BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 595
AUTHOR: Gomez
AMENDED: April 15, 2013
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 12, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Community College Priority Enrollment.
SUMMARY
This bill requires a community college district that
administers a priority enrollment system to grant priority
registration for enrollment to students in the Extended
Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) programs and to
disabled students, as defined.
BACKGROUND
Current law requires the California State University (CSU)
and each California Community College (CCC) district, and
requests the University of California (UC) to give priority
for registration for enrollment to any member or former
member of the Armed Forces, as defined, who is a resident of
California and who has received an honorable discharge, a
general discharge, or an other than honorable discharge for
any academic term attended at one of these institutions
within four years of leaving state or federal active duty, if
the institution already administers a priority enrollment
system. Current law further requires that the veteran use
this benefit within 15 years of leaving state or federal
active duty and requires that these students comply with
student responsibilities established by the Student Success
Act of 2012. (Education Code � 66025.8)
Current law also requires the CSU and each CCC district, and
requests of the UC to grant priority enrollment, if the
institution already administers a priority enrollment system
for registration, to any current or former foster youth, and
repeals these provisions on January 1, 2017. (EC � 66025.9)
Current law establishes the Community College EOPS to extend
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opportunities for community college education to all who may
profit regardless of economic, social and educational status,
and to encourage local community colleges to identify
students affected by economic, language, and social
disadvantages and encourage their enrollment and achievement
of their educational objectives and goals. The Board of
Governors is required to adopt regulations with the objective
that the EOPS programs include qualified counseling staff,
facilitation of transfer, and enrollment in courses necessary
to develop successful study skills, as specified. Current law
also authorizes local community college governing boards to
provide services that may include loans or grants for living
costs, student fees, and transportation costs and also
scholarships, work-experience and job placement programs.
(EC � 69640 - � 69656)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires a community college district that
administers a priority enrollment system to:
1) Grant priority registration for enrollment to students
in the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS)
programs.
2) Grant priority registration for enrollment to disabled
students, as defined pursuant to specified federal law.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Student Success Task Force (SSTF) . Pursuant to Senate
Bill 1143 (Liu, Chapter 409, Statutes of 2010), the
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
created the Student Success Task Force (SSTF); 20
individuals (community college chief executive officers,
faculty, students, researchers, staff and external stake
holders) who spent a year researching, studying and
debating the best methods to improve student outcomes at
the community colleges.
According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously
adopted by the Board of Governors in January 2012, it
was their goal to identify best practices for promoting
student success and to develop statewide strategies to
take these approaches to scale while ensuring that
educational opportunity for historically
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underrepresented students would not just be maintained,
but bolstered. The report noted that while a number of
disturbing statistics around student completion reflect
the challenges faced by the students they serve, they
also clearly demonstrate the need for the system to
recommit to finding new and better ways to serve its
students.
The SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific recommendations
focused on the following eight areas:
a) Increasing college and career readiness.
b) Strengthening support for entering students.
c) Incentivizing successful student behaviors.
d) Aligning course offerings to meet student
needs.
e) Improving education of basic skills students.
f) Revitalizing and re-envisioning professional
development.
g) Enabling efficient statewide leadership and
increase coordination among colleges.
h) Aligning resources with student success
recommendations.
2) Student Success Initiative (SSI) . Implementation of the
Student Success Task Force (SSTF) recommendations is
being accomplished by the Chancellor's Office of the
California Community Colleges via the "Student Success
Initiative" through regulatory changes, system-wide
administrative policies, local best practices and
legislation.
SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of 2013) was
enacted to implement some of the SSTF recommendations.
Among other things,
SB 1456 revised and recast the Seymour-Campbell
Matriculation Act of 1986 as the Seymour-Campbell
Success Act of 2012 in order to target funding to
services such as orientation, assessment, and counseling
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and advising to assist students with the development of
education plans. It also required that students define
goals, required that students declare a course of study
and mandated student participation in assessment,
orientation and education planning.
