Amended in Senate April 6, 2015

Senate Bill No. 410

Introduced by Senator Beall

February 25, 2015

An act to amend begin delete Section 94874.7 end delete begin insert Sections 94928 and 94929 end insert of the Education Code, relating to private postsecondary education.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 410, as amended, Beall. California Private Postsecondary Education Act of begin delete 2009: exemptions end delete begin insert 2009 end insert .

begin insert

Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides, among other things, for student protections and 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.

end insert begin insert

The act requires an institution to annually report to the bureau specified information regarding completion rates and license examination passage rates, among other things, and to publish that information on its School Performance Fact Sheet. The act defines numerous terms for purposes of this reporting requirement, including defining “graduates” to mean students who complete a program within 100% of the published program length.

end insert begin insert

This bill would add the classification of “on-time graduates” with this same meaning, for purposes of a completion rate calculation, and would redefine the term “graduate” to mean an individual who has been awarded a degree or diploma.

end insert begin delete

Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides, among other things, for student protections and regulatory oversight of private postsecondary institutions in the state. The act is enforced by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act requires the bureau to establish, by regulation, a process pursuant to which an institution that is exempt from the act may request and obtain from the bureau verification that the institution is exempt.

end delete begin delete

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision requiring the bureau to establish that verification process.

end delete

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

begin insert

begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 94928 of the end insert begin insert Education Code end insert begin insert is amended
to read: end insert

94928.  

As used in this article, the following terms have the
following meanings:

(a) “Cohort population” means the number of students that
began a program on a cohort start date.

(b) “Cohort start date” means the first class day after the
cancellation period during which a cohort of students attends class
for a specific program.

(c)  begin delete “Graduates” end delete begin insert “On-time graduates” end insert means the number of
students who complete a program within 100 percent of the
published program length. An institution may separately state
completion information for students completing the program within
150 percent of the original contracted time, but that information
may not replace completion information for students completing
within the original scheduled time. Completion information shall
be separately stated for each campus or branch of the institution.

(d) “Graduates available for employment” means the number
of graduates minus the number of graduates unavailable for
employment.

(e) (1) “Graduates employed in the field” means graduates who
are gainfully employed in a single position for which the institution
represents the program prepares its graduates begin insert , beginning end insert within
six months after a student completes the applicable educational
program. For occupations for which the state requires passing an
examination, the period of employment shall begin within six
months of the announcement of the examination results for the
first examination available after a student completes an applicable
educational program.

(2) The bureau shall define by July 1, 2014, specific measures
and standards for determining whether a student is gainfully
employed in a full-time or part-time position for which the
institution represents the program prepares its graduates, including
self-employment or conducting freelance work, and may set the
standards for the hours per week and duration of employment and
utilize any job classification methodology the bureau determines
appropriate for this purpose, including, but not limited to, the
United States Department of Labor’s Standard Occupational
Classification codes.

(3) This subdivision does not prohibit the bureau from
authorizing an institution to aggregate single positions held by a
graduate for purposes of meeting the hours per week standards
established by the bureau.

(f) “Graduates unavailable for employment” means graduates
who, after graduation, die, become incarcerated, are called to active
military duty, are international students that leave the United States
or do not have a visa allowing employment in the United States,
or are continuing their education at an accredited or
bureau-approved postsecondary institution.

(g) “Students available for graduation” means the cohort
population minus the number of students unavailable for
graduation.

(h) “Students unavailable for graduation” means students who
have died, been incarcerated, or called to active military duty.

begin insert

begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 94929 of the end insert begin insert Education Code end insert begin insert is amended to
read: end insert

94929.  

(a) An institution shall annually report to the bureau,
as part of the annual report, and publish in its School Performance
Fact Sheet, the completion rate for each program. Except as
provided in subdivision (b), the completion rate shall be calculated
by dividing the number of begin insert on-time end insert graduates by the number of
students available for graduation.

(b) In lieu of calculating graduation data pursuant to subdivision
(a), an institution may report graduation data reported to, and
calculated by, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
of the United States Department of Education.

begin delete

SECTION 1.  

Section 94874.7 of the Education Code is
amended to read:

94874.7.  

The bureau shall establish, by regulation, a process
pursuant to which an institution that is exempt from this chapter
may request and obtain from the bureau verification that the
institution is exempt. The bureau shall establish a reasonable fee
to reimburse the bureau’s costs associated with the implementation
of this section.

end delete