Official Summary Text
AB 673, as amended, Jackson.
Unaccompanied homeless pupils: Unaccompanied Youth Support Grant Program.
Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to ensure that all pupils in foster care and those who are homeless, as defined, have a meaningful opportunity to meet the challenging state pupil academic achievement standards to which all pupils are held. Existing law requires educators, county placing agencies, care providers, advocates, and the juvenile courts to work together to maintain stable school placements and to ensure that each pupil is placed in the least restrictive educational
programs,
programs
and has access to the academic resources, services, and extracurricular and enrichment activities that are available to all pupils, as provided.
This bill would require the State Department of
Education, in consultation with the State Department of Social
Services,
Education
to administer
competitive
formula
grants as part of a pilot program, to be known as the Unaccompanied Youth Support Grant Program, for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to provide supports necessary to improve school attendance, pupil engagement, pupil graduation rates, and pupil wellbeing for unaccompanied youth, as defined, who are 16 and 17 years of age, including connecting youth with resources to find stable housing. The bill would
require
require, subject to an appropriation and
subject to specified allocation metrics,
5-year grants
that commence with the 2028–29 fiscal year,
to be awarded
by the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to local educational
agencies
agencies, or consortia of local educational agencies,
to support unaccompanied youth, and would require grant funds to be used for, among other things, referrals to existing social services support systems, and providing basic needs
supports
and educational support services, as specified. The bill would
require funding preference under the program to be given to local educational agencies that have significant experience working with unaccompanied youth and existing partnerships with certain entities, as specified.
require, to be eligible to apply for a grant under the program, a local educational agency to have identified at least one unaccompanied youth enrolled during the prior fiscal year, as specified.
The bill would require local educational agencies applying for grant funds under the program to submit an application that includes, among other things, a
detailed plan describing
description of
how grant funds will be used to identify eligible pupils, the types of supports to be provided based on the eligible uses of grant funds, and the
methods and metrics
performance measures
the local educational agency will use to measure progress towards program goals. The bill would require local educational agencies awarded grant funds under the program to submit annual reports to the department that include, among other things, a description of the expenditure of funds and the number and characteristics of unaccompanied youth served.