BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2171|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2171
Author: Fong (D)
Amended: 7/2/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/13/12
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Hancock, Huff, Liu, Price,
Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Blakeslee, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 4/26/12 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Community colleges: expulsion and enrollment
SOURCE : Peralta Community College District
DIGEST : 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 five years.
ANALYSIS : Existing law requires a California Community
CONTINUED
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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
existing 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. 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.
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
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district within the preceding five years for specified
offenses. 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 to determine whether an applicant
continues to pose a danger to the physical safety of
others.
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.
1.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
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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; and
G. Possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a firearm,
knife, explosive, or other dangerous objects.
1.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.
2.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.
3.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.
4.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, as
specified.
Comments
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
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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 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.
According to the Senate Education Committee analysis, 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.
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
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have an established authority or process for denying
admission to individuals who have been expelled from
another college within the system.
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.
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.
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.
Prior Legislation
AB 288 (Fong, 2011) was almost identical to this bill and
was ultimately vetoed by Governor Brown whose veto message
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read in 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.
AB 1400 (Fong, 2010) was substantially similar to this bill
and was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger who also
requested that the Board of Governors work with the
Chancellor develop a policy to most effectively address
this issue for the campuses.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
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.
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/2/12)
Peralta Community College District (source)
California Communities United Institute
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Rio Hondo Community College District
San Diego Community College District
San Jose-Evergreen Community College District
West Kern Community College District
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Supporters argue, "AB 2171
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requires the governing board of a community college, or its
designee to hold a hearing prior to taking action to deny,
permit, or place conditions on the enrollment of an
individual who pose a risk to the safety of others. This
includes students who have been expelled from a community
college within the preceding five years or are undergoing
expulsion for violent acts specified in the bill. AB 2171
would also grant community colleges additional tools to
ensure the safety of students and employees. A community
college may request information from another district to
determine if the student continues to pose a threat to the
safety of others. AB 2171 contains meaningful oversight of
this sensitive process by requiring the governing board of
a district to hold a hearing to decide such matters."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 4/26/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Beth
Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove,
Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber,
Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan,
Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner,
Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski,
Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Furutani, Halderman, Harkey,
Jones, Smyth
PQ:n 7/3/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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