BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 288
AUTHOR: Fong
AMENDED: March 22, 2011
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 8, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Community Colleges: Student expulsion and
enrollment.
SUMMARY
This bill requires a student enrolling in a community
college to disclose his/her prior expulsion from another
community college district and authorizes the governing
board of a community college district to deny enrollment,
permit enrollment, or permit conditional enrollment to a
student who has been expelled, or is being considered for
expulsion, from another district for specified offenses
within the preceding 5 years.
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
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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.
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, permit enrollment, or
permit conditional enrollment to a student who has
been expelled or is being considered for expulsion
from another district within the preceding 5 years for
specified offenses. More specifically it:
a) Requires the governing board, prior to taking
action to deny or permit conditional enrollment,
to hold a hearing, as specified, to determine
whether the individual poses a continuing danger
to the physical safety of the students and
employees in the district.
b) 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 such a
request to respond within five working days of
receiving the request.
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c) Requires the governing board to take into
consideration evidence of subsequent offenses and
rehabilitative efforts since the offense.
d) Authorizes a governing board to delegate
authority granted by this act to a district
superintendent, president or other designee, or a
threat assessment crisis response team, as
specified.
e) Requires the governing board to establish a
formal appeals process for students denied
enrollment to appeal the decision and grants a
student who is denied enrollment the right to
appeal the decision to the district governing
board.
2) Defines "offense," for the bill's purposes, to mean:
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;
f) Committed stalking, as defined;
g) Possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a
firearm, knife, explosive, or other dangerous
objects.
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3) Requires a student who was expelled from a community
college in the state 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 and requires the receiving
district to maintain written record of a student's
failure to make such disclosure and consider such
failure in determining whether to grant admission.
4) 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.
5) 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, including the
discretion not to conduct a hearing.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) 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.
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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 still be eligible (as they are
today) to enroll in a community college.
2) 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 29 students
were expelled in the 2007-08 academic year for violent
or serious offenses and 17 students were expelled in
2008-09.
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.
a) 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.
b) CSU: A student who is expelled from a CSU
campus is expelled from the entire system.
Admission or readmission to the CSU may be
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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. This bill establishes a process that is
similar to that used in the K-12 system.
4) 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.
5) Prior legislation . AB 1400 (Fong, 2010) was
substantially similar to this bill and was ultimately
vetoed by Governor Schwarzennegger, whose veto message
read, in pertinent part:
I am very supportive of the intent of this bill
to maintain the safety and well-being of all
students attending California Community Colleges
(CCC). However, as drafted, the bill creates an
uneven standard between students who could be
denied admission because of criminal acts they
may have committed in the past.
Since I am committed to having community colleges
be both safe places for quality education, as
well as open institutions of hope for all
students, I am asking the CCC Board of Governors
to work in collaboration with CCC Chancellor
Scott to work on a policy that will most
effectively address this issue for the campuses.
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According to the Chancellor's Office, the Office has
determined that new statute is necessary in order to
issue regulations on this matter.
In addition, staff notes that prior legislation
contained language to apply specified immunity,
consistent with existing Government Code provisions,
around the exercise of the discretion authorized under
the bill's provisions. Accordingly staff recommends
the bill be amended to provide similar immunity.
SUPPORT
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rancho Santiago Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
San Jose Evergreen Community College District
OPPOSITION
None received.