BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair


          SB 1055 (Liu) - School-Based Health and Education Partnership  
          Program.
          
          Amended: May 7, 2014            Policy Vote: Health 7-1,  
          Education 8-1
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 19, 2014      Consultant: Brendan McCarthy
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 1055 would authorize a new category of grants  
          within an existing grant program. The bill would also rename the  
          program and change some of the program's goals and procedures.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Unknown costs to provide additional grants (General Fund or  
              other, unknown fund source). The bill authorizes a new  
              category of grants that may be issued to schools with school  
              health centers for interventions such as obesity prevention  
              or mental health prevention. The bill does not identify a  
              source of funds for these new grants. The current program  
              has been authorized in statute for eight years, but has  
              never been funded.

          Background: Under current law, schools may operate student  
          health centers to provide health services to students.

          Under current law, the Department of Public Health is required  
          to establish a Public School Health Center Support Program to  
          support the establishment of school health centers. The  
          Department is also required to establish a grant program to  
          provide funding to school health centers. This program has been  
          in place for the past eight years. To date, no funding has been  
          made available and no program activities have taken place.

          Proposed Law: SB 1055 would authorize a new category of grants  
          within an existing grant program. The bill would also rename the  
          program and change some of the program's goals and procedures.

          Specific provisions of the bill would:
              Rename the existing Public School Health Center Support  








          SB 1055 (Liu)
          Page 1


              Program as the School-Based Health and Education  
              Partnership;
              Add program goals that participating school health centers  
              provide alcohol and substance abuse services, focus on  
              prevention services, and provide support for students and  
              families;
              Change the criteria for awarding sustainability grants to  
              schools;
              Create a new category of grants to fund interventions  
              focusing on issues such as obesity, asthma, mental health  
              and substance abuse prevention;
              Make technical corrections to current law.

          Related Legislation: 
              SB 596 (Yee) would establish a pilot program for the  
              Department of Education to provide school-based mental  
              health services. That bill is pending in the Assembly.
              AB 174 (Bonta, 2013) would have required the Department of  
              Public Health to establish a pilot program in Alameda County  
              to address trauma and mental health issues in schools. That  
              bill was vetoed by Governor Brown.

          Staff Comments: As noted above, the current program has never  
          been funded. Staff is not aware of any new sources of  
          non-General Fund funding that could be used to fund the existing  
          program or the newly authorized activities in this bill.