At a regulatory level, the Board of Governors has
approved regulations that provide enrollment priority to
students who have participated in assessment,
orientation and who have developed an education plan. A
revision of Title 5 regulations is in progress to
implement provisions of SB 1456 to require students to
complete core services as well as to declare a course of
study. In addition, in 2012 the Board of Governors
adopted enrollment priorities and, by Spring 2013
districts are required to notify students that
accumulating 100 degree applicable units or being on
academic or progress probation for two consecutive terms
will result in the loss of enrollment priority.
Finally, in Fall 2014, students who complete
orientation, assessment, and have a student education
plan, will receive a higher enrollment priority.
3) Net effect ? In 2011-12 the California Community Colleges
(CCC) enrolled over 2 million students. Of these,
121,000 were disabled students, over 6,500 were foster
youth and, the CCC were allocated about $64 million for
the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS)
program and served over 76,000 EOPS students statewide.
Additionally, according to the CCC, in 2010-11 more than
44,000 veterans utilized education benefits at a
California community college.
Given the limited EOPS funding provided, not all
students who meet the criteria for the EOPS program are
able to be served. This population could include AB 540
students, Calworks recipients (about 36,000 enrolled in
the CCC in 2011-12), as well as other students who are
economically, socially, or educationally disadvantaged.
Although they may have complied with the statutory and
regulatory SSI requirements, if this bill is enacted
these students could be extended priority enrollment
only after veterans, foster youth, disabled students and
students fortunate enough to be served through an
Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS)
program had received priority enrollment.
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4) Need to ensure consistency with Student Success
Initiative (SSI) . According to the author, this bill is
intended to update codified priority enrollment
regulations that existed prior to the implementation of
the Student Success Initiative for EOPS and disabled
students, similar to that provided to veterans and
foster youth. However, staff notes that the priority
enrollment provided to veterans and foster youth is time
limited, i.e. it must be utilized by veterans within 15
years of leaving active duty and is only authorized for
four years, and the current requirements for priority
enrollment for foster youth sunset on January 1, 2017.
In addition, staff notes that the current military
members and veterans priority enrollment provisions were
amended in 2012 to clarify that priority enrollment is
only granted if the student complies with the newly
adopted requirements established by the Student Success
Act of 2012 in order to incentivize behaviors that
result in student success.
In order to ensure that the provisions of this bill
support, and do not undermine, recent statutory and
regulatory efforts to ensure the development of
statewide strategies to ensure student success, staff
recommends the bill be amended to include a new section
that clarifies that it is the intent of the Legislature
that any students who receive priority registration for
enrollment shall comply with the requirements of
subdivision (a) of Section 78212.
Staff further recommends the bill be amended to ensure
that the authority granted parallels the time-limited
nature of other enrollment priority provisions by
sunsetting its provisions on January 1, 2017.
5) Prior legislation .
a) SB 2133 (Blumenfield, Chapter 400, Statutes of
2012) required a veteran to use their four years of
priority enrollment at the University of
California, California State University, and
California Community Colleges within 15 years of
leaving active duty. The bill also required that
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veteran receiving priority enrollment comply with
the requirements of the Student Success Act of
2012.
b) AB 194 (Beall, Chapter 458, Statutes of 2011)
until July 1, 2017, requires a community college
district to grant priority enrollment for
registration to any current or former foster youth,
if the institution already administers a priority
enrollment system, and repeals these provisions on
January 1, 2017.
c) SB 813 (Committee on Veteran Affairs, Chapter
375, Statutes of 2011) extended the time frame for
eligibility for priority enrollment for veterans at
the University of California (UC), California State
University (CSU), and California Community Colleges
(CCC) from two years to four years.
d) SB 272 (Runner, Chapter 356, Statutes of 2007)
extended priority enrollment at the UC, CSU and CCC
for a veteran who is a resident of California and
who has received an honorable discharge, a general
discharge, or an other than honorable discharge for
any academic term attended at one of these
institutions within two years of leaving state or
federal active duty, if the institution already
administered a priority enrollment system.
SUPPORT
Association of Regional Center Agencies
California School Employees Association, AFL-CIO
California Teachers Association
Community College League of California
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
Los Angeles Community College District
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
Rio Hondo Community College District
Several Individual Letters
OPPOSITION
None on file.
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