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Committee advances bill to exempt scholarships and fellowships from CalWORKs and CalFresh income calculations
Summary
AB 42, authored by Assemblymember Bridal, would clarify that merit-based scholarships, grants, fellowships and student loans are excluded from income calculations for CalWORKs and CalFresh recipients; the committee passed the bill to Appropriations.
The Assembly Committee on Human Services voted to pass AB 42, authored by Assemblymember Bridal, to clarify that all educational funding—including merit-based scholarships, grants and fellowships—should be excluded from income calculations under CalWORKs and CalFresh.
Supporters told the committee that current practice can count scholarships and similar student resources as income and thereby reduce eligibility for benefits. Assemblymember Bridal said the change would “clarify that all educational funding, including merit-based scholarships, grants, and fellowships for students will be exempt from income calculations under CalFresh and CalWORKs,” and would bring parity between the two programs.
Student witnesses described real-world effects. Yahira Guerrero, a student at Santa Monica College, said she hesitated to apply for CalFresh because she feared scholarships and fellowships would be treated as countable income and harm her eligibility. Parshan Khosravi, California policy director at uAspire, said taxing student resources “effectively…displac[es] their benefits” and can harm students’ ability to progress in college and work.
Advocates and organizations including the California Federation of Teachers (represented by Tristan Brown), Children Now (Kim Lewis), the Western Center on Law and Poverty (Keeley O’Brien), and other group representatives testified in support. Authors and witnesses said they worked with the California Department of Social Services during the interim to address prior concerns about cost and administrative issues.
The committee recorded a motion to pass AB 42 to the Assembly Appropriations Committee; the roll call recorded unanimous support for the motion in committee and the record later reflected a final committee vote of 7–0 on the bill file item.
