BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1425 (Block) - Community Colleges: Retroactive Awarding of
Degrees
Amended: As Introduced Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 5, 2014 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1425 requires the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges (CCC) to develop or identify a commercially
available utility to conduct system-wide automatic degree
audits, and requires all CCCs to award degrees retroactively, as
specified.
Fiscal Impact: The CCC Chancellor's office has indicated that is
it not possible to centralize a degree audit system in the time
afforded by this bill, because requirements can vary among
campuses. Developing a system that could audit different
requirements across different campuses would take considerable
time, and would be more expensive than purchasing existing
commercial software for each campus to use on their own.
Degree audits (commercial utility): Approximately $12
million (General Fund) to purchase a commercial utility that
meets the bill's requirements, for each of the approximately
80 campuses that do not currently have one.
Mandate: Degree audits (workload) - Setting up the degree
audit software, maintaining the system, and updating the
data, and conducting annual degree audits for the
approximately 80 campuses that do not have a system, would
likely require 2 dedicated classified employees at each
campus. Annual costs could total $12 million (General Fund)
across those campuses. Costs would vary at the approximately
30 campuses for which an existing system would need to be
maintained, the data updated, and degree audits conducted
each year (but would not need to be set up). Even if those
campuses required only 1 classified staff person each,
annual costs would exceed $2 million (General Fund).
Mandate: Retroactive degrees - Potentially substantial
reimbursable state mandate, likely millions of dollars, to
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require each CCC to go back and conduct degree audits for
each student enrolled in the past 5 years at their
respective campuses.
Mandate: Notifications - Potentially substantial
reimbursable mandate, likely hundreds of thousands of
dollars, to establish notification procedures and to notify
students of their degree status once the audit is completed
each year.
Report: Potentially significant costs to the CCC
Chancellor's office to complete the required implementation
report.
Background: Existing law specifically establishes the mission
and function of the CCC as offering academic and vocational
instruction at the lower division level and authorizes the
community colleges to grant the associate in arts and the
associate in science degree. (Education Code � 66010.4)
Proposed Law: This bill requires the CCC Board of Governors
(BOG) to require all CCCs to retroactively award degrees.
Beginning in the spring term of the 2015-16 academic year, it
requires all CCCs to: a) Identify students who have completed
the units required to receive a degree, certificate, or
completed transfer requirements during the prior five academic
years; b) Notify the identified students of their eligibility
for a degree or certificate; and, c) Provide the students with a
choice to opt out or receive the degree/certificate.
CCCs are further required to annually, prior to spring 2016,
identify students who are within 12 semester (18 quarter) units
of completing a degree or certificate or achieving the minimum
requirements for transfer and notify these individuals of the
courses needed to complete degree, certificate, or transfer
requirements.
This bill requires the CCC Chancellor to develop or identify a
commercially available utility to conduct system-wide automatic
degree audits, to centrally house it, and to make it accessible
to staff and students through an Internet Web portal, as
specified.
This bill further requires each CCD, with the Chancellor's
assistance, to study and evaluate the effectiveness of degree
audit activities established by the bill's provisions, as
specified.
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This bill also requires the Chancellor to submit a report to the
Legislature and Governor on the progress in implementing the
bill's provisions by December 31, 2017. The report must include
metrics to be determined and reported, as specified, and
information that is disaggregated by ethnicity, gender,
disability, age and socioeconomic status, to the extent
available.
This bill specifies that its provisions are inoperative until
the BOG certifies that sufficient funds from state, federal or
private sources have been received to implement the online
degree audit system, and requires that this certification be
promptly posted on the BOG website.
Staff Comments: The degree to which this bill can be implemented
as it is currently written, and within the required timeline, is
unclear. This bill specifies that its provisions are inoperative
until the BOG certifies that sufficient funds from state,
federal or private sources have been received to implement the
online degree audit system, and the CCC Chancellor's office has
indicated that it simply cannot be accomplished in the timeline,
regardless of funding.
The closest alternative to a centralized degree audit system
accessible to all CCCs by web portal, is to purchase a
commercial system for each CCC campus that does not already have
one, so that the campuses can complete the work required by this
bill. The CCC Chancellor's office estimates costs of
approximately $12 million (General Fund) to purchase a
commercial utility that meets the bill's requirements, for each
of the approximately 80 campuses that do not currently have one.
This bill contains several new state mandates on CCCs, which the
Commission on State Mandates is likely to deem reimbursable.
Implementing a 5-year retroactive and ongoing future annual
degree audits, notifying past and current students of their
status, and maintaining a commercial system that facilitates
this work are all likely to be considered reimbursable
state-mandated activities. The mandates will likely cost tens of
millions of dollars.
This bill also requires the Chancellor to submit a report to the
Legislature and Governor on the progress in implementing the
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bill's provisions by December 31, 2017, and annually thereafter,
with outcomes disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, disability,
age and socioeconomic status, to the extent available. The CCC
Chancellor's office will likely incur significant costs to
complete this report, which will require extensive coordination
with all 112 campuses on their implementation status and
outcomes.