BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 410
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 410
(Beall) - As Amended June 16, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill substitutes the existing term "graduates"-for purposes
of private postsecondary institutions annually reporting their
program completion rates on the School Performance Fact Sheet
required pursuant to the Private Postsecondary Education Act
SB 410
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(Act)-with the term "on-time graduates", meaning the number of
students who complete an educational program within 100% of the
published program length.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor absorbable costs to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary
Education, within the Department of Consumer Affairs.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. AB 48 (Portantino)/Chapter 310, Statutes of 2009,
established the Act, which in part requires non-exempt
institutions to provide prospective students a Fact Sheet
containing information on graduation, placement, salary and
professional license examination passage rates of its
students. AB 2296 (Block)/Chapter 585, Statutes of 2012,
revised the Fact Sheet requirements to add information
regarding student loan default rates, unaccredited programs,
and to require the Bureau to refine the definition of
placement to ensure that only those graduates "gainfully
employed" were counted for employment rate purposes.
The Bureau is currently establishing regulations to implement
the provisions of AB 2296. However, due to a drafting error
in the definition of "graduates" in Education Code Section
94928, these regulations limit the scope of students included
in an institutions placement rate, examination passage rate,
and salary and wage data to only those students that graduated
within 100% of the published program length.
2)Purpose. According to the proponents of AB 2296 and this bill,
SB 410
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while it is appropriate and useful for prospective students to
know how many of an institution's students complete a program
within the published program length ("on-time graduates"),
using that same definition of graduates for purposes of job
placement, salary, and licensing data skews the results,
because it does not include the outcomes for all institutional
graduates.
This bill would change the definition to require institutions
to publish "on-time graduates" data based on the number of
students who completed a program within 100% of the published
program length. The data regarding "graduates employed in the
field", "license examination passage rates", and "salary and
wage information" would be based on a definition of
"graduate", contained in the Act under Education Code Section
94842, which includes all individuals awarded a degree or
diploma.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081