Bill Text: CA AB2099 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Postsecondary education: Title 38 awards.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Passed) 2014-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 676, Statutes of 2014. [AB2099 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB2099-Amended.html
Bill Title: Postsecondary education: Title 38 awards.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Passed) 2014-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 676, Statutes of 2014. [AB2099 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB2099-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2099 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 10, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Frazier
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Medina and Williams )
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to add Chapter 12.5 (commencing with Section 67100) to Part
40 of Division 5 of Title 3 of the Education Code, relating to
postsecondary education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2099, as amended, Frazier. Postsecondary education: Title 38
awards.
Title 38 of the United States Code provides educational awards for
eligible active duty members and veterans of the Armed Forces of the
United States. Existing law requires an institution headquartered or
operating in California desiring to enroll students eligible for
federal Title 38 awards in accredited courses to make application for
approval of these courses to the California State Approving Agency
for Veterans Education, commonly known as CSAAVE, and authorizes
CSAAVE to approve the application of the school when the school and
its accredited courses satisfy the specified criteria and any
additional reasonable criteria established by CSAAVE.
Unless an exception applies, this bill would deem an
a public or private postsecondary institution
ineligible that is accredited by an
accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of
Education eligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards if
the institution has a 3-year cohort default rate equal to or
greater less than 15.5% or
and a graduation rate of greater than
30% or less for students taking 150% or less
of the expected time to complete degree requirements, or
does not satisfy and satisfies the other
criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in the bill. The
bill would deem a private postsecondary institution that does not
meet the cohort default rate or graduation rate requirement
, but that is accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by
the United States Department of Education, eligible for initial and
renewal Title 38 awards if the institution is issued an approval to
operate from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education and
satisfies the other criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in
the bill.
The bill would require CSAAVE to certify by October
November 1 of each year an
a public or private institution's latest 3-year cohort
default rate and graduation rate as most recently reported by the
United States Department of Education,
Education and a private postsecondary institution's approval to
operate issued by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education if
that private postsecondary institution fails to satisfy the cohort
default rate or graduation rate requirement. The bill would require
CSAAVE to notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend,
or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and
renewal Title 38 awards that the institution is ineligible for Title
38 awards for the academic year, and to provide initial and renewal
Title 38 recipients at an ineligible institution with a complete list
of all California postsecondary institutions at which the student
would be eligible to receive a Title 38 award.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 12.5 (commencing with Section 67100) is added
to Part 40 of Division 5 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read:
CHAPTER 12.5. TITLE 38 AWARDS
67100. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Section 21.4253 of Title 38 of the Code of Federal
Regulations requires a postsecondary institution headquartered or
operating in California desiring to enroll veterans or persons
eligible for Title 38 awards in accredited courses to make
application for approval of these courses to the California State
Approving Agency for Veterans Education, commonly known as CSAAVE, as
the state approving agency legally designated pursuant to Section
3671 of Subchapter I of Chapter 36 of Title 38 of the United States
Code.
(b) Section 21.4253 authorizes CSAAVE to approve the application
of the school when the school and its accredited courses satisfy the
criteria provided in Section 21.4253 and additional reasonable
criteria established by CSAAVE.
(c) It is reasonable pursuant to Section 21.4253 for CSAAVE to
require an institution , public or private, to maintain a
three-year cohort default rate and graduation rate that satisfies the
three-year cohort default rate and graduation rate requirements of
the Cal Grant Program , or for the private postsecondary
institution to be approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary
Education, and to require the institution, public or
private, to comply with all federal and state laws and regulations,
in order for the institution to be eligible for initial and
renewal Title 38 awards.
67101. The Title 38 Funding Program is hereby established, under
the administration of the California State Approving Agency for
Veterans Education. The California State Approving Agency for
Veterans Education shall approve courses at public or private
postsecondary educational institutions desiring to enroll veterans or
persons eligible for Title 38 awards in accordance with federal law,
this chapter, and other reasonable criteria established by the
California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education.
67102. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) An "academic year" is July 1 to June 30, inclusive. The
starting date of a session shall determine the academic year in which
it is included.
(b) "CSAAVE" is the California State Approving Agency for Veterans
Education.
(c) (1) "Qualifying institution" means an institution that
complies with paragraphs (2) and (3) and is any of the
following: (2), (3), (4), and (5), and either
paragraph (6) or (7).
(A) A California private or independent postsecondary educational
institution that participates in the Pell Grant Program and in at
least two of the following federal campus-based student aid programs:
(i) Federal Work-Study.
(ii) Perkins Loan Program.
(iii) Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program.
(B) A nonprofit institution headquartered and operating in
California that certifies to CSAAVE that 10 percent of the
institution's operating budget, as demonstrated in an audited
financial statement, is expended for purposes of institutionally
funded student financial aid in the form of grants, that demonstrates
to the CSAAVE that it has the administrative capacity to administer
the funds, that is accredited by the Western Association of Schools
and Colleges, and that meets any other state-required criteria
adopted by regulation by the CSAAVE in consultation with the
Department of Finance. A regionally accredited institution that was
deemed qualified by the CSAAVE to participate in the Cal Grant
Program for the 2013-14 academic year shall retain its eligibility as
long as it maintains its existing accreditation status.
(C) A California public postsecondary educational institution.
(2) (A) The institution shall provide information on where to
access California license examination passage rates for the most
recent available year from graduates of its undergraduate programs
leading to employment for which passage of a California licensing
examination is required, if that data is electronically available
through the Internet Web site of a California licensing or regulatory
agency. For purposes of this paragraph, "provide" may exclusively
include placement of an Internet Web site address labeled as an
access point for the data on the passage rates of recent program
graduates on the Internet Web site where enrollment information is
also located, on an Internet Web site that provides centralized
admissions information for postsecondary educational systems with
multiple campuses, or on applications for enrollment or other program
information distributed to prospective students.
