AB 2098: Adult Education Block Grant Program: immigration integration.

Existing law creates the Adult Education Block Grant Program under the administration of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The program requires the chancellor and the Superintendent, with the advice of the Executive Director of the State Board of Education, to divide the state into adult education regions and approve one adult education consortium in each adult education region, as specified. Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to provide to the Director of Finance, the State Board of Education, and the Legislature preliminary reports on or before October 30 following each fiscal year for which funds are appropriated for the program and final reports on or before February 1 of the following year about the use of specified funds and outcomes for adults statewide and in each adult education region. Existing law requires those reports to include, among other things, any recommendations related to delivery or education and workforce services for adults.

Existing law establishes the Statewide Director of Immigrant Integration in the Governors Office of Planning and Research, appointed by the Governor, for the purpose of developing a comprehensive statewide report on programs and services that serve immigrants and programs and services currently managed by a state agency or department to support California immigrants.

This bill would require the reports prepared by the chancellor and the Superintendent to be additionally provided to the director. The bill would require those reports to also include any recommendations related to delivery of immigrant integration for adults.

Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to establish a menu of common assessments and policies regarding placement of adults seeking education and workforce services into adult education programs to be used by each consortium, as specified.

This bill would require the chancellor and the Superintendent, with input from the director and adult education program providers, to identify common measures for meeting the needs of immigrant and refugee adults seeking integration, and, at a minimum, would require the chancellor and the Superintendent, with input from the director, to both define the specific data each consortium may collect and establish a menu of common assessments and policies regarding placement of adults seeking immigrant integration into adult education programs to be used by each consortium to measure educational needs of adults and the effectiveness of providers in addressing those needs.

Existing law requires the chancellor and the Superintendent to identify, no later than January 1, 2016, measures for assessing the effectiveness of each consortium, which include, among other things, how many adults have demonstrated specified benefits from the services of a consortium, including, among other things, improved literacy skills and wages.

This bill instead would extend the January 1, 2016, deadline to July 1, 2019, and would require the chancellor and Superintendent, with input from the director and adult education program providers, as applicable, to identify additional measures for assessing the effectiveness of consortia that will be used in the report described above, including how many adults served by the consortium have demonstrated immigrant integration in specified areas, including increased participation in civic and community life.