BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 1025 (Garcia) - Public Postsecondary: Credit by Examination
Amended: March 21, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 24, 2013
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill may meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense
File.
Bill Summary: AB 1025 requires the California Community Colleges
and the California State University (CSU) to provide information
about credit by examination opportunities wherever course and
class information is available, and requests the University of
California (UC) comply with these same requirements.
Fiscal Impact: The CCC, CSU, and UC believe they are already in
compliance with the provisions of this bill, and do not
anticipate that it will result in additional costs.
Mandate: This bill requires in statute an action already
being completed by CCDs, and could be deemed to impose a new
reimbursable state mandate on CCDs. See staff comments.
Background: Credit by examination tests are comprised of
campus-originated challenge examinations, and the standardized
external examinations (e.g. Advanced Placement tests and
International Baccalaureate tests).
Existing law authorizes the governing board of each California
community college district (CCD) to adopt policies and
procedures pertaining to credit by examination and allows for
the governing board of the CCD to grant credit to any student
who satisfactorily passes an examination approved or conducted
by proper authorities of the college. (California Code of
Regulations, Title 5, 55050)
Existing law establishes the CSU Board of Trustees as the
governing body of the CSU and specifies the Board of Trustees'
power, duties and functions with respect to the management,
administration, and control of the CSU. (EC � 66600 and �
66606).
AB 1025 (Garcia)
Page 1
Existing law authorizes the UC Regents as the governing body of
the UC and grants authority to the Regents to determine final
policies and procedures on behalf of the UC. (Education Code �
92020 and � 92430)
Proposed Law: This bill requires the CCC and the CSU to provide
information about credit by examination opportunities wherever
course and class information is available. This bill requests
the UC to provide information about credit by examination
opportunities wherever course and class information is
available, as well.
Staff Comments: This bill is unlikely to result in new costs to
any of the segments, because they already provide information
about credit by examination opportunities to students. This bill
requires that the information be provided "wherever course or
class information is available" and the segments believe they
are currently compliant with that language.
CCDs are eligible to seek reimbursement through the mandates
claim process for state mandate imposed upon them to provide a
new program or higher level of service, whether or not the CCDs
were already completing the newly-mandated activities. In this
case, legislative counsel had identified a potential
reimbursable state mandate for activities that CCDs are
currently or already completing.
This bill is unlikely to result in a new reimbursable mandate.
It is unclear that the activities required by this bill
constitute a higher level of service beyond what is currently
required of CCDs with regard to assessing and placing students
appropriately. Moreover, most CCDs will not have $1,000 in costs
specifically related to this bill, and are unlikely to file
mandate claims, particularly if they receive Student Success Act
categorical funding. The Student Success Act of 2012, SB 1456
(Lowenthal) Ch.624/2012, among other things, replaced previous
matriculation services with a broader set of requirements which,
among other things, ensure counseling, assessment, and education
planning for new students, pursuant to which the 2013-14
provided $50 million to the CCC for matriculation-related
activities.
AB 1025 (Garcia)
Page 2