Postsecondary education: student financial aid dependency status: juveniles.

The bill text was reformatted from a traditional printed legislative document (with page numbers, column layout, and 'STATE OF CALIFORNIA / AUTHENTICATED / ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIAL' header) to a web page layout with navigation menus, quick search fields, and version selection dropdowns. No changes were made to the substantive legal content.

Section 826.9(b)(1) narrows the circle of people at an institution of higher education who may access a person's confidential foster care or probation information. The enrolled version limits sharing to 'staff who directly facilitate services for the person such as applying, registering, enrolling, or obtaining financial aid or support' rather than any 'personnel when necessary.' It also removes the explicit reference to 'the institution of higher education's personnel' from the prohibition on further disclosure.

Minor grammatical edits throughout: 'Nothing in this section prohibits' changed to 'This section does not prohibit' in Section 66020.8(c); 'and or obtaining' corrected to 'or obtaining' in Section 826.9(a); 'The information necessary to verify that the' reworded to 'Information verifying that the' in Section 826.9(a)(2).

Standard enrolled-bill formatting changes: removal of amendment history headers, line numbers, vote and appropriation lines; addition of chapter designation, passage dates, governor's approval block, and renumbered page headers.

Section 826.9(a)(2) now limits what county personnel may share with an institution to only three specific items: the applicant's name and date of birth, the dates of their time in juvenile court/foster care/probation (or a statement they were not), and a statement that the person is or was a foster youth or juvenile court ward. Previously it allowed 'the information necessary to verify' status without specifying limits.

Section 826.9(b)(1) narrows who within an institution can access the shared information. It now specifies only staff who directly facilitate services (applying, registering, enrolling, or obtaining financial aid) may access it, and only to the extent the person is notified or sharing is necessary to fulfill their request.

New Section 826.9(b)(4) clarifies that information obtained under this section does not by itself constitute eligibility for services or support intended solely for persons who are or were dependents or placed in foster care. This prevents the attestation from being used as a standalone qualification.

New Section 826.9(c) defines 'institution of higher education' as either a public postsecondary educational institution or a private postsecondary educational institution (including trade or vocational schools) licensed or authorized to operate by the state in which it operates.

Minor language changes throughout: 'Nothing in this section prohibits' changed to 'This section does not prohibit'; 'enrolling, and obtaining' changed to 'enrolling, or obtaining'; and a cross-reference to the new definition was added in the fiscal note.

The definition of 'Applicant' was expanded from students 'attending' a CSU, community college, or UC campus to students 'attending, or applying to attend,' extending the bill's protections to prospective students in the application process.

The bill title was changed to add 'add Section 826.9' to the Welfare and Institutions Code (in addition to amending Section 827), indicating a new statutory section was introduced, though its full text is not visible in the truncated diff.

A new attestation criterion (D) was added requiring the sworn statement to declare that the student is either unable to contact their parent or parents, or that contacting them would pose a risk to the student. This broadens eligibility beyond just students who do not receive financial support from parents to also include those in unsafe family situations.

References to 'county welfare department' were changed to 'county child welfare department' throughout the bill, more precisely identifying the relevant state agency.

The digest now describes a mechanism authorizing personnel at county child welfare departments, county probation departments, or local educational agencies to provide specified information (including the sworn attestation) directly to institutions of higher education upon request from the student.

A cross-reference error in Section 827(a)(1)(J)(ii) was corrected from 'Section 16519.5' to 'Section 16519.3,' and a duplicate reference '(U) (U)' in the list of authorized recipients was cleaned up to a single '(U).'

The confidentiality provision language 'may shall not subsequently be released' was corrected to 'shall not subsequently be released,' removing an ambiguous word and making the prohibition unambiguous.

The mechanism for providing information to higher education institutions changed from direct case file inspection by institution personnel (amending Section 827) to a new intermediary model where county/LEA personnel provide information to the institution upon the student's request (new Section 826.9). This is more privacy-protective because the institution never directly accesses the juvenile case file.

The Assembly version's amendment to Section 827 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, which would have added subparagraph (W) granting institutions of higher education and funding organizations direct access to inspect juvenile case files, was entirely removed in the Senate version.

New Section 826.9 authorizes personnel at a county child welfare department, county probation department, or local educational agency to provide, upon the student's request, either a sworn attestation (as defined in the Education Code) or information verifying the person was adjudged a dependent/ward of juvenile court, placed in foster care or on probation, or taken into custody of the county probation department.

The sworn attestation requirement in Section 66020.8(a)(7)(D) was changed from a declaration that 'the student does not receive financial aid from their parent or parents' to a declaration that 'the student is either unable to contact their parent or parents, or contacting their parent or parents would pose a risk to the student.' This shifts the standard from financial dependency to contact/safety.

A new subsection (c) was added to Section 66020.8 stating that nothing in the section prohibits a financial aid administrator from accepting other types of adequate documentation to substantiate a student's unusual circumstances, making clear the sworn attestation is one option among several.