California State PTA members across the state who dedicate themselves to grass-roots efforts,  PTA commissioners who study the issues, and PTA advocates who walk the halls of the State Capitol have several reasons to be proud of their work today. Despite a rancorous legislative session, numerous PTA-supported bills were signed into law that will make a real difference in the lives of children and families.

Here is a brief summary of the key bills we advocated for that were signed into law this week:

Assistance for Foster Youth: California State PTA has had a strong commitment to provide support to young people transitioning out of the foster care system. These three PTA-supported bills will ensure that assistance is provided to young people who have no family support.

• AB 167 (Adams) - Requires school districts to exempt foster youth who transfer into a school district in grade 11 or 12 from any coursework requirements imposed by the district that exceed the minimum state graduation requirements if the foster youth cannot complete the additional requirements in time to graduate from high school while still eligible for foster care benefits.
• AB 719 (Lowenthal) - Requires the Department of Social Services to create a 12-month transitional food stamp program that youth enter automatically as they leave foster care at the age of 18.
• AB 1393 (Skinner) - Requires California public colleges and universities to give priority for campus housing to  current and former foster youth to ensure stable housing.The first priority would provide  housing for uninterrupted year-round occupation, and the next priority would provide housing for occupation most days during the calendar year.

Children's Health: These PTA-supported bills are important to the health of children and youth.

• SB 124 (Oropeza) -  Increases the fines and penalties for school buses and other vehicles idling near schools, to protect children from air pollution.  
• SB 249 (Cox) - Requires the California Department of Public Health to develop information about meningococcal disease (which can cause meningitis), including information pertaining to children between 11 and 18 years of age, and to authorize schools to add this information to any health education material sent home to parents.
  

Community Concerns: These PTA-supported bills improve the safety of children and youth.

• AB 870 (Huber) would make it a misdemeanor to bring or possess a razor blade or box cutter on school grounds, with certain exceptions.  
• AB 1015 (Torlakson) would  make it a misdemeanor to see or give away a device, canister, tank or receptacle containing nitrous oxide or a chemical compound with nitrous oxide to anyone under 19 years of age. (This does not apply to food products which use nitrous oxide as a propellant, or use by a medical or dental practitioner.)

Education Issues: This has been a terribly difficult year for schools due to the state budget deficit and legislative gridlock that have prevented finding solutions to protect education funding and make needed educational reforms.

On the bright side, the PTA-supported bill SB 19 (Simitian) was passed. The legislation enables California to clear one critically important hurdle to eligibility for the "Race to the Top" federal education reform funds, by allowing student data to be used as one input for evaluating teachers. The bill also makes changes needed to support continued development of the state's K-12 education data system, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS).

Of course, there is much work still to do on children's issues, including the following:

• preventing childhood obesity;
• protecting of personal information on the Internet;
• restructuring California's school finance system;
• improving ways of measuring academic achievement; and
  
• improving funding for education and services for children and families.

Many bills that we had supported in these areas were vetoed by the Governor.  We will continue our efforts on these critical issues into the next legislative session.