SB 410, as amended, Beall. California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009.
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.
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.
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”begin insert for these purposesend insert to mean an individual who has been awarded a degree or diploma.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 94928 of the Education Code is amended
2to read:
As used in this article, the following terms have the
4following meanings:
5(a) “Cohort population” means the number of students that
6began a program on a cohort start date.
7(b) “Cohort start date” means the first class day after the
8cancellation period during which a cohort of students attends class
9for a specific program.
10(c) “On-time graduates” means the number of students who
11complete a program within 100 percent of the published program
12length. An institution may separately state completion information
13for students completing the program within 150 percent of the
14original
contracted time, but that information may not replace
15completion information for students completing within the original
16scheduled time. Completion information shall be separately stated
17for each campus or branch of the institution.
18(d) “Graduates available for employment” means the number
19of graduates minus the number of graduates unavailable for
20employment.
21(e) (1) “Graduates employed in the field” means graduates who
22are gainfully employed in a single position for which the institution
23represents the program prepares its graduates, beginning within
24six months after a student completes the applicable educational
25program. For occupations for which the state requires passing an
26examination, the period of employment shall begin within six
27months of the
announcement of the examination results for the
28first examination available after a student completes an applicable
29educational program.
30(2) The bureau shall define by July 1, 2014, specific measures
31and standards for determining whether a student is gainfully
32employed in a full-time or part-time position for which the
33institution represents the program prepares its graduates, including
34self-employment or conducting freelance work, and may set the
35standards for the hours per week and duration of employment and
P3 1utilize any job classification methodology the bureau determines
2appropriate for this purpose, including, but not limited to, the
3United States Department of Labor’s Standard Occupational
4Classification codes.
5(3) This subdivisionbegin delete doesend deletebegin insert
shallend insert not prohibit the bureau from
6authorizing an institution to aggregate single positions held by a
7graduate for purposes of meeting the hours per week standards
8established by the bureau.
9(f) “Graduates unavailable for employment” means graduates
10who, after graduation, die, become incarcerated, are called to active
11military duty, are international students that leave the United States
12or do not have a visa allowing employment in the United States,
13or are continuing their education at an accredited or
14bureau-approved postsecondary institution.
15(g) “Students available for graduation” means the cohort
16population minus the number of students unavailable for
17graduation.
18(h) “Students unavailable for graduation” means students who
19have died, been incarcerated, or called to active military duty.
Section 94929 of the Education Code is amended to
21read:
(a) An institution shall annually report to the bureau,
23as part of the annual report, and publish in its School Performance
24Fact Sheet, the completion rate for each program. Except as
25provided in subdivision (b), the completion rate shall be calculated
26by dividing the number of on-time graduates by the number of
27students available for graduation.
28(b) In lieu of calculating graduation data pursuant to subdivision
29(a), an institution may report graduation data reported to, and
30calculated by, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
31of the United States Department of Education.
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