. Staff notes
that the strength of this incentive is unclear as some homeless
youth are already able to have their test fees waived by other
organizations. However, for illustrative purposes, if homeless
youth that take the CHSPE increased to 5 percent of that
population in grades 10, 11, and 12, costs attributed to this
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bill could be about $330,000. Similarly, if the homeless youth
population between the ages of 18 to 24 that take the high
school equivalency tests increased to 5 percent, costs
attributed to this bill could be about $214,000, for a total
cost of $544,000 for both tests.
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