Higher education: prohibited debt collection practices.

Existing law, the Donahoe Higher Education Act, requires public higher education entities to adopt regulations to withhold institutional services, including the withholding of transcripts, upon notice to students that they are in default of their loans. This bill would, notwithstanding those provisions, prohibit a school, as defined, from refusing to provide a transcript for a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes a debt, conditioning the provision of a transcript on the payment of a debt, charging a higher fee for obtaining a transcript or providing less favorable treatment of a transcript request because a student owes a debt, or using a transcript issuance as a tool for debt collection, as specified. Because this bill would impose new duties on community colleges, this 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.