BILL ANALYSIS
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|Hearing Date:June 22, 2009 |Bill No:AB |
| |1416 |
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
Bill No: AB 1416Author:Galgiani
As Introduced: February 27, 2009 Fiscal: Yes
SUBJECT: Vocational nursing and psychiatric technicians: school
accreditation.
NOTE: This bill was heard at the committee's June 8, 2009 hearing and
failed passage on a 4-2 vote. Reconsideration was given.
SUMMARY: Gives the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric
Technicians discretion to conduct facility inspections of vocational
nursing schools (VN) and psychiatric technician (PT) schools in person
or by a review of documents, including a written report, for the
purpose of accreditation.
Existing law:
1)Creates the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians
(Board) within the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA).
2)Mandates that the Board inspect vocational nursing (VN) school and
psychiatric technician (PT) school sites in person prior to granting
accreditation to a program.
3)Requires the Board to contact VN schools and PT schools in writing
if they are not operating according to certain standards and allows
the Board to remove a school from the accredited list if it does not
make corrective action in a reasonable time
4)Established the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education
Reform Act of 1989, which became inoperative on July 1, 2007, which
expressed legislative intent to ensure minimum standards of
instructional quality and institutional stability and required the
Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) to,
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among other things, review and investigate all institutions,
programs and courses of instructions approved under the Act.
This bill:
1)Revises and recasts provisions for accreditation of vocational
nursing schools and psychiatric technician schools by the Board.
2)Authorizes the Board to inspect VN schools and PT schools, by a site
visit or document review, when it deems necessary
3)Requires the Board to grant accreditation to VN schools and PT
schools that meet certain requirements
4) Requires the Board to contact VN schools and PT schools in writing
if they are not operating according to certain standards; allows the
Board to either omit a school on its accredited schools list or
remove a school from its accredited list.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee,
there will be minor savings to the Board to the extent review of
written materials during the evaluation process results in fewer
accreditation site visits.
1.Purpose. According to the Author, "The evaluation of written
documents for accreditation has proven successful for continued
accreditation and is fiscally prudent when evaluating a new school
that has proven its compliance throughout the application process."
The Author also notes that the Board of Vocational Nursing and
Psychiatric Technicians is inundated with requests to review and
approve new nursing programs but does not have enough Nursing
Education Consultants (NECs) available to perform these ongoing
on-site visits. The Author further states that this measure will
allow the Board to function more efficiently given its staffing
constraints while addressing future workforce needs by offering more
students the opportunity to attend a VN or PT program.
2.Background. Over the past five years, the Board has approved 97 new
VN or PT programs, an average of about 20 per year. Currently,
there are 78 requests to open new VN programs and 3 requests to open
new PT programs pending before the Board.
Approval of a VN or PT program is a lengthy process that currently
takes a minimum of one year. Within that process, schools
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interested in offering VN or PT programs submit an application to
the Board. Board staff reviews the application and supporting
materials to determine if the program meets specified criteria. The
Board then grants approval to a school to run the initial class.
The mandated in-person school site visit takes place just prior to
the graduation of the initial class, at which time Board staff
prepares a second report with a recommendation to grant or deny
accreditation.
3.Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE).
The Private Postsecondary and Educational Reform Act and the Maxine
Waters Protection Act, which established BPPVE within DCA, became
inoperative in 2007. Without BPPVE or a successor entity in place,
there is no regulatory process for many of the private postsecondary
institutions operating in California. The lack of a bureau also
leads to student confusion about where to dispute fees, file claims,
or register complaints. The Board acknowledges additional workload
issues and staff pressure due to time spent answering calls, letters
and questions from VN and PT students currently enrolled in programs
or attempting to take classes.
Of the 211 VN programs under the Board, 130 are based at private
postsecondary institutions. Potential participants in VN or PT
training programs are required to answer whether they graduated from
an accredited school on their licensing exam; students may not know
if a school is accredited, despite operating a Board accredited VN
or PT training program.
4.Healthcare Workforce Shortage. With an increasingly aging
population, California is in the
midst of a healthcare workforce shortage. The supply of skilled,
trained healthcare professionals has diminished in recent years and
according to the non-profit California Institute for Nursing and
Health Care, the state will see a shortage of over 100,000 nurses by
2020. Current efforts are underway at the federal, state and local
level to expand the availability of quality training programs,
including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which
earmarks close to $500 million for workforce development in
California.
5.Related Legislation.
AB 48 (Portantino) renames the BPPVE as the Bureau for Private
Postsecondary Education (Bureau) within DCA and provides for Bureau
oversight and regulation of private postsecondary institutions
operating in California. The measure passed 10-0 in Assembly
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Committee on Business and Professions and is now pending on the
Assembly Floor.
AB 1295 (Fuller) requires the Community College Chancellor's office
and California State University to work collaboratively to
coordinate and implement an articulated nursing degree transfer
pathway. The measure passed Assembly Higher Education Committee
9-0, the Assembly Floor 73-0 and is now pending in Senate Education
Committee.
SB 489 (Liu) removes the oversight and regulation of private
postsecondary schools from the Department of Consumer Affairs and
places the responsibility to the California Postsecondary Education
Commission (CPEC). The measure was held in this Committee at the
request of the Author.
6.Arguments in Support. The Sponsor, Board of Vocational Nursing and
Psychiatric Technicians notes that it is already using discretionary
authority to review written documents and reports instead of
conducting a school site visit during the accreditation that takes
place every four years for existing schools; the Board argues that
this same process can be used when initially accrediting new
schools. The Board also highlights that this bill will result in
cost savings to better enable consultants to visit school sites
suspected of or in violation of current law.
7.Arguments in Opposition. The California Nurses Association
/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) states that AB 1416
will "dilute the standards for evaluation and approval of nursing
programs under the Board." They note that the Board will not be
able to ensure that new programs meet standards necessary for
student success if school sites are not visited in person.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians (Sponsor)
Opposition:
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
Consultant:Sarah Mason
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