BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 542 (Wilk) - Community colleges: early and middle college
high schools.
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|Version: July 8, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 17, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill: (1) exempts Early College High School
students from the requirement that a community college district
governing board assign a low enrollment priority to special
part-time or full-time students; and (2) prohibits a student
enrolled in a community college physical education (PE) course
required for the student's middle college or early college high
school program from being considered a special part-time or
full-time student, thereby excluding these students from the cap
on PE courses for which the community college can claim
full-time equivalent students (FTES) and receive associated
state apportionments.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown, likely significant Proposition 98 cost pressure to
fund increased community college apportionments. If community
college districts claimed an additional 10 percent full-time
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equivalent students for special part-time and full-time
enrollment PE courses over the amount reported in 2013-14;
this could create a cost pressure to provide about $267,000 in
additional state apportionments. See staff comments.
Background:1) Existing law allows the governing board of a school district,
upon recommendation of the principal of the student's school and
with parental consent, to attend a community college as a
special part-time or full-time student and to undertake one or
more courses of instruction. (Education Code § 48800 et seq.)
A parent or guardian of a student may petition the governing
board of the school district to authorize the attendance of the
student at a community college as a special full-time student on
the ground that the student would benefit from the advanced
scholastic or vocational work. A community college is credited
with additional units of average daily attendance attributable
to the attendance of special full-time students at the community
college, except for the enrollment and apportionment caps
related to physical education (PE) courses. (EC § 48800.5)
Existing law authorizes a community college district governing
board to admit as a special part-time or full-time student any
student eligible, as specified, and requires the governing board
of a California Community College district to assign these
students a low enrollment priority in order to ensure that they
do not displace regularly admitted community college students.
An exemption to this requirement is extended to Middle College
High School (MCHS) students. (EC § 76001)
Early College High Schools are small, autonomous schools that
blend high school and college into a coherent educational
program. They are designed so that all students can achieve two
years of college credit at the same time they are earning a high
school diploma (within four to five years of entering ninth
grade). Early College High Schools are designed to target pupils
from backgrounds that are underrepresented in postsecondary
education, including students who have not had access to the
academic preparation needed to meet college readiness standards,
students for whom the cost of college is prohibitive, students
AB 542 (Wilk) Page 2 of
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of color, first generation college-goers, and English language
learners. Early college high schools are not necessarily
co-located on a community college campus, and there is no
requirement to be near a community college.
Middle College High School is a collaborative program that
enables high-potential, "at risk" students to obtain a high
school education while concurrently receiving direct access to
college courses and services. The high school is typically
located on and integrated into the community college
environment, wherein high school students attend classes at a
community college and earn credit toward a high school diploma
while having the opportunity to concurrently take college
courses and to receive more intensive counseling and
administrative attention.
Proposed Law:
This bill lessens restrictions on special part-time and
full-time students that attend an ECHS or MCHS until January 1,
2021. This bill includes special part-time or full-time
community college students who attend an early college high
school from the requirement that they be assigned a low
enrollment priority by the community college district.
This bill declares that a student attending MCHS or ECHS is not
considered a special part-time or full-time student for purposes
of the 10 percent enrollment cap set for these students in a
physical education class and the cap on state apportionments the
CCD can receive for these students enrolled in physical
education courses which is no more than 5 percent of the CCD's
total reported full-time equivalent enrollment of these
students. In order to be exempt, these PE courses must be part
of the student's middle college or early college high school
program.
This bill requires the annual report prepared by the Chancellor
of the California Community Colleges and submitted to the
Department of Finance and the Legislature to include the amount
of full-time equivalent students claimed by each CCD attending a
middle college high school or an early college high school in
the prior year for "degree-applicable" PE courses.
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Related
Legislation: AB 2352 (Chesbro, 2014) exempted a student
attending an ECHS from being assigned a low priority for
community college enrollment, and authorized districts to claim
apportionment funding for MCHS and ECHS students if the courses
did not comply with existing statutory criteria applicable to
other high school students taking community college courses. AB
2352 failed passage in this Committee.
Staff
Comments: This bill exempts ECHS students from low enrollment
priority when seeking to enroll in a community college course
that is required for the student's ECHS program, which will make
it easier for some high school students to enroll in certain
courses and could displace other traditional adult community
college students. This bill also exempts ECHS and MCHS students
from restrictions on their enrollment and allows colleges to
claim them as full-time equivalent students for purposes of
state apportionments in community college PE courses, making it
easier to enroll in PE courses. All of these changes are
intended to make it easier to provide community college course
instruction to high school students, with community college
apportionment funds.
The cost is of these changes is unknown because it depends on
how the changes affect enrollment. According to the report
required of the Community College Chancellor's Office in
existing law regarding the number of full-time equivalent
students for special part-time and full-time enrollment in PE
courses, 567 were reported in 2013-14 as compared to 10,658 in
2002-03 when fewer restrictions were in place. It is unclear
whether these reported full-time equivalent students are
attributable to the MCHS or the ECHS student enrollments.
However, if community college districts claim an additional 10
percent full-time equivalent students over 2013-14 for PE course
enrollments; this could create a cost pressure to provide about
$267,000 in additional state apportionments using a rate of
$4,684 per full-time equivalent student.
To the extent that this bill results in more students earning
college credits, students may move through a public
postsecondary institution more quickly in the future, which may
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contribute to future cost savings from reduced time in college
(which may also lead to less time receiving state-funded
financial aid). However, this assumes the college credits
earned through MCHS or the ECHS are recognized by the
postsecondary institution to which the credits are transferred
and students do not take excess courses at the institution.
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