BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1878
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1878 (Stone) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
[Note: This bill is doubled referred to the Assembly Health
Committee and was heard by that committee as it relates to
issues under its jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT : Foster Care: Data
SUMMARY : Requires specified state agencies, local agencies, and
stakeholders to take specified actions in order to enhance
information and data sharing among agencies that serve children
in foster care in order to improve the educational and
socio-economic outcomes of foster youth. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Makes a Legislative finding that it is in the best interest of
public policy that foster care case level information and
statewide data be shared across government jurisdictions to
improve services with the intent of improving the social,
educational, and health outcomes of children in foster care.
2)Requires the Child Welfare Council, in consultation with the
Administrative office of the Courts, the California Department
of Education (CDE), the Department of Health Care Services,
the California Department of Social Services, the California
Department of Justice's Privacy Enforcement and Protection
Unit, the state foster care ombudsperson, and other stake
holders, as specified, to develop and issue a model Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) for the sharing of information and data
relating to children in foster care and information and data
sharing best practices for use by local agencies by July 1,
2015.
3)Requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI)
and the Secretary for the Health and Human Services Agency to
disseminate the MOU and best practices information to county
child welfare agencies (CWA) and local educational agencies
(LEAs) by January 1, 2016.
4)Makes technical changes to allow educational information and
data related to children in foster care to be shared by LEAs
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and the CDE with the Department of Social Services and CWAs
upon request.
5)Requires CDE and Department of Social Services to jointly
develop a model policy, in consultation with the
Administrative Office of the Courts, the Department of Health
Care Services, education and foster care advocates, and foster
youth organizations, on how LEAs may use foster care
information and data, no later than September 1, 2015.
6)Requires LEAs, including charter schools, to adopt a local
foster care information and data sharing policy by January 1,
2016.
7)Requires CWAs and County Offices of Education to annually
provide each other the contact information of the caseworkers
who serve children in foster care and of LEA Foster Youth
Services liaisons and education coordinators, respectively.
8)Requires the CWA to notify an LEA's Foster Youth Services
Liaison and Education Coordinator within two days that a
student in foster care will be enrolled in their school
district.
9)Requires CWAs to notify the attorney for a child in foster
care of the contact information for the child's caregiver,
school of enrollment and, if possible, the Foster Youth
Services Liaison and Education Coordinator.
10)Requires the CWA to enter into California's Child Welfare
Services Case Management System the school and school district
of enrollment, the LEA's Foster Youth Services Liaison and
Educational Coordinator and the Educational Rights Holder for
a child in foster care.
11)Requires an LEA Foster Youth Services Liaison to notify
educational staff in a timely manner that a student is in
foster care.
12)Requires the case plan for a child in foster care to include
his or her school and school district of enrollment, a
description of the student's educational progress, the
student's attendance, and other relative educational
information deemed relevant by the social worker.
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13)Requires California's Child Welfare Services Case Management
System to include the school and school district of enrollment
for a student in foster care and the contact information of
the school district's Foster Youth Services Liaison and
Educational Services Coordinator.
14)Requires a County Office of Education Foster Youth Services
Liaison to work collaboratively with his or her LEA
counterparts to recruit and retain adults to become
Educational Rights Holders for foster youth.
15)Requires LEAs to allow Educational Rights Holders to
participate in the education of the child in foster care for
whom they are responsible.
16)Expands foster caregiver training from 12 to 30 hours to
include increased training on how to provide for the
educational outcomes of children under their care, how to use
trauma-informed care, and understanding confidentiality and
privacy rights and protections.
17)Expands Court Appointed Special Advocate training to include
how to monitor a child in foster care's educational stability
and how to perform as an Educational Rights Holders, including
clarification of the court's authority to appoint a Court
Appointed Special Advocate as an Educational Rights Holder.
18)Requires Department of Social Services to report, as a
component of the California Child and Family Services Review
System, an overview of the collaborative process and efforts
in which these entities are engaging with other state and
local agencies in sharing information and data to improve the
outcomes of children in foster care.
19)Requires the Department of Social Services and CWAs to report
on how they work collaboratively with other state and local
agencies to share information and data to improve outcomes for
children in foster care.
20)Adds to the list of items to be included in the state's child
welfare social worker training program how to monitor the
educational stability and progress of a child in foster care
who is under their care, as provided for under the federal
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
of 2008, and how to share information and data for children in
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foster care collaboratively with other public agencies serving
the youth.
21)Deletes an obsolete reference to the High Priority Schools
Grant Program.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for the protection of pupil educational records under
the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),
which permits access to educational records of students by
specified individuals, the student's parent or the student if
he or she is 18 years of age or older; by subpoena or court
order; or by appropriate persons in connection with an
emergency, if the knowledge of the information is necessary to
protect the health or safety of a pupil or other persons.
