BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2111
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2111 (Ammiano) - As Amended: April 2, 2014
Policy Committee: EducationVote:6-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill repeals existing statutes that govern the California
School Age Families Education (Cal-SAFE) Program, and
reestablishes Cal-SAFE as an optional program that may be
offered by a local education agency (LEA), which includes school
districts, charter schools, or county superintendents of
schools. Specifically, this bill:
1)States the intent of the Legislature to encourage the
operation of comprehensive, continuous, and community linked
school-based programs that focus on youth development,
reduction of chronic absenteeism, dropout prevention for
expectant and parenting pupils, and early learning and
educational support services for their children. Further
provides intended goals of these school-based programs and
states intent to coordinate programs with local Adolescent
Family Life programs, Nurse Family Partnership Home visiting
programs, and Cal-Learn programs in a manner that avoids
duplication of services.
2)Provides that participation in a Cal-SAFE program by any LEA
is voluntary and may be paid for with local control funding
formula funds.
3)Requires an LEA that chooses to provide early learning and
educational support program services located on or near the
schoolsite for the children of teen parents to adhere
specified health, safety, and quality requirements.
4)Requires Cal-SAFE programs to participate in the established
data collection and evaluation systems to track outcomes and
effectiveness of programming.
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5)Authorizes LEAs to provide specified services to teen parents
in accordance with the intent of the local control funding
formula to improve the outcomes of high need pupil
populations, including: perinatal and parenting education and
life skills instruction; home-to-school transportation;
comprehensive health education, including reproductive health;
school safety and violence prevention strategies; academic
support and youth development services; career counseling,
preemployment skills, and job training; mental health
assessment, interventions, and referrals; crisis intervention
counseling services, including suicide prevention; and several
other support services as specified.
6)Provides that teen parents may be enrolled in the Cal-SAFE
program on an open entry and open exit basis.
7)Provides that an enrolled teen parent with an active special
education individualized education plan (IEP) and who meets
the eligibility criteria shall continue to receive services
identified in the IEP while concurrently enrolled in a
Cal-SAFE program.
8)Prohibits the denial of initial or continuous enrollment of a
pupil in a Cal-SAFE program if the pupil has had multiple
pregnancies, more than one child or status changes from
expectant to parenting.
9)Prohibits the assessment of any fees for services provided
through the Cal-SAFE program.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Proposition 98/GF costs pressure in the millions of dollars to
expand or re-establish Cal-SAFE programs. Prior to
categorical flexibility, the state provided $46.4 million to
support the Cal-SAFE program. Additional, unknown costs
related to expanded health, safety, and quality requirements
for LEAs that choose to offer any early learning and
educational support program, regardless of whether the program
is operated under Cal-SAFE.
2)Ongoing GF administrative costs of about $150,000 to the
California Department of Education (CDE) to oversee and assist
LEAs with the early learning program requirements, provide
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training to LEAs on the health, safety and quality
requirements, and monitor compliance.
3)Ongoing GF costs of up to $300,000 to comply with the data
collection component of the bill. Under the prior Cal-SAFE
program, CDE contracted with an outside vendor in 2003-04 at a
cost of $300,000. The contract included an extensive data
collection and evaluation report of 124 Cal-SAFE programs. In
2009-10, CDE scaled back the contract and provided $20,000 for
basic survey and analysis. When CDE's contract expired, 125
programs paid an annual membership fee of $250 to continue to
submit data to the outside vendor. According to CDE, as of
2012, there were 118 LEAs that continued to run a Cal-SAFE
program. The cost to support the annual membership fee for
these programs would be $29,500.
COMMENTS
1)Background . Cal-SAFE was initially established by SB 1064
(Johnston, Chapter 1078, Statutes of 1998) and became
operative July 2000, to provide educational and other support
services to pregnant and parenting teens and their children.
Chapter 1078 required an evaluation of the program to be
conducted for five years, beginning in 2005. According to
SDE, "Data collected and analyzed between 2000 through 2004
showed positive outcomes, benefits, and cost effectiveness of
the program. Most notably, more than three-fourths of the
students who left the program successfully completed their
high school education, and a significant majority of the
children born to Cal-SAFE students were born healthy."
2)Cal-SAFE funding. Prior to 2008-09, Cal-SAFE was funded as a
separate categorical program, meaning the state provided
funding for specific program requirements. In 2009, in
response to budget cuts, the Legislature provided spending
flexibility for many categorical programs. Cal-SAFE was among
33 programs that were no longer tied to program requirements,
allowing LEAs to spend these funds for any educational
purpose. The amount of funding attributed to Cal-SAFE was
$46.4 million.
3)Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) . In 2013, the state
implemented a new funding formula for schools known as the
Local Control Funding Formula. The new law replaces most
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previously existing K-12 funding streams (revenue limit and
categorical programs) with per pupil grade span funding and
targeted funding for low income, English learner and foster
youth students. With the elimination of most state categorical
programs, the LCFF also shifts many spending decisions from
the state to the local level. To this end, LEAs are required
to produce a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) that
will set annual goals and describe how the LEA plans to use
available resources.
Under the permissive Education Code, and with flexible funding
under LCFF, LEAs do not need specific statutory authorization
to operate a Cal-SAFE or similar program. LEAs could choose
to comply with the requirements of this bill or they could
avoid them by offering an alternative program by a different
name to serve the same pupil population.
4)Related legislation . AB 1152 (Ammiano) of 2013 removed the
California School Age Families (Cal-SAFE) program from
categorical flexibility, thereby reestablishing the
requirements of the program. This bill was held on the
Suspense File in this committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081