BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 288
Author: Fong (D)
Amended: 8/30/11 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/8/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Runner, Alquist, Blakeslee, Hancock,
Huff, Liu, Price, Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 9-0, 8/25/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Emmerson, Lieu, Pavley,
Price, Runner, Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 60-0, 4/14/11 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Community colleges: student expulsion and
enrollment
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires a student enrolling in a
community college to disclose his/her prior expulsion from
another community college district and authorizes the
governing board of a community college district to deny
enrollment, permit enrollment, or permit conditional
enrollment to a student who has been expelled, or is being
considered for expulsion, from another district for
specified offenses within the preceding five years.
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ANALYSIS : Existing law requires a California Community
College (CCC) district to admit any California resident and
may admit any nonresident, possessing a high school diploma
or the equivalent thereof. CCC district governing boards
may admit persons who are over the age of 18 who do not
possess a high school diploma or its equivalent who are
capable of profiting from the instruction offered and are
also authorized to admit high school students if their high
school governing boards determine the student would benefit
from advanced scholastic or vocational work. Under current
law, the governing board of a CCC district may only exclude
"students of filthy or vicious habits, or students
suffering from contagious or infectious diseases" and "may
exclude from attendance in regular classes students whose
physical or mental disability is such as to cause his or
her attendance to be inimical to the welfare of other
students."
Existing law authorizes a CCC to expel a student for good
cause when other means of correction fail to bring about
proper conduct, or when the presence of the student causes
a continuing danger to the physical safety of the student
or others. The expulsion is required to be accompanied by
a hearing.
Existing federal law specifies that student disciplinary
records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) and are subject to the general
requirement that records regarding identifiable students
cannot be shared without the student's consent or a court
order. Existing state law also provides these protections.
Existing law, the California Tort Claims Act, gives public
entities, including state and local governments, general
immunity from liability for injuries that may arise from an
act or an omission and extends that immunity to public
employees, as specified.
This bill:
1. Authorizes a governing board of a community college
district to deny enrollment, permit enrollment, or
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permit conditional enrollment to a student who has been
expelled or is being considered for expulsion from
another district within the preceding five years for
specified offenses. Specifically, this bill:
A. Requires the governing board, prior to taking
action to deny or permit conditional enrollment, to
hold a hearing, as specified, to determine whether
the individual poses a continuing danger to the
physical safety of the students and employees in the
district.
B. Authorizes a CCC district to request information
from another community college district in
determining whether the applicant continues to pose a
danger to the physical safety of others and requires
any community college district receiving such a
request to respond within five working days of
receiving the request.
C. Requires the governing board to take into
consideration evidence of subsequent offenses and
rehabilitative efforts since the offense.
D. Authorizes a governing board to delegate authority
granted by this act to a district superintendent,
president or other designee, or a threat assessment
crisis response team, as specified.
E. Requires the governing board to establish a formal
appeals process for students denied enrollment to
appeal the decision and grants a student who is
denied enrollment the right to appeal the decision to
the district governing board.
2. Defines "offense," for the bill's purposes, to mean:
A. Committed or attempted to commit murder.
B. Caused, attempted to cause, or threatened to cause
physical injury to another person, including assault
or battery, as defined, except in self-defense.
C. Committed or attempted to commit a sexual assault,
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as defined, or committed sexual battery, as defined.
D. Committed or attempted to commit kidnapping, or
seized, confined, inveigled, enticed, decoyed,
abducted, concealed, kidnapped, or carried away
another person by any means with the intent to hold
or detain that person for ransom or reward.
E. Committed or attempted to commit robbery.
F. Committed stalking, as defined.
G. Possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a firearm,
knife, explosive, or other dangerous objects.
3. Requires a student who was expelled from a community
college in the state for any of the specified actions
and who seeks admission in another community college
district to inform the receiving district of his/her
prior expulsion and allows the receiving district to
maintain written record of a student's failure to make
such disclosure and allows the receiving district to
consider such failure in determining whether to grant
admission.
4. Specifies that the measure does not impose a duty to
review applicants for admission or review previously
enrolled students, whether returning or continuing, or
to conduct a hearing in response to the receipt of any
information regarding a potential, former, or existing
student.
