CA SB400

Requires local educational agency liaisons for homeless children and youths to identify homeless students through outreach and coordination with other organizations and agencies, and to refer families to health care, dental, mental health, housing, and other services.

Mandates the State Department of Education develop and implement a system to verify that local educational agencies provide required annual training to school personnel serving youth experiencing homelessness.

Requires the department to develop verification procedures for information submitted by local educational agencies regarding compliance with federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 and to review submissions to ensure policies are current.

Directs the department to develop best practices for identifying homeless students and a model housing questionnaire for local educational agencies to use in collecting accurate enrollment data on homeless children and youths.

Imposes state-mandated local program requirements on school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and special education local plan areas, with reimbursement procedures if the Commission on State Mandates determines costs are state-mandated.