BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                AB 194
                                                                Page  1


        ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
        AB 194 (Beall)
        As Amended  March 24, 2011
        Majority vote 

         HIGHER EDUCATION    7-2         APPROPRIATIONS      13-2        
         
         ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
        |Ayes:|Block, Achadjian,         |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey,          |
        |     |Brownley, Fong, Galgiani, |     |Blumenfield, Bradford,    |
        |     |Lara, Portantino          |     |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
        |     |                          |     |Davis, Gatto, Hill, Lara, |
        |     |                          |     |Mitchell, Nielsen,        |
        |     |                          |     |Solorio                   |
        |     |                          |     |                          |
        |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
        |Nays:|Donnelly, Miller          |Nays:|Donnelly, Wagner          |
        |     |                          |     |                          |
         ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
         SUMMARY  :  Requires each campus of the California State University 
        (CSU) and the California Community Colleges (CCC), and requests the 
        University of California (UC), to give priority in enrollment in 
        classes to foster youth and to former foster youth up to 24 years of 
        age.

         FISCAL EFFECT  :  

        1)CSU indicates minor one-time information technology costs of about 
          $41,000 for 15 campuses to implement priority registration for 
          foster youth.  (The remaining eight CSU campuses already provide 
          such priority registration.)  UC and CCC campuses would incur 
          minor absorbable costs to implement the priority registration. 

        2)To the extent providing priority registration for classes 
          increases the success rate of these students, there could be state 
          and local savings for services that might otherwise be provided to 
          foster youth and former foster youth.

         COMMENTS  :  There are currently between 600 and 800 former foster 
        youth attending UC, 1,200 attending CSU, and 6,500 attending CCC.  
        According to a December 2005 report by the Institute for Higher 
        Education Policy entitled, "Higher Education Opportunities for 
        Foster Youth," of the foster youth who complete high school and are 
        college qualified, only about 20% enrolled in higher education 








                                                                AB 194
                                                                Page  2


        compared to about 60% of their peers. 

        Priority registration enrollment decisions are made at the campus 
        level at each segment.  This process allows specified students 
        access to classes ahead of the general student population.  As state 
        support for higher education has decreased while enrollments have 
        increased at the three segments, classes have become increasingly 
        impacted-unable to accommodate all students who enroll in the 
        course.  Thus, students who have priority registration enrollment 
        status have a significant advantage over other students, 
        particularly at CCC.  

        Campuses have wide discretion in how they assign priority, although 
        current law provides that priority be given current and former 
        members of the United States Armed Forces for two years upon leaving 
        active duty.  


         Analysis Prepared by  :    Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 
        FN: 0000207