5. Specifies that a community college district, its
governing board members, district officers or employees,
including the superintendent, a college president, or
designees of those individuals, shall not be liable for
an injury as a result of exercising discretion pursuant
to this act, including the discretion not to conduct a
hearing when a hearing is not required.
Comments
Need for the Bill . With very few exceptions, community
colleges are required by law to admit any California
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resident and do not have the authority to restrict a
student's admission based on past conduct, even if that
conduct was for serious or violent offenses while attending
another community college district. The General Counsel
for the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
has opined that "even if the receiving college becomes
aware of the expulsion, there is no current authority to
restrict a student admission based on past conduct, even if
that conduct occurred at another community college
district."
According to the Senate Education Committee, this bill does
not pertain to students expelled for academic related
offenses such as plagiarism or transcript forgery. This
bill only addresses students expelled from another
community college for specified violent or serious
offenses. Under the provisions of this bill, a student
expelled from the California State University (CSU) or the
University of California (UC) for committing these same
offenses would still be eligible (as they are today) to
enroll in a community college.
Discipline and expulsion from a CCC . Existing law requires
the CCCs to adopt rules for student conduct standards and
related penalties for violating those standards. A CCC
district is authorized to expel a student for good cause,
which may include assault, battery, or any threat of force
or violence upon a student or college personnel, willful
misconduct that results in injury or death to a student or
college personnel, or defacing district property, or the
use, sale, or possession on campus of controlled substance
or specified poisons. According to the author's office,
there are relatively few students expelled each year for
violent and criminal offenses; data from a survey of 55 CCC
campuses indicated that 29 students were expelled in the
2007-08 academic year for violent or serious offenses and
17 students were expelled in 2008-09.
Practices of other systems . Unlike California's other
postsecondary education systems, community colleges do not
have an established authority or process for denying
admission to individuals who have been expelled from
another college within the system.
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1. UC: According to the UC, a student who is expelled from
a campus within the UC system may be considered for
readmission only under exceptional circumstances. The
student may not be admitted to a different UC campus
without the express approval of the Chancellor of the
campus to which the expelled student has applied.
2. CSU: A student who is expelled from a CSU campus is
expelled from the entire system. Admission or
readmission to the CSU may be qualified, revoked, or
denied to any person found to have violated the Student
Conduct Code. The Student Conduct Procedures for the
CSU afford students due process in discipline
proceedings and provide guidance to campuses to address
student misconduct.
In the state's K-12 system, a pupil who is expelled from a
school district may be enrolled in another district during
or after the period of expulsion only after the second
school district holds a hearing to determine whether the
individual poses a continuing danger either to the pupils
or employees of the district. This bill establishes a
process that is similar to that used in the K-12 system.
Prior Legislation
AB 1400 (Fong), 2009-10 Session, was substantially similar
to this bill. Passed the Senate with a vote of 32-5 on
September 1, 2009. The bill was subsequently vetoed by
Governor Schwarzenegger, whose veto message read, in
pertinent part:
"I am very supportive of the intent of this bill to
maintain the safety and well-being of all students
attending California Community Colleges (CCC). However,
as drafted, the bill creates an uneven standard between
students who could be denied admission because of
criminal acts they may have committed in the past.
"Since I am committed to having community colleges be
both safe places for quality education, as well as open
institutions of hope for all students, I am asking the
CCC Board of Governors to work in collaboration with CCC
Chancellor Scott to work on a policy that will most
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effectively address this issue for the campuses."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
Mandate:
enrollment process Potentially significant
reimbursable mandate General
information requests Potentially significant
reimbursable mandate General
SUPPORT : (Per Senate Education Committee analysis of
6/7/11) (Unable to reverify)
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rancho Santiago Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
San Jose Evergreen Community College District
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 60-0, 4/14/11
AYES: Achadjian, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro,
Cook, Davis, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eng, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Furutani, Gatto, Gordon, Hagman, Halderman,
Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber, Hueso,
Huffman, Jeffries, Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Miller,
Mitchell, Monning, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Pan, Perea,
V. Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, Wieckowski, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Butler, Charles Calderon, Conway,
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Feuer, Galgiani, Garrick, Gorell, Grove, Harkey, Jones,
Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Mendoza, Morrell, Olsen, Wagner,
Williams, Vacancy
CPM:mw 8/30/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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