BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 386 (Levine) - California State University: Online Course
Cross-Enrollment
Amended: July 10, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 12, 2013
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 386 authorizes any California State University
(CSU) student enrolled at a CSU campus, who meets specified
requirements, to enroll in an online course provided by another
CSU campus. This bill requires CSU campuses to provide students
with specified information about online courses, and the CSU
Trustees to establish an easily accessible online database of
these courses by January 1, 2015. This bill further requires the
CSU Trustees to report key performance data on online courses,
as specified, to the Legislative Analyst's office (LAO) by
January 1, 2017, and for the LAO to report the status
information to the Legislature.
Fiscal Impact:
Cross-enrollment system: The CSU estimates that
establishing a cross-enrollment system that meets the
requirements of this bill will cost $1,090,000 over two
years. Annual operational costs would be approximately
$250,000, primarily to maintain the course database,
enrollment system, and transcript integration (for grading).
Authority to cross-enroll: Once the system is established,
the authority for students to cross-enroll is unlikely to
result in significant costs to the CSU. Individual campuses
will have the authority to charge registration fees to
students who cross-enroll which should mitigate any
administrative costs.
LAO report: Potentially significant workload to produce two
required reports.
Background: Existing law authorizes a student enrolled in any
campus of the California Community Colleges (CCC), CSU, or the
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University of California (UC) who meets specified requirements
to enroll, without formal admission and payment of additional
fees, in a maximum of one course per academic term at a campus
of either of the other systems on a space available basis, as
specified. (Education Code § 66751)
Existing law provides that a student enrolled in any campus of
the CCC, CSU, or UC may cross-enroll if the student: a)
completed at least one term at the home campus as a matriculated
student and is taking at least 6 units at the home campus during
the current term; b) has attained a 2.0 grade point average; c)
has paid appropriate tuition and/or fees required by the home
campus for that academic term; and, d) has the appropriate
academic preparation for the course, as determined by the host
campus, consistent with the standard applied to currently
enrolled students. (EC § 66752)
Existing law prohibits the host campus from counting the
cross-enrolled student in the calculation of its headcount or
full-time equivalent student (FTES) enrollment. The home campus
is authorized to count these students in its calculation of
headcount or FTES enrollment only for those units in which the
student is enrolled at the home campus.
(EC § 66753.5)
Proposed Law: AB 386 authorizes, by the beginning of the 2015-16
academic year, a student who meets specified requirements to
enroll, without formal admission and without paying additional
tuition and fees, in a course provided entirely online by
another CSU campus on a space-available basis. This bill
establishes the following requirements and authorities for cross
enrollment in online courses at the CSU:
a) Authorizes nonresident and international CSU
students who meet the outlined conditions to cross-enroll,
but requires that these students pay the per unit fees for
the course at the host campus.
b) Authorizes a host campus to charge participating
students a reasonable administration fee and specific
course-based fees, as specified.
c) Requires the CSU Chancellor's office to
establish an online methodology to allow students to be
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informed of the online cross-enrollment option and to
simultaneously enroll in both home and host campuses.
d) Requires a matriculated CSU student to have
priority access to enroll in online courses at his/her
home campus, while requiring host campuses to adopt a
campus enrollment policy that encourages cross-enrollment.
e) Requires that the course be accepted for credit
at the home campus on the same basis as that for a
matriculated student at the host campus.
f) Requires each CSU campus to inform students who
may enroll in online courses of specified information
related to requirements of the courses.
g) Authorizes the host campus to count
cross-enrolled students in the calculation of headcount or
FTES enrollment at the host campus, but limits both the
home and host campus to counting a cross-enrolled student
only for those units in which the student is enrolled at
each respective campus.
h) Requires the CSU Trustees to establish an easily
accessible online database of online courses available at
all CSU campuses that provides a streamlined method of
finding and enrolling in courses that lead toward
graduation, general education and major requirements, as
well as plan for a 2015-16 operational cross-enrollment
process by January 1, 2015.
This bill further requires that the CSU Trustees provide key
performance data to the Legislature every two years, beginning
on or before January 1, 2017. The CSU Trustees are also required
to submit key performance data to the LAO by January 1, 2017,
and the LAO must submit a status update to the Legislature by
October 1, 2017.
Staff Comments: In order for the CSU students to be able to
cross-enroll in online classes at other CSU campuses, as this
bill authorizes, the CSU will need to build the technological
infrastructure to comply with the bill's requirements. The
initial costs will primarily be incurred to build a system
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which: 1) can authenticate student identity, and complete the
registration and enrollment process with available slots in
other campuses' courses; 2) contains a reliable and searchable
database of fully-online courses across the CSU system, and
which can be easily updated; and, 3) can provide reliable and
timely authentication of grading and integration into student
transcripts. The CSU estimates that it will cost approximately
$1 million to build the system (using a backbone of existing
technology). The CSU will also incur minor upfront costs to
inform students about the courses, including articulating which
courses fulfill graduation requirements for various majors, and
which satisfy general education requirements.
The CSU estimates ongoing costs of approximately $250,000
annually, to maintain and update the system and course
information, and to manage the component of the system that will
ensure accurate grades are integrated into transcripts.
Staff notes that the CSU already has the authority to implement
this bill, and has indicated in a recent press release that it
intends to implement online course reforms that are conceptually
similar to what it described in this bill. The CSU indicates
that such implementation would use approximately $1.1 million of
the $10 million budget augmentation it received in the Budget
Act. That funding was initially earmarked to expand online
courses, but the language limiting the funding uses was stricken
by the Governor. This bill would, however, lock the CSU into
that plan.