BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           2385 (J. Perez)
          
          Hearing Date:  08/02/2010           Amended: 07/15/2010
          Consultant:  Dan Troy           Policy Vote: ED 7-1
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   AB 2385 would establish the Pilot Program for  
          Innovative Nursing and Allied Health Care Profession Education  
          at the California Community Colleges to be administered by the  
          CCC Chancellor's Office.  Under this program, up to five  
          campuses would be selected by the CCC Chancellor to offer pilot  
          programs that test innovative delivery models and expand student  
          capacity in health care occupations for which there is a  
          substantial labor market demand. The program would sunset on  
          January 1, 2018. 
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2010-11      2011-12       2012-13     Fund
           
          Pilot project                                 $500 to $1,000,  
          annually               General*
                                            for five years        

          Evaluation                        $85                   General

          *Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding  
          guarantee                
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense 
          
          According to the author, most current associate degree nursing  
          and allied health care profession (i.e. fields in the health  
          profession distinct from medicine, nursing, dentistry, such as  
          kinesiology, audiology, dieticians, etc.) courses are offered  
          over two academic years and require the completion of 70 units  
          in program courses, assuming that the student has met all of the  
          prerequisite requirements and is ready to start the program.   
          The stated goal of the bill is to pilot innovative program  










          delivery and curriculum models to enable students to earn  
          degrees and enter the workforce as quickly as possible and  
          expand the state's capacity to train a qualified health  
          professional workforce without compromising the integrity of  
          program and licensure requirements.

          This pilot created by this bill would be administered by the  
          Chancellor's Office (CO) of the California Community Colleges  
          and would include up to five campuses.  The participant colleges  
          would test innovative program delivery models to expand the  
          capacity to offer health care training for students in  
          occupations for there is strong demand.  The bill requires the  
          CO to pursue a variety of funding models to help support the  
          administration and delivery of the programs, and would develop a  
          request for application for colleges to participate commencing  
          on or after the 2011-12 academic year, contingent on resources.   
          Among other criteria, the CO would be required to select, to the  
          extent possible, campuses that geographically distributed  
          throughout the state, and may give consideration to existing  
          innovative programs.  The bill states the 
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          AB 2385 (Perez)

          intent to have the program funded through a combination of state  
          apportionment funding, employer-based partnerships, federal  
          grants, and philanthropic resources.  The CO would provide for  
          an independent evaluation of the program and report findings and  
          recommendations to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2017.  
           

          Operation of the pilot would likely entail costs of several  
          hundred thousand dollars per campus, likely resulting costs in  
          the millions over the course of the pilot.  Assuming a costs of  
          $100,000 to $200,000 per campus each year, costs would range  
          from $2.5 million to $5 million over five years.  Additionally,  
          the CO estimates that costs for the evaluation would be  
          approximately $85,000 (one time) while administrative workload  
          would be absorbed within the costs of existing personnel.  As  
          specified in the bill, the CO will seek a variety of sources to  
          offset costs.