BILL NUMBER: AB 1997	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Portantino

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2010

   An act to amend Section 69433 of the Education Code, relating to
student financial aid.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1997, as introduced, Portantino. Community colleges: student
financial aid programs: application forms.
   Existing law establishes various student financial aid programs
under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and
establishes eligibility requirements under these programs for
participating students attending qualifying institutions.
   Existing law requires the commission to authorize the use of
standardized student financial aid application forms and requires
these forms to be used for the Cal Grant Program and all other
programs funded by the state or a public institution of postsecondary
education, except that a simplified form may be used for a specified
financial assistance program of the Board of Governors of the
California Community Colleges.
   This bill would instead authorize a community college district to
use the simplified form solely for purposes of specified fee waivers
provided by the board of governors, and only under certain
circumstances. The bill would require a community college district
that elects to use the simplified form to annually report to the
Chancellor of the California Community Colleges the number of
simplified forms used and its justifications for the use of that
form.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 69433 of the Education Code is amended to read:

   69433.  (a) (1) A Cal Grant Program award shall be based upon the
financial need of the applicant, and shall not exceed the calculated
financial need for any individual applicant. The minimum level of
financial need of each applicant shall be determined by the
commission pursuant to Section 69432.9. The commission may provide
renewal awards.
   (2) A student attending a nonpublic institution shall receive a
renewal award for tuition or fees, or both, in an amount not to
exceed the maximum allowable award amount that was in effect in the
year in which the student first received a new award.
   (b) A Cal Grant award authorized pursuant to this chapter shall be
defined as a full-time equivalent grant. An award to a part-time
student shall be a fraction of a full-time grant, as determined by
the commission.
   (c) (1) The commission shall prescribe the use of standardized
student financial aid applications for California. These applications
shall be simple in nature, and collect common data elements required
by the federal government and those elements needed to meet the
objectives of state-funded and institutional financial aid programs.
   (2)  (A)    The applications prescribed in
paragraph (1) shall be  utilized   used 
for the Cal Grant Program, all other programs funded by the state or
a public institution of postsecondary education  (except for
the Financial Assistance Program of the Board of Governors of the
California Community Colleges authorized by Chapter 1118 of the
Statutes of 1987, for which a simplified application designed for
that sole purpose may be used)  , and all federal programs
administered by a public postsecondary education institution. 
   (B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), a community college district
may use a simplified form solely for purposes of fee waivers from
the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges under
Section 76300. The community college district may use the simplified
form only in those cases in which it is determined by the governing
board of the district to be appropriate. If a community college
district elects to use a simplified form pursuant to this
subparagraph, the district shall annually report to the Chancellor of
the California community Colleges the number of simplified forms
used by the district and its justifications for the use of that form.

   (3) Supplemental application information may be  utilized
  used  if the information is essential to
accomplishing the objectives of individual programs. All supplemental
application information used for the purposes of
commission-administered programs shall be subject to approval by the
commission, and applications shall be identical for programs with
similar objectives, as determined by the commission.
   (4) Public postsecondary institutions are encouraged to use, but
may decide whether to use, the standard applications for funds
provided by private donors.
   (5) The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best
interest of students that all postsecondary education institutions in
California participating in federal and state-funded financial aid
programs accept the standard applications prescribed by the
commission.
   (d) Nothing in this chapter shall prevent an individual public
postsecondary institution from processing, with its own staff and
fiscal resources, the standard financial aid applications specified
in subdivision (c) for student aid programs for which it has legal
responsibility.
   (e) The commission may enter into contracts with a public agency
or a private entity to improve the processing and distribution of
grants, fellowships, and loans through the use of electronic networks
and unified  data bases   databases  .