SB961 - CalFresh: student eligibility.

Amended IN Senate April 08, 2026 Amended IN Senate March 25, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 961 Introduced by Senator Ashby (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Tangipa) (Coauthor: Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez) February 03, 2026 An act to add Sections 69408.5 and 69432.93 to the Education Code, and to amend Section 18901.11 of, to add Section 18901.13 to, and to repeal and add Section 18901.12 of, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to CalFresh. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 961, as amended, Ashby. CalFresh: student eligibility. Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Under existing state law, households are eligible to receive CalFresh benefits to the extent permitted by federal law. Existing federal law provides that students who are enrolled in college or other institutions of higher education at least half-time are not eligible for SNAP benefits unless they meet one of several specified exemptions, including participating in an employment and training program for low-income households that is operated by a state or local government, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, on or before May 31, 2022, to issue a guidance letter to counties, the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the office of the Chancellor of the California State University, and the office of the President of the University of California that clarifies the state and federal eligibility requirements for a campus-based program to be a state-approved local educational program that increases employability that qualifies for the CalFresh student eligibility exemption and that clarifies the application and approval process for a campus-based program to be approved by the department as a state-approved local educational program that increases employability. Existing law requires the department to maintain, regularly update, and post on its internet website a list of the state-approved local educational programs, and requires the department to include in the list, to the extent permitted by federal law, adult education and career technical education programs. This bill would repeal the existing approval process for a campus-based program to be approved by the department as a state-approved local educational program that increases employability, and would instead require the department to issue a similar guidance letter, on or before May 31, 2027, to the same entities that makes a determination, to the extent permitted by federal law, that all adult education, career technical education, certificate, and associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs at a public institution of higher education and specified state-funded programs, including, among others, Educational Opportunity Program and Guardian Scholars Program, are required to be considered as a state-approved local educational program that increases employability, as specified. The bill would authorize a campus-based program at a campus of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, or the University of California that is not one of the previously described programs to submit a certification application to the department, and would require the department to determine whether the certification applications for campus-based programs meet the requirements to be considered as a state-approved local educational program that increases employability. The bill would require the department to implement these provisions through all-county letters or similar instruction, as specified. Existing law, the Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A Entitlement Awards, the Cal Grant B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Expanded Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards, the Cal Grant C Awards, and the Cal Grant T Awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law requires the commission to prescribe the use of standardized student financial aid applications to be used for the Cal Grant Program, among other financial aid programs. The Cal Grant Reform Act revises and recasts the provisions establishing and governing the existing Cal Grant Program into a new Cal Grant Program. Existing law specifies that the act becomes operative only if General Fund moneys over the multiyear forecasts beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year are available to support ongoing augmentations and actions, and if funding is provided in the annual Budget Act to implement the act. The act requires the commission to determine the timelines and procedures for the application process for awards, as provided. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services and the commission to develop a data-sharing agreement under which the commission is required to share student contact information with the department for the sole purpose of identifying, supporting, and linking students to on- and off-campus basic needs services and resources, including CalFresh direct outreach. The bill would require the commission, upon entering into the data-sharing agreement, to amend the commission’s Grant Delivery System to ensure (1) students that might be eligible for the CalFresh program are identified, (2) identified students are able to provide their separate and distinct consent for their contact information to be shared, as specified, for the previously described purpose, and (3) identified students are linked to on- and off-campus basic needs services and resources. The bill would authorize the department to share student information with the appropriate county human services agency and the appropriate public postsecondary education systemwide office of the campus in which the student is enrolled, and would require each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and would request each campus of the University of California, commencing with the 2028–29 academic year, to contact those students who opted in to have their information shared with the department. To the extent the bill would increase the duties of counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) In 2023, the State of California enacted Senate Bill 628, known as the Human Right to Food Act, declaring it the policy of the state that every human being has the right to access sufficient affordable and healthy food. (2) In 2024, the Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 518, authorizing the State Department of Social Services (CDSS) to identify data-sharing opportunities with other state and local public entities for the purposes of improving the administration of CalFresh, increasing CalFresh participation, measuring the impact of CalFresh, and increasing access to critical public health and poverty-alleviating services and other services and benefits available to low-income individuals. (3) In “California Master Plan for Career Education,” published in 2025, the Governor’s office