BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1068
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Date of Hearing: April 3, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1068 (Bloom) - As Amended: April 1, 2013
SUBJECT : Pupil Records: Directory Information
SUMMARY : Restricts the release of directory information for
pupils who are identified as a homeless child or youth and
allows access of pupil records to specified individuals for
those pupils who are identified as homeless. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Prohibits the disclosure of directory information of a pupil
identified as a homeless child or youth as defined by the
federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act unless a
parent, or pupil accorded parent rights as identified by the
federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 2001
(FERPA), has provided written consent for such release.
2)Permits a Local Educational Agency (LEA) to give access to a
pupil's records to the following individuals:
a) The pupil, if he/she is 14 years of age or older and is
both a homeless child or youth and an unaccompanied youth
as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
b) An individual who completes the Caregiver's
Authorization Affidavit as provided in section 6552 of the
California Family Code.
3)Makes other non-substantive, technical amendments to these
sections.
EXISTING STATE LAW
1)Defines pupil directory information as one or more of the
following: pupil's name, address, telephone number, date of
birth, email address, major field of study, participation in
officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height
of members of athletics teams, dates of attendance, degrees
and awards received, and the most recent previous public or
private school attended by the pupil.
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2)Prohibits a school district from permitting access to pupil
records to any person without written parental consent or
judicial order.
3)Identifies a number of exceptions to the rule prohibiting
disclosure of a pupil's records including:
a) school officials and employees for a legitimate
educational purpose;
b) federal and local educational agencies for the purpose
of auditing or evaluating an educational program;
c) parent of the pupil;
d) a pupil who is 16 years or older and has completed grade
10;
e) a district attorney for the purpose of specified actions
against the pupil or investigation of truancy action
against the parent/guardian of the pupil.
4)Permits LEAs to disclose pupil records to a number of
specified agencies or organizations including those who seek
the records in conjunction with the immediate health and
safety of a pupil or other person(s), those agencies to whom
the pupil has applied for financial aid, county election
officials for the purpose of determining voting eligibility,
accrediting organizations, public or private school(s) in
which the pupil intends to enroll, and a contractor with whom
the LEA has a contractual relationship for the provision of
instructional services.
5)Establishes a prohibition, except against an agency disclosing
or re-disclosing individually identifiable personal
information in a manner that would link the information
disclosed to the individual to whom it pertains, and
establishes a process for certifying the security of those
data in specified circumstances.
6)Establishes the Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit in
California Family Code. Completing items 1-4 and signing the
affidavit is sufficient to authorize enrollment of a minor in
school and authorize school-related medical care. Items 1-4
request the name of the minor, the minor's birthdate, the
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adult's name, and the adult's home address at which he/she and
the minor are living. This affidavit must also be signed by
the adult attesting that he/she is 18 years of age or older
and that the named minor lives in the adult's home.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW
1)Protects, under FERPA, the privacy of student education
records by requiring written permission from the parent or
eligible student, with specified exceptions, in order for an
LEA to release any information from a student's education
record.
2)Requires LEAs to adopt a policy regarding categories of
student directory information, which includes student name,
address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and
awards and dates of attendance, that can be publicly released
and to whom it can be released.
3)Provides that student directory information may not be
released if a parent notifies the school that the information
is not to be released and requires that the LEA provide
notification prior to such a release.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, unaccompanied homeless
youth are defined as youth who are experiencing homelessness and
who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
Most of these students have left home due to severe family
dysfunction, including abuse and neglect. In the 2011-12 school
year, California's LEAs identified 65,812 homeless high school
students. The author's office estimates that over 18,000 of
these students were unaccompanied youth.
Directory Information . According to the author, unlike most
students, the temporary address of homeless children and youth
is not generally known, and in fact, is something that most
families and youth desperately wish to remain private. In the
case of homeless students, disclosing the student's address can
produce extremely harmful results. For example:
1)Many homeless youth are survivors of domestic violence.
Disclosing their address to a third party who may pass it on
to an abusive adult can result in kidnapping and severe
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physical injury.
2)The most common living situation for homeless youth is staying
temporarily with others. These temporary arrangements often
violate the host's lease or even local zoning codes. Schools
never should contact a landlord or other outside agency with
information about where a youth is staying. However, because
addresses technically are directory information, schools have
on occasion made such contacts, resulting in eviction for both
the host and the homeless youth.
3)Disclosure of address information can result in stigmatization
of homeless youth.
To prevent these dangerous consequences for homeless students,
this bill prevents the release of directory information for
homeless students unless a parent, caregiver, or student
specifically consents to the release. Under current law, every
parent and eligible student has the right to refuse the release
of directory information. Schools already have procedures to
record and respect any parent or eligible student's refusal to
release this information. Schools also have procedures to
identify and report on homeless students. By simply linking
existing procedures, schools can ensure that any identified
homeless student automatically would be added to the list of
students whose directory information cannot be released. Any
parent of a homeless student or eligible homeless student could
override this refusal and allow directory information to be
released.
Unaccompanied homeless youth and school records . FERPA
prohibits a school from disclosing personally identifiable
information from students' education records without the consent
of a parent or eligible student, unless an exception to FERPA's
general consent rule applies. "Parent" includes a natural
parent, a guardian, or an individual acting as a parent in the
absence of a parent or a guardian. An "eligible student" is one
who is 18 or over, or who is attending a school beyond the high
school level.
Unaccompanied youth in high school who have not yet turned 18
are not "eligible students." Therefore, they cannot access their
own educational records and cannot give consent for the school
to disclose their records to advocates, community agencies,
health care providers, tutoring programs, or other agencies or
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individuals that do not fall within one of FERPA's exceptions.
This creates a barrier to youth advocating for themselves and
receiving community services.
Many unaccompanied youth seek services from agencies that are
not part of the school district, such as Boys & Girls Clubs,
tutoring programs, and legal services. To be effective, tutors
and coaches need basic educational information about the youth,
such as how many credits the youth have, what they need, what
classes are most challenging for them, test scores, any special
education issues, etc. However, schools cannot release this
kind of educational information without parental consent. For
unaccompanied homeless youth, who do not have parents who are
able or willing to consent, the agencies or individuals have no
way to access this information. It is almost impossible to be
effective with the youth and navigate them through high school
graduation without this educational information. This bill
permits unaccompanied homeless youth age 14 and over to access
their education records, thus eliminating this barrier for
unaccompanied youth and supporting their educational success.
FERPA defines "parent" as a natural parent, guardian, or an
individual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or
guardian. Many unaccompanied homeless youth, particularly those
under age 14, are staying with other adults who could be
considered to be "individuals acting as a parent in the absence
of a parent or guardian." However, the phrase itself is vague
and open to varying interpretations. In California, the
Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit established in section
6550-6552 of the Family Code provides objective guidelines for
determining that an individual is acting as a parent in the
absence of a parent or guardian. The Affidavit allows caregivers
to enroll children in school and consent to medical care. It is
logical that such caregivers will need to access education
records, as well. This bill also ensures that caregivers, using
the Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit, can access and consent
for the disclosure of records for children in their care.
Previous Legislation : AB 490 (Steinberg), Chapter 862, Statutes
of 2003, expanded and stipulated authority for school records of
foster, homeless, and incarcerated youth to allow streamlined
processes between LEAs to transfer records and permit access to
pupil records to those with educational rights for foster
children and incarcerated youth.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and
Youth (NAEHCY)
Various individuals serving as McKinney-Vento liaisons
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087