2)Permits, under FERPA, a pupil's educational records to be
shared with a state or local child welfare agency or tribal
organization's caseworker when that agency or tribal
organization is responsible for the care and supervision of
the child, e.g., a child in foster care.
3)Provides, under state law, for the sharing of a pupil's
educational records in alignment with FERPA, which includes
educational officials and school employees, a probation
officer, district attorney, or counsel of record, as
specified.
4)Prohibits the re-disclosure of a pupil's educational records,
unless otherwise specified in FERPA and state law.
5)Permits a school district to participate in an interagency
data information system, as specified.
6)Requires the social worker for a child in foster care to
include in the youth's case plan information about his or her
educational status, school of enrollment, and any other
information necessary to support the youth's educational
outcomes.
7)Requires an LEA to designate a staff person as the educational
liaison for students in foster care to, among other
requirements, ensure and facilitate the student's proper
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enrollment and assist in the transferring from one school to
another.
8)Requires CDE and Department of Social Services to enter into a
MOU to share disaggregated information for the purpose of
identifying students in foster care and providing a report to
the Legislature and the Governor on the educational outcomes
for pupils in foster care, as specified.
9)Permits parents and guardians to be involved and participate
in the education of their children, as specified.
10)Requires licensed foster parents to undergo a minimum of 12
hours of training, which shall cover a number of components,
as specified, including an overview of the child protective
system, the effects of child abuse and neglect on child
development, positive discipline and the importance of
self-esteem, health issues, and accessing educational
services.
11)Requires a Court Appointed Special Advocate to go through a
rigorous training as established by the Judicial Council,
which includes, but is not limited to dynamics of child abuse
and neglect, court structure and juvenile laws, social service
systems, rules of evidence and discovery procedures, and child
development.
12)Establishes the California Child and Family Services Review
System to review CWAs, which covers foster care, adoption,
family preservation, family support, and independent living,
as specified.
13)Establishes the child welfare training program to meet the
needs of county child protective services social workers
assigned emergency response, family maintenance, family
reunification, permanent placement, and adoption
responsibilities.
14)Establishes as the central unifying tool in CWS the case plan
for a child in foster care, which in part, requires the
inclusion of information the circumstances that required CWS
involvement, identifies specific services and goals to provide
for the child, and any placements in which the child lives.
15)Requires the establishment of California's Child Welfare
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Services Case Management System, a foster care data management
system, to provide for the effective administration of the
state's CWS.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : In a 2009 report by the Legislative Analyst Office
(LAO),<1> California is said to support approximately 73,000
foster children at any given time. There are foster youth in
every county, from every racial group, and from all
socioeconomic backgrounds. The reason a child may end up in
foster care varies from severe physical or emotional abuse to
neglect. Approximately one-quarter of the foster youth in
California are under the age of five, with the rest being
school-age.
Building On Information Hearings
In an effort to assist schools and districts in formulating a
plan on how best to serve the unique needs of foster youth, the
Assembly Human Services Committee held a series of informational
hearings to learn about and explore the efforts state and local
child welfare, educational, and probation agencies have taken,
in coordination with child welfare advocates and the public, to
facilitate the connection of data for children in foster care to
improve their social, economic, health, and educational
outcomes. According to the author, these hearings made clear
that it is in the state's best interest to enhance information
and data sharing among agencies that serve children in foster
care in order to improve their educational and socio-economic
outcomes. Having established an agreement among public
agencies, foster youth, stakeholders, and the public that the
sharing of foster care information and data is a priority and is
needed, this bill takes the consensus recommendations provided
in those committee hearings and lays out the necessary steps to
make foster care information and data sharing a reality, while
protecting the individual privacy and identity of youth in
foster care. Therefore, this bill puts into place an array of
recommendations that aims to provide the authority and ability
---------------------------
<1>Education of Foster Youth in California. A Legislative
Analyst Report (2009).
AB 1878
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to share information and data at critical moments when a child
is in foster care.
Protecting Students' Privacy
This bill only addresses the sharing of data collection; it does
not suggest a single plan for serving foster youth. In the hope
of a collaborative conversation between local entities, this
bill encourages a thoughtful, data driven, cooperative approach
to serving foster youth. There are numerous protections within
this bill to address the privacy concerns surrounding the
personal records and educational data of these students. First,
the bill requires each LEA to adopt a policy that governs the
internal use of educational information and data of students in
foster care. Secondly, this bill requires multiple state and
local agencies to collectively develop a model data and
information MOU to govern the sharing of data between state and
local entities and includes a long list of specified protections
and principles that must be included in this model MOU.
Previous Legislation
AB 643 (Stone), Chapter 80, Statutes of 2013, updates California
law to recognize the exceptions created to FERPA by the federal
Uninterrupted Scholars Act of 2013. The language in this bill
is substantially similar, and in most instances identical, to
the language of the Uninterrupted Scholars Act of 2013.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Children Now
East Bay Children's Law Offices
National Center for Youth Law
The Children's Partnership
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087