BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1400
AUTHOR: Fong
AMENDED: June 29, 2009
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: July 15, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : Community Colleges: Student expulsion and
enrollment.
SUMMARY:
This bill authorizes a community college district, under
specified circumstances, to deny or condition enrollment to
an individual who has been expelled or is being considered
for expulsion from a California Community College for certain
violent or serious offenses as specified.
BACKGROUND
Existing law requires a California Community College (CCC)
district to admit any California resident and may admit any
nonresident, possessing a high school diploma or the
equivalent thereof. CCC district governing boards may admit
persons who are over the age of 18 who do not possess a high
school diploma or its equivalent who are capable of profiting
from the instruction offered and are also authorized to admit
high school students if their high school governing boards
determine the student would benefit from advanced scholastic
or vocational work. Under current law, the governing board
of a CCC district may only exclude "students of filthy or
vicious habits, or students suffering from contagious or
infectious diseases" and "may exclude from attendance in
regular classes students whose physical or mental disability
is such as to cause his or her attendance to be inimical to
the welfare of other students."
Existing law authorizes a CCC to expel a student for good
cause when other means of correction fail to bring about
proper conduct, or when the presence of the student causes a
continuing danger to the physical safety of the student or
others. The expulsion is required to be accompanied by a
hearing.
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Existing federal law specifies that student disciplinary
records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) and are subject to the general
requirement that records regarding identifiable students
cannot be shared without the student's consent or a court
order. Current state law also provides these protections.
Existing law, the California Tort Claims Act, gives public
entities, including state and local governments, general
immunity from liability for injuries that may arise from an
act or an omission and extends that immunity to public
employees as specified.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Authorizes a governing board of a community college
district to deny enrollment or permit conditional
enrollment to a student who has been expelled or is
being considered for expulsion from another district
within the preceding 10 years for specified violent and
criminal offenses upon determining through a hearing
that the individual poses a continuing danger to the
physical safety of the students and employees in the
district. Defines violent offenses to include:
a) Committed or attempted to commit murder;
b) Caused, attempted to cause, or threatened to
cause physical injury to another person, including
assault or battery, as defined, except in
self-defense;
c) Committed or attempted to commit a sexual
assault, as defined, or committed sexual battery,
as defined;
d) Committed or attempted to commit kidnapping,
or seized, confined, inveigled, enticed, decoyed,
abducted, concealed, kidnapped, or carried away
another person by any means with the intent to hold
or detain that person for ransom or reward;
e) Committed or attempted to commit robbery;
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f) Committed stalking, as defined;
g) Possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a
firearm, knife, explosive, or other dangerous
objects.
2) Authorizes a California Community College (CCC) district
to request information from another community college
district in determining whether the applicant continues
to pose a danger to the physical safety of others and
requires any community college district receiving a
request to respond within five working days of receiving
the request.
3) Requires a student who was expelled from a community
college for any of the specified actions and who seeks
admission in another community college district to
inform the receiving district of his or her prior
expulsion.
4) Authorizes a governing board to delegate authority
granted by this act to a district superintendent,
president or other designee, as specified.
5) Grants a student who is denied enrollment the right to
appeal the decision to the district governing board.
6) Specifies that the measure does not impose a duty to
review applicants for admission or review previously
enrolled students, whether returning or continuing, or
to conduct a hearing in response to the receipt of any
information regarding a potential, former, or existing
student.
7) Specifies that a community college district, its
governing board members, district officers or employees,
including the superintendent, a college president, or
designees of those individuals, shall not be liable for
an injury as a result of exercising discretion pursuant
to this act.
8) Provides for reimbursement to California Community
College (CCC) districts if the Commission on State
Mandates determines that this bill contains state
mandated costs.
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STAFF COMMENTS
1) Discipline and expulsion from a CCC . Existing law
requires the CCCs to adopt rules for student conduct
standards and related penalties for violating those
standards. A CCC district is authorized to expel a
student for good cause, which may include assault,
battery, or any threat of force or violence upon a
student or college personnel, willful misconduct that
results in injury or death to a student or college
personnel, or defacing district property, or the use,
sale, or possession on campus of controlled substance or
specified poisons. According to the author's office,
there are relatively few students expelled each year for
violent and criminal offenses; data from a survey of 55
CCC campuses indicated that less than 25 students were
expelled in the 2007-08 academic year for violent or
serious offenses.
2) Need for the bill . With very few exceptions, Community
Colleges are required by law to admit any California
resident and do not have the authority to restrict a
student's admission based on past conduct, even if that
conduct was for serious or violent offenses while
attending another community college district. The
General Counsel for the California Community Colleges
Chancellor's Office has opined that "even if the
receiving college becomes aware of the expulsion, there
is no current authority to restrict a student admission
based on past conduct, even if that conduct occurred at
another community college district." The sponsors of
this bill contend that the inability to deny admission
to students who have previously been expelled from other
community colleges for committing violent or dangerous
acts poses a threat to students, faculty, and staff.
This bill provides local community college districts
with another tool to improve safety on their campuses.
Staff notes that this bill does not pertain to students
expelled for academic related offenses such as
plagiarism or transcript forgery. The bill only
addresses students expelled from another community
college for specified violent or serious offenses.
Under the provisions of this bill, a student expelled
from the California State University (CSU) or the
University of California (UC) for committing these same
offenses would be eligible (as they are today) to enroll
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in a community college.
3) Practices of other systems . Unlike California's other
postsecondary education systems, community colleges do
not have an established authority or process for denying
admission to individuals who have been expelled from
another college within the system.
- UC: According to the UC, a student who is
expelled from a campus within the UC system may be
considered for readmission only under exceptional
circumstances. The student may not be admitted to a
different UC campus without the express approval of
the Chancellor of the campus to which the expelled
student has applied.
- CSU: A student who is expelled from a CSU campus
is expelled from the entire system. Admission or
readmission to the CSU may be qualified, revoked, or
denied to any person found to have violated the
Student Conduct Code. The Student Conduct Procedures
for the CSU afford students due process in discipline
proceedings and provide guidance to campuses to
address student misconduct.
In the state's K-12 system, a pupil who is expelled from
a school district may be enrolled in another district
during or after the period of expulsion only after the
second school district holds a hearing to determine
whether the individual poses a continuing danger either
to the pupils or employees of the district. AB 1400
establishes a process that is similar to that used in
the K-12 system.
1) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis, there would be minor nonreimbursable
costs for legal services to districts who conduct the
specified hearings. Assuming up to $5,000 per hearing,
costs statewide would probably not exceed $50,000 to
$100,000. In addition, this bill will have mandated and
probably minor costs associated with districts
responding to requests for information.
2) Efficacy . Because this bill requires a student to
inform a community college district of his or her prior
expulsion, it seems possible that districts will not
always be aware of a student's past conduct record.
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While it could be more efficient and reliable to require
districts to report expulsions to the Chancellor's
office, which could then make this information available
to all districts, this approach would probably be more
costly and require staffing resources the Chancellor's
office may have in the current fiscal climate.
SUPPORT
Kern Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
San-Jose Evergreen Community College District
OPPOSITION
None received.