State Nursing Assumption Program of Loans for Education: veterans' homes.

(1) Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law establishes a program within the State Nursing Assumption Program of Loans for Education (SNAPLE) , administered by the commission, under which any person who is enrolled in an eligible institution, and who agrees to work full time as a registered nurse in a state-operated 24-hour facility, including a prison, psychiatric hospital, or veterans' home, that employs registered nurses, is eligible to receive a conditional loan assumption agreement, to be redeemed upon becoming employed as a clinical registered nurse in a state-operated 24-hour facility that employs registered nurses and that has a clinical registered nurse vacancy rate of greater than 10%. The SNAPLE program provides for a progressive assumption of the amount of a qualifying loan over 4 consecutive years of qualifying clinical registered nursing service, up to a total loan assumption of $20,000. Under existing law, this program becomes inoperative on July 1, 2012, and is repealed on January 1, 2013. This bill would provide for an additional loan assumption of up to $5,000 per year for a participant that completes qualifying clinical registered nursing service at a state-operated veterans' home, thus raising the maximum total loan assumption authorized under the program for service at a state-operated veterans' home to $40,000. (2) Under the SNAPLE program, if a program participant becomes unable to complete one of the 4 consecutive years of qualifying clinical registered nursing service due to serious illness, pregnancy, or other natural causes, the term of the loan assumption agreement is extended for a period not to exceed one year. This bill would add active military duty in the United States Armed Forces to the list of occurrences that would authorize the extension of the term of the loan assumption agreement. It would also authorize an extension for any of these occurrences for a period longer than one year if approved by the commission.