BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1281
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
1281 (Block)
As Amended June 13, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 36-0
------------------------------------------------------------------
|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Judiciary |9-0 |Mark Stone, Wagner, | |
| | |Burke, Chau, Chiu, | |
| | |Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | |Holden, Ting | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Requires certain information to be posted on the
Internet Web sites of law schools in California that are not
approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). Specifically,
this bill:
SB 1281
Page 2
1)Requires any law school in California not approved by the
American Bar Association to publicly disclose on its Internet
Web site, with a link from the Internet home page under
"admissions," information pertaining to all of the following:
a) Admissions data.
b) Tuition, fees, and financial aid.
c) Conditional scholarships.
d) Enrollment data.
e) Number of full-time and part-time faculty, technically
trained librarians, and administrators.
f) Average class size of each required course and the
number of clinical offerings.
g) Employment outcomes for graduates.
h) Bar passage data.
2)Requires the above disclosures to be published in a
standardized information report, allows the State Bar to
create a standardized information report template, and
requires the law schools to include the standardized
information report as part of their annual compliance report
to the State Bar.
SB 1281
Page 3
3)Requires a non-ABA approved law school to additionally
publicly disclose the following information on its Internet
Web site:
a) Refund policy;
b) Curricular offerings, academic calendar, and academic
requirements; and
c) Policy regarding the transfer of credit earned at
another institution of higher education.
4)Requires a law school's transfer of credit policy to include
specific information about any transfer or articulation
agreements that the school may have with other colleges and
universities.
5)Requires all information that a law school reports,
publicizes, or distributes pursuant to the above requirements
shall be complete, accurate, and not misleading to a
reasonable law school student or applicant.
6)Requires that a law school shall use due diligence in
obtaining and verifying such information.
7)Defines relevant terms, including the following:
a) "Admissions data" means information from the most
recently enrolled fall semester class including the total
SB 1281
Page 4
number of applications, the total number of accepted
students, and the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentile scores
for the undergraduate grade point averages and law school
admission test scores of admitted students.
b) "Bar passage data" means the most current cumulative bar
pass rates defined and reported by the examining committee
of the State Bar.
c) "Employment outcomes for graduates" means the results of
a survey by the law school, taken three years after
graduation, that breaks down the employment rate of
graduates in each of the first three years after
graduation, including the rate of employment of graduates
in jobs where a Juris Doctor degree is required by the
employer and the rate of employment of graduates in jobs
where a Juris Doctor degree is an advantage in employment.
d) "Enrollment data" means information about the number of
students who are admitted to the school per class per year
for the past three years, the number of students who
transfer to and from the school per class per year for the
past three years, and the number of students who do not
continue to attend the school each year for the past three
years on either a voluntary or involuntary basis.
FISCAL EFFECT: None.
COMMENTS: The ABA accredits law schools throughout the United
States, including California law schools. The State Bar of
California (State Bar) also accredits law schools in California.
Finally, there are law schools in California that are not
SB 1281
Page 5
accredited by either the ABA, or the State Bar. These latter
two groups: California State Bar-accredited law schools and
unaccredited law schools are the subject of this bill.
Bar passage and disclosure requirements under current law.
ABA-accredited law schools are required to have a 75% bar
passage rate in three out of five years. State Bar-accredited
law schools are required to maintain a 40% bar passage rate over
five years, and are four-year programs. Unaccredited law
schools have no bar passage requirement and are four-year
programs.
ABA-accredited law schools. To be accredited by the ABA, an
institution must, among many other things, adhere to the
Internet disclosure requirements of the ABA, generating what is
called a Section 509 report. The requirements are robust. They
include the cost of the institution, diversity metrics,
attrition rates, as well as Bar passage rates. Prospective
students can obtain these data from the ABA website itself,
which is searchable by school or, importantly for the purposes
of this bill, from the home page of the institution itself.
( http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/ )
The ABA requires all of the required information to be posted
conspicuously and in a readily accessible location. At a
minimum, a school website's home page must prominently display a
way to connect directly to each of the mandated disclosures that
is labeled, "ABA Required Disclosures." The link must connect
the reader either to a place that provides all of the
disclosures or a direct link to each of them. In addition, the
information must be available by a link featured prominently on
the main page for admissions/prospective students. The
Employment Summary Reports must also be available by a link
featured prominently on the main page for career services.
SB 1281
Page 6
California State Bar-accredited law schools. The Bar oversees
25 registered, unaccredited law schools in the state and 17
accredited law schools in California that are not approved by
the ABA. Under Guidelines promulgated by the State Bar, a
California Bar-accredited law school must include the following
statement, verbatim, in either its course catalog or student
handbook (electronic or hardcopy) and on a discrete page readily
accessible to the public found on the law school's website
entitled "Accreditation":
Study at, or graduation from, this law school may not qualify
a student to take the bar examination or be admitted to
practice law in jurisdictions other than California. A
student who intends to seek admission to practice outside of
California should contact the admitting authority in that
jurisdiction for information regarding its education and
admission requirements.
( http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/portals/4/documents/Education/20
13_01_10_Accredited_Law_School_Guidelines_R.pdf ) In addition,
a California Bar-accredited law school must publish, on its
"Accreditation" Web page, "information relating to the pass
rates of its graduates on the ten most recent administrations of
the California Bar Examination." The Bar requires this
information "to be published in one of the following ways: i)
By means of posting an active link to the California Bar
Examination "Statistics" page of the State Bar's website; or,
alternatively; ii) By means of posting the pass rates of its
graduates as those published on the State Bar's website."
(Guideline 2.3 (D), adopted effective January 1, 2013.) The
Bar's guidelines do not require school-specific disclosures to
be provided on the schools' Web site. ABA-accredited law
schools, on the other hand, are required to make standard
disclosures on their websites that enable prospective students
to make informed decisions about applying and attending the law
schools.
SB 1281
Page 7
Unaccredited law schools. These schools are required to
disclose the following information: the passage rates of
students who have taken the first-year law student's
examination; the passage rates of students who took the final
bar examination in the previous five years; the ratio of faculty
to students; and a statement that the education provided by the
school may not satisfy the requirements of other states for the
practice of law. (Section 6061.)
Requirements of this bill. To ensure that prospective students
are able to make informed decisions about which law schools to
attend, this bill would require California Bar-accredited law
schools and unaccredited law schools to post information on
their Internet Web sites, including bar passage data, tuition,
fees, financial aid, admissions data, employment outcomes for
graduates, conditional scholarships, enrollment data, faculty
information, average class size for required courses, and the
number of clinical offerings.
Analysis Prepared by:
Alison Merrilees / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN:
0003418