8910-8911
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.