Student Opportunity and Access Program.

Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission and assigns to it numerous duties with respect to student financial aid programs, including administration of the Student Opportunity and Access Program. Under this program, the commission may apportion funds for the support of projects designed to increase accessibility of postsecondary educational opportunities for certain elementary and secondary school pupils from historically underserved backgrounds. Existing law requires each project to be proposed and operated through a consortium, as specified, and requires at least 30% or the equivalent of each project grant to be allocated for stipends to peer advisers and tutors meeting specified criteria. This bill, among other things, would authorize the commission to apportion funds under the program to projects designed to increase accessibility of postsecondary educational opportunities for certain pupils from underserved communities. The bill would impose additional requirements on projects receiving funding, including requiring projects to provide assistance to those pupils from underserved communities who are enrolled in middle school and their parents or guardians in order to implement outreach efforts designed to inform them of the future availability of and access to postsecondary student financial assistance. The bill would require every consortium operating a project to allocate at least 20%, with the goal of allocating 30%, of each project grant to college success coaches meeting specified criteria. Existing law authorizes the initial grant for a proposed new project in an area that has demonstrated need for services provided by the Student Opportunity and Access Program to be used for planning and development and requires full project grant funding to be allocated when specified criteria is met. This bill would repeal these provisions.