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