Community colleges: waiver of enrollment fees.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and establishes community college districts throughout the state that operate community colleges and provide instruction to students. Existing law requires community college districts to charge each student an enrollment fee of $46 per unit per semester. Existing law requires the board of governors to waive this fee for students meeting prescribed requirements, which include meeting specified minimum academic and progress standards adopted by the board of governors. Existing law requires the board of governors to consider, among other things, a process for reestablishing fee waiver eligibility that provides a student with a reasonable opportunity to continue or resume his or her enrollment at a community college when developing and adopting those minimum academic and progress standards. Existing law expresses the intent of the Legislature that these minimum academic and progress standards be implemented only as campuses develop and implement the student support services and interventions necessary to ensure no disproportionate impact to students based on ethnicity, gender, disability, or socioeconomic status. Existing regulations require each community college district to establish written procedures by which a student may appeal the loss of a board of governors fee waiver due to extenuating circumstances, or where a student with a disability applied for, but did not receive reasonable accommodation in a timely manner. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the minimum academic and progress standards be implemented only as campuses develop and implement the student support services and interventions necessary to additionally ensure no disproportionate impact to students based on geographic location. The bill would require the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to review, for general consistency, each community college district's due process procedures, including any subsequent modifications of the procedures, adopted to appeal the loss of a fee waiver under these provisions, and comment on the procedures, as appropriate. The bill would require each community college district to, at least once every 3 years, examine the impact of the specified minimum academic and progress standards and determine whether those standards have had a disproportionate impact on a specific class of students, and if a disproportionate effect is found, the bill would require the community college district to include steps to address that impact in a student equity plan. By imposing additional duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.