BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1029
AUTHOR: Lara
AMENDED: April 6, 2011
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 15, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Community College Course Approval.
SUMMARY
This bill extends by one year, the authority (and related
reporting requirements) of local community college
governing boards to approve stand-alone credit courses that
are not part of an educational program, without the prior
approval of the Board of Governors (BOG) of the California
Community Colleges (CCCs) .
BACKGROUND
Until 2007, existing law required the BOG to approve all
educational programs offered by community colleges and also
required the BOG to approve individual courses that are not
part of an approved program. State regulations delegated
the responsibility for these approvals to the Chancellor of
the California Community Colleges.
AB 1943 (Nava, Statutes of 2006, Chapter 817) authorized
local community college governing boards to approve
stand-alone credit courses that are not part of an
educational program, without the prior approval of the
Board of Governors (BOG) of the California Community
Colleges (CCCs) until January 1, 2013. It also required the
Chancellor's Office to submit a report to the appropriate
fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature by January
1, 2012 describing the extent to which districts had
complied with BOG adopted regulations regarding stand-alone
course approval. (Education Code § 70901)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
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1) Extends the authority of local community college
governing boards to approve stand-alone courses for
one additional year, from January 1, 2013, to January
1, 2014.
2) Extends the requirement that the Chancellor prepare
and submit a report (that includes, but is not limited
to, a description of the results of the monitoring and
the extent to which community college districts have
complied with BOG adopted regulations on stand-alone
courses) to the appropriate fiscal and policy
committees of the Legislature from January 1, 2012, to
January 1, 2013.
3) Makes related technical and conforming changes.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . Current law, until January 1,
2013, authorizes local community college districts to
approve "stand alone" courses and requires that they
submit specified information to the Chancellor's
Office. The Chancellor's Office is required to submit
a report on the implementation of this authority to
the fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature,
ostensibly to consider the elimination of the sunset.
In 2009, the Chancellor's Office discovered that
stand-alone credit courses were often approved by
districts but enrollment data was never submitted
because the courses were not offered or were canceled
due to low enrollment. Such courses were never entered
into the Chancellor's Office database and thus were
not tracked. The Chancellor's Office is requesting a
one-year extension of the authority granted by AB 1943
in order to gather more accurate information.
2) More information on these courses . "Stand alone"
courses fall outside traditional groupings of classes
and are not part of an established educational
program. These courses are generally created to meet
specific local educational and workforce needs.
Examples of such courses offered in the past include
Integrated Networking Essentials, Pest Management,
Soil Testing and Inspection, Strategies for Career
Success, Wine Vineyard Management, Academic Survival
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Skills, Sexual Harassment Prevention, and others. When
AB 1943 was passed, supporters argued that maintaining
authorization at the local level would allow districts
to be more responsive to the needs of the communities
that they serve
3) How does it work ? In 2007, the BOG adopted regulations
governing the adoption of stand-alone courses by local
districts. Among other things, the regulations require
that:
a) In order to be certified to approve these
courses locally, each college must annually
certify that all persons involved in curriculum
approval at each college have been trained in
accordance with the regulations.
b) Courses previously denied by the
Chancellor's Office must be modified before they
can be approved locally.
c) Locally approved courses must be reported to
the Chancellor's Office.
d) Linking of 18 or more semester units through
prerequisites or corequisites triggers a
requirement that the course be submitted to the
Chancellor's Office for approval as a program.
e) Local approval authority may be terminated
if a district fails to comply with any of the
regulatory requirements.
SUPPORT
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
Cerritos College
College of the Desert
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Los Angeles Community College District
Los Rios Community College District
Merced Community College District
Palo Verde College
San Diego Community College District
West Kern Community College District
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OPPOSITION
None received.