BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2171
AUTHOR: Fong
AMENDED: June 6, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 13, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Community Colleges: Student expulsion and
enrollment.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes a community college district to
require a student seeking admission 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 5 years.
BACKGROUND
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 that 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." (Education Code � 7600, $ 76020)
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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. (EC � 76030)
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. Current 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. (Government Code � 815.2, � 820.2)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Authorizes a 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 within the preceding 5 years for
specified offenses. More specifically it:
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 California Community College (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
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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, 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.
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3) Authorizes a community college to requires a student
seeking admission and who was expelled from a
community college in the state for any of the
specified actions to inform the receiving district of
his or her prior expulsion and authorizes the
receiving district to maintain written record of a
student's failure to make such disclosure and 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.
6) Prohibits the application of the bill's provisions to
students that the district has the discretion to
admit, such as the nonresident and other transfer
applicants specified in Education Code � 76000.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . With very few exceptions,
community colleges are required by law to admit any
California 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." The sponsors of this bill contend that the
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inability to deny admission to students who have
previously been expelled from other community colleges
for committing violent or dangerous acts poses a
threat to students, faculty, and staff. This bill
provides local community college districts with
another tool to improve safety on their campuses.
Staff notes that this bill does not pertain to students
expelled for academic related offenses such as
plagiarism or transcript forgery. The 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.
a) 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
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be admitted to a different UC campus without the
express approval of the Chancellor of the campus
to which the expelled student has applied.
b) 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.
4) Fiscal impact/Mandated Costs . According to
Legislative Counsel Opinion #1207924, prior versions
of this bill which would have required districts to
hold a hearing before taking action to deny or permit
conditional enrollment of any student (including
nonresident students who are already admitted at the
discretion of the district), would have created a
state mandate, since the CCC already have the ability
to deny admission for any reason to these
"discretionary" students without a hearing. This bill
has been amended to clarify that its provisions do not
apply to these "discretionary admit" students, thereby
eliminating the mandate.
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
analysis, there would be minor nonreimbursable costs
for legal services to districts who conduct the
specified hearings. Assuming up to $5,000 per
hearing, costs statewide would probably not exceed
$50,000 to $100,000. In addition, this bill will have
mandated and probably minor costs associated with
districts responding to requests for information.
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5) Prior legislation .
a) AB 288 (Fong, 2011) was almost identical to
this bill and was ultimately vetoed by Governor
Brown whose veto message read, in pertinent part:
Requiring every community college to follow a
uniform process for evaluating a student
expulsion taken by another district adds
unnecessary burdens and costs that the state will
have to reimburse.
I invite Chancellor Scott and the California
Community Colleges Board of Governors to work
with local districts to craft a more flexible and
cost-effective approach to enable districts to
share critical information about student
expulsions.
b) AB 1400 (Fong, 2010) was substantially
similar to this bill and was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzennegger who also requested that the Board
of Governors work with the Chancellor develop a
policy to most effectively address this issue for
the campuses.
SUPPORT
Community College Chancellor's Office
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
San Diego Community College District
San-Jose Evergreen Community College District
West Kern Community College District
OPPOSITION
None received.