(B) The institution shall be responsible for certifying to
the CSAAVE compliance with the requirements of
subparagraph (A).
(3) The institution shall provide evidence of accreditation to
CSAAVE from an accrediting agency recognized by the United States
Department of Education. An institution offering an unaccredited
degree that is participating in Title 38 award programs on January 1,
2015, shall have until January 1, 2016, to obtain and provide
evidence to CSAAVE of its candidacy status for accreditation with an
accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of
Education in order for the institution to be eligible for Title 38
awards for the academic year of 2015-16, or 2016-17, or both, and to
obtain and provide evidence to CSAAVE of full accreditation from the
accrediting agency by January 1, 2017 to be eligible for Title 38
awards for the academic year of 2017-18, and each academic year
thereafter.
(4) The institution shall provide, in a manner prescribed by
CSAAVE, information on the institution's veteran student retention
rate and graduation rate, time to degree, cohort default rate, and
graduate placement and graduate starting salary for its veteran
students. CSAAVE shall require that, to the extent feasible, the
collection of information and reporting calculations pursuant to this
paragraph comply with federal and state reporting requirements.
(5) The institution shall provide to CSAAVE evidence of compliance
with the federal Principles of Excellence program.
(3) (A) The
(6) (A) CSAAVE shall
certify by October November 1 of each
year the institution's latest three-year cohort default rate and
graduation rate as most recently reported by the United States
Department of Education.
(B) For purposes of the 2015-16 academic year, and every academic
year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying the
institution with maintains a
three-year cohort default rate that is equal to or greater
less than 15.5 percent, as certified by
the CSAAVE shall be deemed ineligible by CSAAVE for initial and
renewal of Title 38 awards at the institution CSAAVE
.
(C) (i) An otherwise qualifying institution that becomes
ineligible under this paragraph for initial and renewal of Title 38
awards shall regain its eligibility for the academic year for which
it satisfies the requirements established in subparagraph (B) or (E),
as applicable.
(ii) If the United States Department of Education corrects or
revises an institution's three-year cohort default rate or graduation
rate that originally failed to satisfy the requirements established
in subparagraph (B) or (E), as applicable, and the correction or
revision results in the institution's three-year cohort default rate
or graduation rate satisfying those requirements, that institution
shall immediately regain its eligibility for the academic year to
which the corrected or revised three-year cohort default rate or
graduation rate would have been applied.
(D) An otherwise qualifying institution for which no three-year
cohort default rate or graduation rate has been reported by the
United States Department of Education shall be provisionally eligible
to participate in the Title 38 Funding Program until a three-year
cohort default rate or graduation rate has been reported for the
institution by the United States Department of Education.
(E)
(C) For purposes of the 2015-16 academic year, and
every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying
the institution with
maintains a graduation rate of greater than 30
percent or less for students taking 150 percent or
less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as
reported by the United States Department of Education and as
certified by the CSAAVE pursuant to subparagraph
(A), shall be deemed by CSAAVE to be ineligible for initial
and renewal of Title 38 awards at the institution, except as provided
for in subparagraph (G) (A) .
(F)
(D) Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements of
this paragraph shall not apply to institutions with 40 percent or
less of undergraduate students borrowing federal student loans, using
information reported to the United States Department of Education
for the academic year two years before the year in which the
CSAAVE is certifying the three-year cohort default rate or
graduation rate pursuant to subparagraph (A).
(G)
(E) Notwithstanding subparagraph (E),
(C) an otherwise qualifying institution with a
three-year cohort default rate that is less than 10 percent and a
graduation rate above 20 percent for students taking 150 percent or
less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as
certified by the CSAAVE pursuant to subparagraph
(A), shall remain eligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards at
the institution through the 2018-19 academic year.
(H) The CSAAVE shall do all of the following:
(i) Notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or
attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal
Title 38 awards under subparagraph (B) or (E) that the institution is
ineligible for initial Title 38 awards for the academic year for
which the student received an initial Title 38 award.
(ii) Provide initial and renewal Title 38 recipients seeking to
attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial
and renewal Title 38 awards at the institution under subparagraph (B)
or (E) with a complete list of all California postsecondary
educational institutions at which the student would be eligible to
receive a Title 38 award.
(F) If the United States Department of Education corrects or
revises an institution's three-year cohort default rate or graduation
rate that would have otherwise failed to satisfy the requirements
established pursuant to subparagraph (B), (C), or (E), as applicable,
and the corrections or revision results in the institution's
three-year default rate or graduation rate satisfying those
requirements, the institution shall immediately regain its
eligibility for the academic year to which the corrected or revised
three-year default rate or graduation rate would have been applied.
(G) A private postsecondary institution that becomes ineligible
for initial and renewal Title 38 awards pursuant to this paragraph
shall be provided an opportunity to gain eligibility. CSAAVE shall
establish rules and procedures to govern the institution's transition
to eligibility to ensure students who would otherwise receive
initial and renewal awards are not adversely affected during the
transition.
(7) (A) The institution is a private postsecondary institution
issued an approval to operate from the Bureau for Private
Postsecondary Education.
(B) CSAAVE shall certify by November 1 of each year whether a
private postsecondary institution has been issued an approval to
operate from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, if that
institution fails to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (6).
67103. CSAAVE shall do all of the following:
(a) Notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or
attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal
Title 38 awards under this chapter that the institution is ineligible
for initial Title 38 awards for the academic year for which the
student received an initial Title 38 award.
(b) Provide initial and renewal Title 38 recipients seeking to
attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial
and renewal Title 38 awards at the institution under this chapter
with a complete list of all California postsecondary educational
institutions at which the student would be eligible to receive a
Title 38 award.
