SB 400

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The federal 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. 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. This bill would require a liaison for homeless children and youths of a local educational agency, as defined to include a school district, county office of education, charter school, or special education local plan area, to ensure the identification by school personnel of those children and youths through outreach and coordination activities with other organizations and the referral of services to homeless families and homeless children and youth. The bill would require the State Department of Education to develop and implement a system to verify that local educational agencies are providing federally required training to school personnel providing services to youth experiencing homelessness at least annually. The bill also would require the department to develop and implement procedures for verifying key information submitted by local educational agencies to comply with the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001, and would require the department to review all submitted information and remind each local educational agency for which information about its policies is outdated to update their policies to reflect current requirements. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 48852.5 of the Education Code proposed by AB 27 to be operative only if this bill and AB 27 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (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.