emphasized the necessity to enhance coordination and address structural barriers that make it difficult for Californians to navigate education, workforce training, and public benefit systems. The plan highlights the role of institutions of higher education and state agencies as critical partners in improving awareness of and access to public benefits to achieve greater affordability of education and workforce training. (4) The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as CalFresh in California, is the most effective tool available to prevent hunger in the nation, helping over 42,000,000 people afford food each month. SNAP lifts millions of people away from poverty each year and helps bring federal dollars into our state to support residents and boost local economies. (5) In Senate Joint Resolution No. 3 (2025), the State of California recognizes that the federal government provides more than $1 billion per month in food benefits to needy Californians, or nearly $12.5 billion in 2024. The state also acknowledges that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that every $1 of SNAP funding generates $1.54 to $1.80 in local economic activity, so the actual benefit of SNAP to California is as much as $22.5 billion annually. (6) According to a recent analysis by the California Policy Lab, an estimated 414,000 college students across the California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU), and University of California (UC) systems participated in CalFresh during the 2022–23 academic year. However, the California Policy Lab also estimates that nearly 300,000 California college students were eligible for, but did not participate in, CalFresh amounting to approximately $140,000,000 in missed benefits that could have aided students in addressing their food insecurity and contributed to meeting their cost of attendance. (7) Although the state and public higher education segments have undertaken multiple initiatives in recent years to improve CalFresh outreach and enrollment, a January 2025 report by the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Health Policy Research, titled “SNAP on College Campuses: Findings and Recommendations to Address Food Insecurity,” found that one-half of California’s college students are still experiencing food insecurity. The USDA defines “food insecurity” as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. (8) College students who face food insecurity show increased risk of negative physical and mental health outcomes, lower academic performance, and decreases in graduation rates. Participation in CalFresh for eligible food insecure students not only decreases food insecurity, it has positive effects on academic performance and is associated with an increase in retention and college completion. (9) The CalFresh student eligibility rule requires students attending an institution of higher education more than half-time to meet the criteria for at least one student exemption in addition to all other SNAP eligibility requirements to qualify for benefits. One exemption to this rule is enrollment or participation in a local program that increases employability (LPIE). To be validated as an LPIE, campus programs must be operated by a state or local government; therefore, only the public postsecondary institutions are considered to have LPIEs. These programs must contain the equivalent of a CalFresh Employment and Training (E&T) component, which is defined as a service, activity, or program designed to help CalFresh recipients gain skills, training, or work experience. CDSS has the sole authority to determine whether a state or local program qualifies as an LPIE. (10) The Center for Healthy Communities (CHC) supports the segments of higher education in submitting their programs for LPIE approval to CDSS. County human services agencies use the official list of approved LPIEs to confirm if a program that a student applicant or recipient is participating in has been approved. This list is updated at the beginning of each month. As of June 30, 2025, CDSS has approved 9,391 CCC programs, 2,472 CSU programs, and 1,507 UC programs as LPIE for CalFresh eligibility. (11) The California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) has the authority to utilize Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data to identify and notify CalFresh eligible students via the Grant Delivery System. However, current data-sharing structures do not allow for this information to be shared between state agencies. Establishing the legal, data, and consent infrastructure within CDSS to allow for program-specific data-sharing among higher education segments, college campuses, and county human services agencies is critical for improving outreach and access to public benefits. (12) The office of the Chancellor of the CCC has been working with the CDSS to establish a new state-level data-sharing agreement to improve the administration of CalFresh benefits for students. (13) Individual institutions have also demonstrated the effectiveness of local data-sharing arrangements. Compton College and the Department of Public Social Services of the County of Los Angeles have established a data-sharing MOU in 2021, followed by an MOU between the County of San Bernardino and California State University, San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Community College District. These local agreements demonstrate the viability of data-sharing models that can be scaled and streamlined with statewide agreements. (14) The federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) (Public Law 119-21) introduced a new state matching requirement for benefits on October 1, 2027, and increased the state share of administrative costs from 50 percent to 75 percent on October 2, 2026. According to a preliminary analysis by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, the OBBBA can increase California’s cost share of SNAP by 193 percent to over $2.5 billion. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to help college students better afford food expenses by streamlining student eligibility for the CalFresh program, expanding student access to food assistance, and strengthening coordination between colleges and county agencies administering CalFresh to ensure that more college students can succeed in their postsecondary studies without the burden of food insecurity. SEC. 2. Section 69408.5 is added to the Education Code, to read: 69408.5. (a) Upon entering into a data-sharing agreement pursuant to Section 18901.13 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, the commission shall, in compliance with state and federal law, amend the commission’s Grant Delivery System to ensure all of the following: (1) Students that might be eligible for the CalFresh program established pursuant to Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 18900) of Part 6 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code are identifie [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]