[Wsssc] Emergency Grants and Homeless Student Pilot Programs

[Joe Holliday]

WSSSC Colleagues: below is a summary of the status of bill implementation of House Bill 1893 and Senate Bill 5800, which will overlap with several student services areas. The summary is courtesy of Nate Humphrey and Erin Frasier in our Workforce Education department. Carli Schiffner and I will touch on this in our legislative update at the joint IC/WSSSC meeting on July 10, but since there is a lot of information packed into this summary, here it is in advance.

HB 1893
Sect. 1 - Emergency Assistance Grants:
§  A competitive grant process and eligibility criteria for colleges are being developed.
§  There are not enough funds for all colleges, so we must ensure this is an equitable process.
§  The legislation requires us to begin accepting applications by Dec. 1, 2019. Grant applications will be released as soon as our internal processes will allow to allow colleges time to launch their program and fully utilize the funds available in FY19. We have $750,000 for FY20 and another $750,000 for FY21.
Sect. 2/3 - Waiver Request for EBT card use on college campuses:
§  Have met with WSAC and DSHS, as required by the legislation, to begin drafting the letter and required form to request a waiver with the USDA's Food and Nutrition Services administration, who is the only body that can grant the waiver.
§  Deadline of July 1 to submit our additions and revisions to the draft. DSHS will proceed with internal review and approval before submitting the waiver request, but this should be a fairly quick timeline.
§  It is unlikely that a waiver will be approved, but we are discussing other options to address access to food on campuses and system efforts to impact student food insecurity and the conversation will not end with this waiver request.
Sect. 5 - Student Notification of Possible Food Assistance Eligibility
§  The legislation requires us to ensure students receiving State Need Grant or eligible for state work study are notified of their potential eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (Potential implications for financial aid award letters)

SB 5800
Supporting Homeless College Student Pilots
§  We have $200,000 for FY20 and $348,000 for FY21. The pilot program expires July 1, 2023. The legislation does not identify a deadline for accepting applications from colleges, but we will move as quickly as our internal processes will allow to ensure time to fully utilize FY20 funds.
§  As with the Emergency Assistance Grant, there will be a competitive grant process. Will release a notice to the system about the opportunity and eligibility criteria so colleges can prepare before the grant is released.
§  We are also to invite colleges not selected to participate in the pilots to participate voluntarily and to submit data to assist in establishing a better understanding of student needs and services provided. Asking colleges to participate in the HOPE Center #RealCollege survey supports this effort.

                             [Joe]
[Compass]
Joe Holliday
Director, Student Services
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
jholliday at sbctc.edu<mailto:jholliday at sbctc.edu>* o: 360-704-4334 * f: 360-704-4418
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20190627/75b963ac/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1030 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20190627/75b963ac/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 629079 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20190627/75b963ac/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1960 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20190627/75b963ac/attachment-0005.jpg>