Student financial aid: Cal Grant Reform Act.

(1) Existing law establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for these awards for participating students attending qualifying institutions. This bill would enact the Cal Grant Reform Act, which would revise and recast the provisions establishing and governing the existing Cal Grant Program into a new Cal Grant Program. The bill would specify that the Cal Grant Reform Act would only become operative upon the appropriation by the Legislature, in the annual Budget Act or another statute, of sufficient funds to fully implement its provisions. The bill would authorize the commission to adopt emergency regulations to implement the Cal Grant Reform Act. The new Cal Grant Program would also include a Cal Grant 2 Program and a Cal Grant 4 Program, with eligibility requirements as specified. The provisions rendering several existing provisions of the Cal Grant Program inoperative would take effect on July 1, 2024, or on a date determined in the annual Budget Act, whichever date is later. The Cal Grant Reform Act would become operative for students to apply for aid beginning October 1, 2023, and to receive aid for the 2024–25 academic year. The bill would require the Trustees of the California State University, and request the Regents of the University of California, to adopt a statement of policy on or before June 30, 2023, on how their institutional aid programs address student basic needs and how these institutional funds are prioritized for disbursement. The bill would require the University of California, the California State University, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions of higher education, and community college districts whose students receive Cal Grant aid to report specified data to the Department of Finance, the Legislative Analyst's Office, and the higher education policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature for each academic year, starting with the 2022–23 academic year, by March 31 of the subsequent academic year. To the extent that this provision would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) 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.