BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2822
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Chiu |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |May 31, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: June 29, 2016 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|Kathleen Chavira |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Student financial aid: Student Success and Support
Program: emergency student financial assistance
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the use of up to 3 percent of Student
Success and Support Program funding received by a community
college campus or district for the provision of emergency
student financial assistance.
BACKGROUND
Current law establishes the Student Success Act, which applies
to all community college students, for the purpose of increasing
student access and success by providing effective core
matriculation services, including orientation, assessment and
placement, counseling and other education planning services and
academic interventions. Community colleges have the
responsibility to provide student services and support,
including orientation, assessment, counseling and education
planning, referral to specialized support services, and
evaluation of each student's progress and referral to
appropriate interventions. Students have the responsibility to
identify an academic and career goal, declare a specific course
of study, be diligent in class attendance and completion of
assigned coursework, and complete courses and maintain academic
progress toward an educational goal. (Education Code §
78210-78219; 5 California Code of Regulations § 55500-55534)
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 2
of ?
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Authorizes the use of Student Success and Support Program
funding for emergency student financial assistance to help
eligible students to overcome unforeseen financial
challenges that would directly impact the student's ability
to persist in his or her course of study.
2) Specifies that these challenges include, but are not
necessarily limited to, the immediate need for shelter or
food.
3) Encourages each community college district and campus to
consider the unique characteristics of its student body in
developing specific guidelines for further defining what
constitutes an unforeseen financial challenge for its
students.
4) Requires, as a condition of using funds for this purpose,
that emergency student financial assistance be included in
the institution's plan for interventions to students.
5) Requires an eligible student to:
a) Currently meet satisfactory academic
progress at the institution of attendance.
b) Be at risk of not persisting in his or
her course of study due to the unforeseen financial
challenge.
6) Defines various terms for purposes of the bill.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author, emergency aid
provides 'just-in-time" grants to students or quick
infusions of funds when a student finds themselves with
unexpected costs such as medical expenses, car repairs or
child care. The author reports that three community
colleges, Pasadena City College, Grossmont Community
College, and Cuyamaca Community College have started such a
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 3
of ?
program since 2010. The author contends that this type of
assistance would further the ability of California
Community Colleges to retain students by allowing grants
for students who would otherwise be forced to leave school
because of these unforeseen financial challenges. This
bill proposes to fund such a program with Student Success
Act funding currently provided for matriculation services.
2) Student Success at the Community Colleges. 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 underrepresented students
would not just be maintained, but bolstered.
The Student Success Task Force (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.
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 4
of ?
h) Aligning resources with student success
recommendations.
Implementation of these 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. These
implementation efforts include the following:
a) SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of
2012) recast the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of
1986 in order to target funding to services such as
orientation, assessment, and counseling 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.
b) At a regulatory level, the Board of Governors
approved regulations that provide enrollment priority
to students who have participated in assessment,
orientation, and who have developed an education plan.
In addition, statutory priority enrollment extended
to veterans, foster youth, Extended Opportunity
Program & Services students, and disabled students
requires participation in these Student Success
Services and programs. Students are now required to
complete core services as well as to declare a course
of study. In addition, districts are now 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.
c) Since 2012, the State has increased ongoing
funding for community college student success and
support by nearly $600 million. These funds have been
designated to support the Student Services Support
Program (SSSP) established by SB 1456 (Lowenthal) to
provide targeted services such as orientation,
assessment, and counseling and advising to assist
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 5
of ?
students with the development of education plans. In
addition these funds support the creation of Student
Equity Plans to improve access and outcomes for
disadvantaged groups, as well as a number of
Chancellor's Office Initiatives to provide related
support to districts.
In February 2016, this Committee held an informational hearing,
California's Community Colleges: Implementation of Student
Success where the committee received an update on the use of
these funds, the progress made in implementing student success
strategies both systemwide and at the campus level, and heard
preliminary reports on student outcomes.
3) Related report expected SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624,
Statutes of 2012), in addition to establishing the Student
Success Act of 2012, required the Legislative Analyst (LAO)
to submit a report to the Legislature evaluating progress
on implementation of the Act and impacts on student
completion, by July 1, 2016. According to the LAO, this
report should be available in mid-September 2016.
According to the LAO, the report will focus on
implementation of the Student Success and Support Program
and Student Equity Program. The LAO report will evaluate
how the system and individual colleges and districts have
implemented student success initiatives, including how they
have used state categorical funding for these programs. The
LAO will also examine the extent to which colleges have
hired additional counselors, and the extent to which
colleges are providing mandatory services to entering
students. In addition, the LAO will attempt to determine
the early effects of these programs on student success
rates and student equity.
Should any expansion of the use of these funds be
authorized prior to the LAO evaluation of the use/need for
these funds for their original purpose?
4) Dilution of SSSP efforts. As noted in staff comment #2,
the State has exerted extensive effort and allocated
substantial funding to provide direct matriculation
services to students through the Student Success and
Support Program (SSSP). At current funding levels, this
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 6
of ?
bill authorizes the use of up to $9 million in SSSP funds
for the provisions of emergency student financial
assistance.
Should this Committee authorize the use of SSSP funds for
purposes unrelated to the 6-year effort to implement
strategies to incentivize successful student behaviors and
improve completion at the community colleges? Would this
bill set a precedent that dilutes SSSP funds intended for
critical academic support services for the provision of
nonacademic financial assistance?
The current programs at Pasadena City College and Grossmont
College were funded from external sources, such as district
foundations and other fundraising efforts. Are these more
appropriate funding sources? If state funds are to be used
for this purpose, would it be more appropriate to expand
the resources available through state financial aid
programs?
5) Alternative proposal? According to the author, while some
districts have auxiliary foundations which have established
these types of programs, it is the intent of this bill to
ensure that resources for this purpose are available to
districts and campuses that may lack the resources and
infrastructure to establish a local auxiliary to address
these needs.
Current law provides for the establishment of an auxiliary
organization to the Board of Governors for the purpose of
providing supportive services and specialized programs for
the general benefit of the mission of the California
Community College. Accordingly, if it is the desire of the
Committee to establish an emergency assistance program,
staff recommends the bill be amended to delete section 2 of
the bill and instead require the statewide auxiliary
organization to provide guidelines and resources to
districts or campuses seeking to establish student
emergency aid programs, authorize the auxiliary to solicit
and accept private funds for this to be used for the
specified purposes, and declare the intent of the
Legislature that priority for these statewide funds be
granted to districts or campuses based on their enrollment
of student populations that are in the most need.
AB 2822 (Chiu) Page 7
of ?
SUPPORT
Campaign for College Opportunity
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Scholarship America
The Institute for College Access and Success
OPPOSITION
None received.
-- END --