CALPADS Update Flash #186

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       August 13, 2020

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #186

New Education Program for 2020–21: Tribal Foster Youth

Education Code (EC) sections 42238.01 and 49085 were amended by Assembly Bill 1962 (Chapter 748, Statutes of 2018) to add to the definition of "foster youth,” for purposes of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), students who are dependents of an Indian tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization. Assembly Bill 1962 requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to include tribal foster youth in the Unduplicated Pupil Count to determine funding under the LCFF supplemental and concentration grants and in the foster youth student group on the California School Dashboard, beginning in the 2020–21 school year.

Education Program Record 193 - Tribal Foster Youth

To meet these new statutory requirements, the CDE has added Education Program Code 193 - Tribal Foster Youth to the Education Program Code set. This code is defined as:

A dependent child of the court of an Indian tribe, consortium of tribes, or tribal organization who is the subject of a petition filed in the tribal court pursuant to the tribal court's jurisdiction in accordance with the tribe's law, provided that the child would also meet one of the descriptions in Section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code describing when a child may be adjudged a dependent of the juvenile court.

Education Program Code 193 - Tribal Foster Youth will be treated by CALPADS as an eligibility record. This means that:

• For students continuing in the same school from one year to the next and who are exited from the school with an E155 (YearEndEnrollmentExit), the program record can be left open (no program exit date required) because their eligibility continues until the student is no longer eligible.
• For students transferring to another school, a new program record must be submitted indicating the student's eligibility for the program, and the program start date may be the student's original eligibility start date (does not have to be within the enrollment period of the new school). The student does not need to be exited from the program in the previous school.

CALPADS Reports

CALPADS reports will be adjusted as appropriate to include Tribal Foster Youth program records. Specifically:

• Certification Report 1.17 - FRPM/English Learner/Foster Youth - Count, and C/A 1.17 - C/A FRPM EL Foster Youth - Count will be modified to include tribal foster youth program records that are open on Census Day. The tribal foster youth counts will be displayed in its own column.
• Other reports that include a "foster student group" filter will include tribal foster youth within the current foster filter, because they are part of the foster student group for accountability purposes.
• Reports 5.6 - Foster Youth Enrolled – Count, 5.7 - Foster Youth Enrolled - Student List, and corresponding county authorizing reports, will not include tribal foster youth, and will continue to include only those youth identified as foster by the California Department of Social Services.

Program Guidance

Identifying students who are tribal foster youth may entail, for LEAs, developing new relationships and business processes with tribal organizations. The CDE has posted information about tribal foster youth, including guidance on engaging with tribal partners, and links to resources and additional information. This information is posted via the CDE's Foster Youth Services Program Resources page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/fy/resources.asp.