AB 834, as amended, Williams. Private postsecondary education: School Performance Fact Sheets.
Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides, among other things, for regulatory oversight of private postsecondary schools in the state. The act is enforced by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act exempts specified institutions, including certain law schools, from all, or a portion, of its provisions. The act requires an institution to provide a prospective student prior to enrollment with a School Performance Fact Sheet, which is required to contain specified information relating to the educational program. The act requires an institution that maintains an Internet Web site to provide, on that Internet Web site, specified information, including a School Performance Fact Sheet for each educational program offered by the institution.
The act authorizes an institution exempt from all or part of the act pursuant to specified provisions to apply to the bureau for an approval to operate subject to the act, as specified. The act requires these institutions to provide to prospective students the School Performance Fact Sheet,begin insert toend insert file that fact sheet with the bureau, andbegin insert toend insert post it on the institution’s Internet Web site no later than the first August 1 after the institution is approved to operate and no later than August 1 of each year thereafter.
This bill would provide a law school otherwise exempt from the act that applies to the bureau for an approval to operate subject to the act and that meets other specified criteria with an alternate way to satisfy the requirements of the act regarding a School Performance Fact Sheet. Specifically, by complying with a specified standard of the American Bar Association relating to the disclosure of consumer information, by providing completion rates of students and placement rates, bar passage rates, and salary and wage information of graduates to prospective students prior to enrollment through the law school application process administered by the Law School Admission Council, and by providing to prospective students, at a minimum on its Internet Web site, any additional information required to be reported on a School Performance Fact Sheet, such a law school would satisfy those requirements.
begin insertThis bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
end insertVote: begin deletemajority end deletebegin insert2⁄3end insert.
Appropriation: no.
Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 94910.5 is added to the Education Code,
2to read:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a law school that
4meets the criteria of subdivision (b) shall be deemed to satisfy the
5requirements of this chapter regarding a School Performance Fact
6Sheet by doing all of the following:
7(1) Complying with Standard 509 of thebegin delete 2012-13end delete American
8Bar Association’s Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval
9of Lawbegin delete Schools.end deletebegin insert Schools, as that standard may be amended.end insert
P3 1(2) Providing completion rates of students and placement rates,
2bar passage rates, and salary and wage information of graduates
3to prospective students prior to enrollment through the law school
4application process administered by the Law School Admission
5Council.
6(3) (A) Providing to prospective students any additional
7information required to be reported on a School Performance Fact
8Sheet that is not reported pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2),
9including, but not limited to, the most recent three-year cohort
10default rate reported by the United States Department of Education
11
for the law school and the percentage of enrolled students receiving
12federal student loans.
13(B) If the law school’s three-year cohort default rate reported
14by the United States Department of Education is aggregated with
15the three-year cohort default rate of an institution to which the law
16school belongs, then the law school shall provide to prospective
17students the law school’s three-year cohort default rate
18disaggregated from the institution’s three-year cohort default rate.
19(C) The law school shall, at a minimum, provide the information
20described in this paragraph to prospective students by reporting
21the information on the law school’s Internet Web site.
22(b) Subdivision (a) shall apply to a law
school that meetsbegin insert all ofend insert
23 the following criteria:
24(1) The law school is accredited by the Council of the Section
25of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American
26Bar Association.
27(2) The law school is owned by an institution authorized to
28operate by the bureau.
29(3) The law school reports graduate salary information and other
30information to the National Association for Law Placement.
31(4) The law school is approved to operate by the bureau pursuant
32to Section 94874.8.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
34immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
35the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
36immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
37In order to provide a law school with an alternate way to satisfy
38the requirements of the California Private Postsecondary Act of
392009 regarding a School Performance Fact Sheet as soon as
40possible, it is necessary that this act take immediate effect.
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