AB 408

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. The act requires a state plan submitted for the receipt of the grant to include assurances that local educational agencies will designate an appropriate staff person to act as a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths and a description of how the state will ensure that local educational agencies and their liaisons will comply with specified requirements of the act, including the identification of homeless children and youths. Existing federal law, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also allocates funds for states to provide services for homeless children and youth, as provided. Under existing state law, public schools, including charter schools, and county offices of education are required to immediately enroll a homeless child or youth seeking enrollment, except as specified. Existing law requires a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths is disseminated in schools within the liaison's local educational agency that provide services pursuant to the act. Existing law also requires the department to develop best practices that a local educational agency may use to identify and obtain accurate data on all homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths enrolled in schools of the local educational agency and a model housing questionnaire, and to post this information on its internet website. This bill would require a local educational agency, as defined to include a school district, county office of education, charter school, or special education local plan area, to establish homeless education program policies that are consistent with specified state laws and use the above-described resources developed and posted on the department's internet website and resources developed by homeless education technical assistance centers established using certain federal funds. The bill would further require the local educational agency to update these policies at intervals not exceeding 3 years. The bill would require a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths and unaccompanied youths to provide training at least annually on designated subjects to classified and certificated employees of the local educational agency who work with pupils experiencing homelessness pursuant to federal law, as specified. The bill would also encourage a local educational agency liaison to offer that training to all other classified and certificated employees, as provided. The bill would further require the liaison to inform both those groups of employees of the availability of training and services the liaison provides to pupils who are experiencing, or are at risk of experiencing, homelessness. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide, among other things, informational and training materials to local educational agency liaisons regarding the educational rights of homeless children and youths and the responsibilities of the liaisons. This bill would require the department, to the extent possible within existing resources, to develop and implement a plan for monitoring the compliance of local educational agencies with state laws relating to youth experiencing homelessness. The bill would require the monitoring plan to include reviews of the local educational agencies including, but not limited to, schoolsite inspections to ensure that the state is not underestimating the number of youth experiencing homelessness. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.