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AB-1514 Public social services: student eligibility.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 03/23/2023 09:00 PM
AB1514:v98#DOCUMENT

Revised  April 19, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 23, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1514


Introduced by Assembly Member Reyes
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Bryan)

February 17, 2023


An act to amend Section 1000 of add Sections 10610.5 and 18901.15 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to juvenile facilities. public social services.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1514, as amended, Reyes. Juvenile facilities. Public social services: student eligibility.
(1) Existing law establishes various public social services programs, including, among others, the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, CalFresh, and the Medi-Cal program. Existing law defines “public social services” to mean activities and functions of state and local government administered or supervised by the State Department of Social Services or the State Department of Health Care Services and involved in providing aid or services, or both, to those people of the state who, because of their economic circumstances or social condition, are in need of and may benefit from the aid or services.
This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to convene a workgroup comprised of, among others, the County Welfare Directors Association of California, to develop recommendations to allow data from Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications to be released to county welfare departments to authorize students to apply to receive public social services based on data collected pursuant to information from their FAFSA application. The bill would require those recommendations to be submitted to the Legislature by December 31, 2024. The bill would, upon the submission of those recommendations, require the department and the workgroup to begin to pursue administrative and statutory changes to make it possible for data from the FAFSA application, or any other student aid application administered by the Student Aid Commission, to be prepopulated into applications for students to receive public social services.
(2) Existing law requires the Office of Systems Integration within the California Health and Human Services Agency to implement a statewide automated welfare system, known as the California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS), for various public assistance programs, including the CalWORKs program, CalFresh, and the Medi-Cal program. Under existing law, among other duties, the state is consolidating existing consortia systems into the single CalSAWS.
Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires the department to convene a workgroup to identify the steps necessary to establish a CalFresh application submission process that accommodates the large influx of CalFresh applications during the beginning of a school term, as specified, and to submit a report, on or before April 1, 2023, to the Legislature on the necessary steps identified by the workgroup and any estimates of costs associated with implementing those steps.
This bill would require the department to ensure that CalSAWS allows all county office eligibility workers, regardless of county, to view, transfer, and process all CalFresh applications via CalSAWS to allow students to be able to apply for benefits in their home county before moving, or, in the county of their school.

Existing law makes conforming changes to the juvenile court law regarding references to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities.

This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 10610.5 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

10610.5.
 (a) The department shall convene a workgroup comprised of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, the Student Aid Commission, the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, to develop recommendations to allow data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application to be released to county welfare departments to authorize students to apply to receive public social services pursuant to this division based on data collected pursuant to information from their FAFSA application.
(b) (1) Recommendations pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be submitted to the Legislature by December 31, 2024.
(2) The recommendations pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c) Upon the submission of the recommendations pursuant to subdivision (b), the department and workgroup members shall begin to pursue administrative and statutory changes to make it possible for data from the FAFSA application, or any other student aid application administered by the Student Aid Commission, to be prepopulated into applications for students to receive public social services pursuant to this division.

SEC. 2.

 Section 18901.15 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

18901.15.
 The department shall ensure that CalSAWS allows all county office eligibility workers, regardless of county, to view, transfer, and process all CalFresh applications via CalSAWS to allow students to be able to apply for benefits in their home county before moving, or, in the county of their school.

SECTION 1.Section 1000 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
1000.

On or after July 1, 2005, any reference to the Department of the Youth Authority refers to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities, which has jurisdiction over all educational training and treatment institutions now or hereafter established and maintained in the state as correctional schools for the reception of wards of the juvenile court and other persons committed to the department.

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REVISIONS:
Heading—Line 2.
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