Private postsecondary education: California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009.

(1) The former Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Reform Act of 1989, which became inoperative on July 1, 2007, and was repealed on January 1, 2008, was administered by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The former act generally effectuated legislative intent to ensure minimum standards of instructional quality and institutional stability in private postsecondary educational institutions and required the bureau, among other things, to review and investigate all institutions, programs, and courses of instruction approved under the act. The former act also established the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Administration Fund and the continuously appropriated Student Tuition Recovery Fund, both of which were repealed on July 1, 2008. The former act specified that certain violations of its provisions were subject to civil penalties and that certain willful violations of the act were punishable as crimes. This bill would recast and revise the former act as the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009. The bill would establish the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs as a successor agency to the former bureau. The bill would appropriate the sum of $580,000 from the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Administration Fund to the bureau for the purpose of funding 5 education administration positions, and would continue that fund in existence and rename it as the Private Postsecondary Education Administration Fund. The bill also would continue the existence of the continuously appropriated Student Tuition Recovery Fund, would provide that certain violations of the new act are punishable as infractions, and would provide procedures for the resolution of student claims under the former act. The bill would impose reporting requirements on the bureau, the Bureau of State Audits, and the Legislative Analyst's Office regarding compliance with the act. The bill would appropriate $270,000 from the Private Postsecondary Education Administration Fund to the Bureau of State Audits to cover its costs of implementing the reporting requirements. The bill would impose various fees in connection with a private postsecondary institution's approval to operate under the act and would require those fees to be deposited in the Private Postsecondary Education Administration Fund, for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, by the bureau for the purposes of the act. The bill would exempt various institutions from most of the provisions of the act, including an exemption for an institution that is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges and, until January 1, 2016, an institution that is accredited by a regional accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education. The bill would repeal the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009 on January 1, 2016. The bill would, upon the repeal of the act, continue the Student Tuition Recovery Fund in existence under the administration of the Department of Consumer Affairs and would continuously appropriate the moneys remaining in that fund to the Department of Consumer Affairs for specified purposes. Because this bill would establish new infractions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 27 and 146 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 819, to be operative only if SB 819 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. The bill also would incorporate additional changes in Sections 101 and 149 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 1535 and SB 819, to be operative only if this bill and one or both of the other bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.