BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 410|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 410
Author: Beall (D), et al.
Amended: 6/16/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/22/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning,
Pan, Vidak
SENATE BUS, PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/27/15
AYES: Hill, Bates, Berryhill, Block, Galgiani, Hernandez,
Jackson, Mendoza, Wieckowski
SENATE FLOOR: 36-0, 5/18/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Block, Cannella, De León,
Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill,
Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire,
Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen,
Nielsen, Pan, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Hall, Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 7/16/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: California Private Postsecondary Education Act of
2009
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill defines on-time graduates to mean students
who graduate within 100% of the program length in lieu of
classifying this group as "graduates."
Assembly Amendments are technical and include the addition of
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one principal co-author.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes, until January 1, 2017, the California Private
Postsecondary Education Act (Act) of 2009, which provides for
the approval, regulation, and enforcement of private
postsecondary educational institutions by the Bureau for
Private Postsecondary Education (Bureau) within the Department
of Consumer Affairs (DCA). (Education Code § 94800-94950)
2)Requires a regulated institution to provide a prospective
student with a School Performance Fact Sheet containing
information on completion rates, placement rates, license
examination passage rates, salary or wage information, the
most recent three-year cohort default rate and the percentage
of enrolled students receiving federal student loans (if the
institution participates in federal financial programs) and
other specified information. The Act defines numerous terms
for purposes of reporting this requirement, including adding a
second definition for graduates to mean "students who complete
a program within 100% of the published program length." (EC §
94910)
3)Defines graduate to mean an individual who has been awarded a
degree or diploma and unless the context requires otherwise
this definition governs the construction of the chapter. (EC §
94810 and 94842)
This bill:
1)Defines "on-time graduates" to mean students who complete 100%
of the published program length in lieu of classifying this
group as "graduates" for the purpose of making a distinction
between those who graduate on-time and all other graduates as
defined in Section 94842 of the Education Code.
2)Requires an institution to use "on-time graduates" in lieu of
"graduates," for calculating completion rates for each
program.
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3)Makes another technical amendment.
Comments
1)Need for the bill. Prior legislation, AB 2296 (Block, Chapter
585, Statutes of 2012) required institutions regulated by the
Bureau to expand existing disclosures requirements, including
completion and job placement rates, to prospective students.
The measure also added a second definition of "graduates" as
those who graduate within 100% of the originally scheduled
completion date. According to the author, although it is
appropriate and useful to know how many students graduate
within that time frame, its application to job placement,
salary and licensing data skews the results because it
includes only those graduates who graduated within 100% of the
scheduled time period, not all graduates.
This bill seeks to address this issue by using the term
"on-time graduates" to tell how many students graduated
on-time during a given reporting year and "graduate" to mean
an individual who has been awarded a degree or diploma to
report job placement, salaries and license passage for all
graduates during the given reporting year.
2)Relevant calculations. Current law requires an institution
regulated by the Bureau to provide a prospective student with
a School Performance Fact Sheet containing information on
completion rates, placement rates, license examination passage
rates and salary or wage information, among other things. Each
rate is based on a formula outlined in statute:
a) Job placement rate is calculated by dividing the number
of graduates employed in the field by the number of
graduates available for employment for each program.
The Children Advocacy Institute and the Center for Public
Interest Law explains how the job placement rate can be very
different based on the existing definition:
"In a reporting year in which 200 students are
scheduled to graduate from a particular program
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that year, 80 graduated within 100% of the time
originally scheduled. During that same reporting
year, however, a total of 150 graduated from that
program. Eighty-five of the graduates that year
obtained employment. Of those who obtained
employment, 70 had graduated on time during the
reporting year."
b) Completion rate is calculated by dividing the
number of graduates by the number of students
available for graduation. Instead this bill requires
an institution to use "on-time graduates" in lieu of
"graduates," for calculating completion rates for
each program.
c) License examination passage rates for the
immediately preceding two years is calculated by
dividing the number of graduates who pass the exam by
the number of graduates who take the licensing exam
the first time after completing the education
program.
Salary and wage information, consisting of the total
number of graduates employed in the field and the annual
wages or salaries of those graduates.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill
imposes minor absorbable costs to the Bureau for Private
Postsecondary Education, within the Department of Consumer
Affairs.
SUPPORT: (Verified 7/21/15)
Center for Employment Training
Center for Public Interest Law
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Central Valley Opportunity Center
Children's Advocacy Institute
La Cooperative
Proteus, Inc.
Public Advocates
University of San Diego School of Law
Veterans Legal Clinic
OPPOSITION: (Verified7/21/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 7/16/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gordon
Prepared by:Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/13/15 13:20:44
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