Last month, UNITE-LA, in partnership with colleagues at John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY), led an advocacy meeting with Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Glendale) to discuss our co-sponsored bill, AB 789.

AB 789 seeks to standardize Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), a policy that impacts thousands of students per year by revoking state and federal financial aid due to academic issues. Currently, the policy is different at more than 200 institutions across the state and largely penalizes students facing a myriad of hardships including food and housing insecurity, child care, transportation, sexual assault and more. We now wait to see if the bill will be passed in the Appropriations committee.