(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.
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 local educational agency, as defined to include a school district, county office of education, charter school, or special education local plan area, to collaborate with other organizations that provide services to homeless children and youths to enhance the identification of, and the provision of services to, those children and youths. The bill would require these collaborations to include, but not necessarily be limited to, working with organizations that
provide counseling services, social welfare services, meal services, and housing services.
The bill would require the State Department of Education to provide guidance to local educational agency liaisons for homeless children and youths regarding their responsibilities under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001, including that they ensure the school personnel providing services to youth experiencing homelessness receive training on the proper identification and reporting procedures, and would require the department to develop and implement a system to verify that local educational agencies are providing the 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 that local educational agencies submit through the
department’s Consolidated Application and Reporting System 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.
By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) 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.