SECTIONS 8910-8911 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 8910-8911

8910. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Pregnancy of teens continues to be a serious problem in
California. In 1984, 28,834 teens 18 years of age and under gave
birth in California, including 891 who were 14 years of age or
younger. Each year, over 58,000 California teens are either pregnant
or parenting.
(b) Teen pregnancy is the point of entry into the system of public
social services, and the point of exit from the school system, and
the greatest single cause of school dropout for female pupils.
Continued school enrollment is a deterrent to second pregnancies.
Completion of school and acquisition of marketable skills also
prevent long-term and costly dependency on the system of public
social services.
(c) Local school districts vary in the amount of state and local
fiscal resources to serve pregnant and parenting teens. In the last
20 years legislative enactments have created education-based
categorical approaches to serving pregnant and parenting teens. These
include schoolage and parent infant development programs, pregnant
minor programs, employability programs, child development programs,
dropout prevention programs, and family life education programs. The
Legislature also has created health-based programs such as the
adolescent family life program, perinatal access program, and
community-based perinatal services.
(d) A comprehensive, coordinated, and integrated education,
health, and employability program will result in a more efficient use
of existing funds and prevent overlap and duplication of services.
(e) It is in the best interests of pregnant and parenting teens
that school districts develop and implement a coordinated and
integrated service plan for pregnant and parenting teens, in order to
improve the delivery of services and continuity of education.

8911. (a) The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall give
highest priority to the awarding of new and continuing funds for
programs serving pregnant and parenting teens to those school
districts, consortiums of school districts, or county superintendents
that satisfy the criteria and standards that the State Department of
Education may establish for the award of new and continuing funds
and which have a plan, approved by the superintendent, for
coordination of pregnant and parenting teen programs available to
teens within the applicable area, including, but not limited to,
coordination of public and private social welfare and health service
programs. Existing programs may continue to receive funding at the
discretion of the superintendent.
(b) The plan shall address the following goals:
(1) Mobilizing existing services.
(2) Preventing school dropouts.
(3) Encouraging school reentry.
(4) Preventing second pregnancies.
(5) Providing pregnant and parenting teens with employability
skills, and thereby assisting them to avoid dependency on public
social services.
(6) Ensuring that transitional education services are provided to
pregnant and parenting teens between the secondary and postsecondary
levels.
(7) Ensuring that transitional services are provided to help
pregnant and parenting teens who seek employment following completion
of their secondary education.
(8) Improving health and nutrition.
(9) Providing adequate child care.
(10) Developing parenting skills.
(11) Providing transportation services between home and program
sites to pregnant and parenting teens.
(c) The plan shall include at a minimum the following information
with regard to the applicable area: the incidence of teen pregnancy,
the current educational and child development resources, the current
public and private resources impacting on pregnant and parenting
teens, and a description of service coordinating agreements between
the school district, consortium of school districts, or county
superintendent and public and private agencies. The plan shall
include a component describing transitional service between secondary
education and postsecondary programs, and an evaluation of the
impact of coordinated and comprehensive service on school dropouts,
repeat pregnancies, and low infant birthweights.
(d) The plan shall identify regulatory and statutory barriers to
coordination of services that exist in programs that benefit pregnant
and parenting teens, schoolage parent-infant development programs,
continuation school, independent studies, vocational education, child
development, special education, general education, and community
colleges. The plan also shall describe the district's specific plans
for integrating all appropriate funding and programs to ensure that
pregnant and parenting teens receive all available and necessary
services. Information provided by the superintendent in his or her
report to the Legislature, regarding program coordination barriers,
shall be utilized as an information base in the development of a
comprehensive statewide plan for pregnant and parenting teens.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the superintendent shall
notify school districts, consortiums of school districts, and county
superintendents regarding the enactment of this section, and shall
invite them to submit plans in accordance with this section. The
superintendent shall collect and disseminate to school districts
models of successful coordination plans and shall assist districts,
upon request, in the development of coordination plans.