BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 194 (Beall)
Hearing Date: 08/25/2011 Amended: 06/16/2011
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 10-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 194 requires the California State University
(CSU) and each California community college (CCC) district, and
requests of the University of California (UC) to grant priority
enrollment for registration to any current or former foster
youth.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Mandate on CCCs Potentially significant reimbursable
mandate General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Existing law requires the CSU and each community college
district, and requests the UC to give priority for registration
for enrollment to any member the Armed Services for any academic
term attended at one of these institutions within two years of
leaving active duty, if the institution already administers a
priority enrollment system. (Education Code � 66025.8)
This bill would require that priority registration for
enrollment be extended to foster youth and former foster youth
up to the age of 24, as well. The CSU has indicated that this
change would result in only minor costs, absorbable within its
existing resources and workload. The UC, which is requested to
implement the provisions of this bill, has indicated that it
would pass on that request to individual campuses. UC campuses
would have the discretion to determine whether and how to
implement this bill, and the UC estimates that campuses which
choose to grant priority registration would incur minimal costs
to do so. Both the UC and CSU currently grant priority
registration to certain veterans, consistent with existing law.
AB 194 (Beall)
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Unlike the CSU and the UC, the CCCs can file mandate
reimbursement claims through the state mandates claims process
for requirements that constitute new duties or higher levels of
service for their campuses. Requiring that an additional group
of students be given priority registration could constitute a
significant reimbursable mandate. For example, the CCCs could
claim the costs of any reporting, database, or enrollment forms
changes; any additional time spent registering foster youth or
verifying former foster youth status; any costs associated with
training registration clerks or developing additional processes.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO)
has indicated that it considers this bill's requirements to be
minor and implementation absorbable; further, that CCC campuses
would add queries to existing forms, and any necessary updates
would not incur additional costs. If no mandate claim is sought,
there would be no additional state costs for this bill. Staff
also notes that the CCCs did not file a mandate claim for the
provisions of SB 272 (Runner, 2007) which set in statute the
requirement to give priority registration to specified veterans.
The state has not reimbursed the CCCs for any changes they may
have made to implement that similar system. The CCCs continue,
however, to sustain substantial budget reductions, and may be
more likely to file claims in the future.
It is also unclear how the costs could change in the future as
additional categories of underserved students are added to
priority registration groups. The specified subgroup of veterans
in existing law, and the specified subgroup of (current and
former) foster youth covered by this bill, are both small
populations in the CCCs. If additional groups continue to be
added in legislation, CCCs could eventually incur significant
costs to work through the interaction of priority registration
groups in a consistent way.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS would sunset the provisions of this bill on
January 1, 2017.
AB 194 (Beall)
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