BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1261
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 1261 (Leno) - As Amended: April 6, 2005
Policy Committee:
EducationVote:11-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill makes changes to provisions related to the education
of foster youth in the areas of educational placement,
coursework credit, transfer records, and education programs
offered to foster youth. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes that a foster youth is entitled to remain in his
or her school of origin.
2)Requires a local education agency (LEA) to have a process to
promptly resolve disputes relating to the school placement of
a pupil and a written explanation of the school's decision if
a parent or guardian disputes a school placement or enrollment
decision, as specified.
3)Requires a new school to enroll the foster child and receive
all of his or her records from the previous school regardless
if he or she has outstanding fees, fines, textbooks, or other
items or moneys due to the school last attended.
4)Authorizes the court, with the input of an interested person,
to make educational decisions for the child, if the court
cannot identify a responsible adult to make educational
decisions for the child and the appointment of a surrogate
parent is not warranted, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
One-time General Fund (Proposition 98) mandated reimbursable
costs, likely less than $75,000, to school districts to develop
a process to resolve disputes, as specified.
AB 1261
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COMMENTS
1)Purpose . This bill, sponsored by the Children's Law Center of
Los Angeles, attempts to clarify the academic rights of foster
youth. The author states: "a good education is critical to
every child's successful transition to adulthood [and] it is
especially true for children who spend long periods of their
childhood in foster care. Yet frequent placement moves,
delays, and difficulties in transferring educational records,
and the general upheaval associated with family crises
conspire to make it difficult for foster youth to keep up and
do well in school."
2)AB 490 (Steinberg), Chapter 862, Statutes of 2003 instituted a
number of reforms designed to promote school stability and
ensure that pupils residing in foster care have a meaningful
opportunity to meet the academic achievement standards to
which all students are held. For example, this measure
established that a student has the right to remain in his or
her school of origin, pending the resolution of a dispute over
placement. It also required each county office of education to
appoint a staff person to act as education liaison for foster
youth to ensure proper placement, enrollment in school,
checkout from school, and to assist him or her in transferring
from one school to another by seeing that records, credits,
and grades are transferred.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081