California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009.

(1) Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides, among other things, for student protections and regulatory oversight of private postsecondary schools in the state. The act is enforced by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act prohibits an institution, as defined, from, among other things, offering an unaccredited doctoral degree program without disclosing to prospective students prior to enrollment that the degree program is unaccredited, whether the degree issued is in a field that requires licensure in California, and any known limitation of the degree, including, but not limited to, whether the degree is recognized for licensure or certification in California and other states. This bill would apply that prohibition to the offering of associate, baccalaureate, and master's degree programs without disclosing that the institution, or specified degree program, is unaccredited, and would list specified limitations of the degree program whose disclosure the bill would require. (2) The act requires an institution to provide a prospective student prior to enrollment with a school catalog, which is required to contain specified disclosures relating to the school or a particular educational program. This bill would require the school catalog to include a statement specifying whether the institution, or any of its programs, are accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education, and, if the institution is unaccredited, or offers an associate, baccalaureate, master's, or doctoral degree program that is not accredited, the bill would require the statement to disclose the known and specified limitations of the degree program. (3) The act requires an institution to provide a prospective student prior to enrollment with a School Performance Fact Sheet, which is required to contain specified information relating to the educational program, including, among other things, salary or wage information if the institution or a representative of the institution makes any express or implied claim about the salary that may be earned after completing the educational program. This bill would remove that limitation, and require all institutions to include salary or wage information in the fact sheet, not just institutions that make express or implied claims about the salary that may be earned after completing the educational program. The bill would require the fact sheet to include the most recent 3-year cohort default rate for federal student loans reported by the United States Department of Education and the percentage of students receiving federal student loans if the institution participates in federal financial aid programs, as specified. (4) Existing law defines graduates employed in the field for purposes of the act. This bill would revise that definition to include graduates who are gainfully employed within 6 months of a specified date in a single position for which the institution represents the program prepares its graduates, as specified. (5) Existing law requires an institution to annually report specified information regarding completion rates, job placement rates, license examination passage rates, and salary and wage information to the bureau and to publish that information in its School Performance Fact Sheet. Existing law requires the information used to substantiate these rates to be documented and maintained by the institution for at least 5 years, and authorizes an institution to retain the information in electronic format. This bill would additionally require an institution to annually report, and publish in its School Performance Fact Sheet, the most recent official 3-year cohort default rate for federal student loans for the institution and the percentage of enrolled students receiving federal student loans. The bill also would require the information used to substantiate the annually reported rates and information to include specified information, and would require an institution to retain the information in an electronic format and make it available to the bureau upon request. (6) The bill would require an institution that maintains an Internet Web site to provide, on that Internet Web site, the school catalog, a School Performance Fact Sheet for each educational program offered by the institution, student brochures offered by the institution, a link to the bureau's Internet Web site, and the institution's most recent annual report submitted to the bureau. The bill would also require the institution to include information concerning where students may access the bureau's Internet Web site anywhere the institution identifies itself as being approved by the bureau.