BILL NUMBER: AB 1655	CHAPTERED  10/05/05

	CHAPTER  544
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  OCTOBER 5, 2005
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR  OCTOBER 5, 2005
	PASSED THE SENATE  SEPTEMBER 8, 2005
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 8, 2005
	AMENDED IN SENATE  SEPTEMBER 2, 2005
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 30, 2005
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 7, 2005
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 23, 2005

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Jerome Horton
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Dunn)

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2005

   An act to amend Section 68120 of the Education Code, relating to
public postsecondary education, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1655, Jerome Horton  Public postsecondary education: fees and
tuition: waiver: survivors of deceased law enforcement and
firefighting personnel.
   Existing law requires the Regents of the University of California,
the Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, and the
Trustees of the California State University to excuse the mandatory
systemwide tuition and fees of any surviving spouse or surviving
child, natural or adopted, of a deceased person who was a resident of
the state, who was employed by a public agency, or who was a
contractor, or who was an employee of a contractor, as defined, whose
principal duties consisted of active law enforcement service or
active fire suppression and prevention, and who was killed in the
performance of those duties. This provision is applicable to the
Regents of the University of California only if the regents, by
resolution, make it applicable.
   This bill would add a surviving stepchild who, at the time of the
death of that deceased person or at any time while that stepchild was
a minor, was living or domiciled with the deceased person and
claimed on a tax form filed by or on behalf of that deceased person,
to the categories of survivors for whom the waiver of mandatory
systemwide fees or tuition is authorized by this provision.
  This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an
urgency statute.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 68120 of the Education Code is amended to read:

   68120.  (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no
mandatory systemwide fees or tuition of any kind shall be required of
or collected by the Regents of the University of California, the
Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, or the
Trustees of the California State University from any surviving spouse
or surviving child of a deceased person who met all of the following
requirements:
   (1) He or she was a resident of this state.
   (2) He or she was employed by a public agency, or was a
contractor, or an employee of a contractor, performing services for a
public agency.
   (3) His or her principal duties consisted of active law
enforcement service or active fire suppression and prevention. This
section shall not apply to a person whose principal duties were
clerical, even if he or she was subject to occasional call or was
occasionally called upon to perform duties within the scope of active
law enforcement or active fire suppression and prevention.
   (4) He or she was killed in the performance of active law
enforcement or active fire suppression and prevention duties, or died
as a result of an accident or an injury caused by external violence
or physical force, incurred in the performance of his or her active
law enforcement or active fire suppression and prevention duties.
   (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), a person who qualifies for
the waiver of mandatory systemwide fees and tuition under this
section as a surviving child of a contractor, or of an employee of a
contractor, who performed services for a public agency shall, in
addition to the requirements set forth in subdivision (a), meet both
of the following requirements:
   (1) Enrollment as an undergraduate student at a campus of the
University of California or the California State University.
   (2) Documentation that his or her annual income, including the
value of any support received from a parent, does not exceed the
maximum household income and asset level for an applicant for a Cal
Grant B award, as set forth in Section 69432.7.
   (c) As used in this section:
   (1) "Contractor" or "employee of a contractor" does not include a
security guard or security officer, as defined in Section 7582.1 of
the Business and Professions Code.
   (2) "Public agency" means the state or any city, city and county,
county, district, or other local authority or public body of or
within the state.
   (3) "Surviving child" means either of the following:
   (A) A surviving natural or adopted child of the deceased person.
   (B) A surviving stepchild of the deceased person who, at the time
of the death of that deceased person or at any time while that
stepchild was a minor, was living or domiciled with that deceased
person and claimed on a tax form filed by or on behalf of that
deceased person.
  SEC. 2.  This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
   In order to prevent imminent hardship to students who are
deserving of the waiver of mandatory systemwide fees and tuition that
is provided by Section 68120 of the Education Code, it is necessary
that this act take effect immediately.