(1) Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program, state, and county funds. Under the CalWORKs program, certain recipients are required to participate in the welfare-to-work program, which includes the completion of various welfare-to-work activities, including, among others, unsubsidized employment, subsidized private sector employment, subsidized public sector employment, and self-employment.
Existing law, the Compulsory Education Law, generally makes persons between the ages of 6 and 18 years of age subject to compulsory full-time education, unless exempted. Existing law also requires children in a CalWORKs assistance unit for whom school attendance is compulsory to attend school, except as specified. Under existing law, the needs of a child in the assistance unit who is 16 years of age or older are not considered in computing the specified grant of the family for any month in which the county is informed by a school district or a county school attendance review board that the child did not attend school, unless at least one of certain conditions is present.
This bill would, commencing July 1, 2026, or the date when the State Department of Social Services has made a specified determination, whichever is later, repeal the requirement under CalWORKs for a child in an assistance unit to attend school and would repeal the prohibition against considering the needs of a child in an assistance unit who is 16 years of age or older who did not attend school, thereby allowing the needs of that child to be considered in computing the monthly family grant. The bill would, commencing on the date those provisions are repealed, if a county human services agency is informed that a child is not complying with the Compulsory Education Law, require the county human services agency to screen the family for family stabilization services and authorize the child, if they are 16 years of age or older, to voluntarily participate in the welfare-to-work program. By increasing the duties of county human services agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) Existing law makes a parent or guardian of a pupil of 6 years of age or more who is in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive, and subject to compulsory full-time or continuing education, whose child is a chronic truant, as defined, who has failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the pupil's school attendance, and who has been offered support services to address the pupil's truancy, guilty of a misdemeanor that is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, or imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, or both that fine and imprisonment.
This bill would repeal that criminal offense.
(3) Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program.
This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the above provisions.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Statutes affected:
AB 461: 16001.7 WIC
02/06/25 - Introduced: 16001.7 WIC
03/24/25 - Amended Assembly: 270.1 PEN, 270.1 PEN, 11253.5 WIC, 11253.5 WIC, 16001.7 WIC