Community colleges: external resolution services for civil rights compliance: managing entity and civil rights coordinator.

Adds an appropriation of $100,000,000 from the General Fund for fiscal year 2026-27 to fund external resolution services for civil rights compliance provided by the managing entity. The bill's appropriation and fiscal committee votes change from 'no' to 'yes.'

The January report from the managing entity now must evaluate whether additional costs are required in the 'current or subsequent fiscal year' (previously only 'subsequent fiscal year'), and budget requests are changed to 'budgetary changes to the annual systemwide budget requests.'

The deadline for the board of governors to contract with a managing entity now includes 'within one calendar year of an appropriation by the Legislature for this express purpose' in addition to the June 1, 2027 date. The requirement for community college districts to designate a Title IX civil rights coordinator is also conditioned on occurring within one year of appropriation.

The role previously called 'Title IX coordinator' is renamed throughout to 'Title IX civil rights coordinator,' broadening the implied scope of the position beyond just Title IX matters.

Adds 'affirmative consent training' as a required component of the campus discrimination prevention training program for students and employees, alongside bystander intervention, policy awareness, and primary prevention training.

The managing entity's role in grievance procedures changes from directly 'conducting' full-service grievance procedures to 'providing a pool of well-trained individuals available to oversee and conduct' those procedures in coordination with the Title IX civil rights coordinator.

Adds Section 304 of the federal Violence Against Women Act of 2013 (as amended into the Jeanne Clery Act) to the list of federal and state laws that the nondiscrimination policy must include.

Training for Title IX civil rights coordinators is now explicitly 'annual' with 'mandated annual recertification cycles' rather than the prior language of 'mandates and recertification cycles,' making the annual requirement more explicit.

The referrals provision is split into two subparts: (A) offering complainants and respondents referrals to advocacy and support services, and (B) separately offering respondents referrals to support services, creating a distinct respondent-focused support obligation.

The qualification for a managing entity candidate changes from requiring 'a record of managing 500 college-based federal Title IX or sexual harassment complaints annually, with the capacity to scale to more than 1,000 complaints annually' to simply 'a record of managing all procedures related to 500 college-based federal Title IX or sexual harassment complaints,' removing the explicit annual volume and scaling requirement.

Removes the section stating that the Chancellor was required to submit a report by December 1, 2025 with recommendations for systemic campus reforms, and the Legislature's intent to enact some of those recommendations in subsequent legislation.

Added an entire new Chapter 2 (Sections 70920-70927) to Part 43 of Division 7 of Title 3 of the Education Code, creating a full external resolution system for civil rights compliance at community colleges. The bill went from a single intent statement to a multi-section regulatory framework.

The original single-section intent statement (to enact recommendations from the gender equity report) is retained but moved to the end of the bill as a separate section, now following the full regulatory framework rather than being the entire content of the bill.

Requires the Board of Governors to contract with a 'managing entity' by June 1, 2027 (renewed every 3 years) to provide external resolution services including grievance procedures for Title IX and sexual harassment complaints, nondiscrimination policy development, training programs, case management systems, and annual reporting. The managing entity must have experience managing at least 500 college-based Title IX complaints annually with capacity to scale beyond 1,000.

Requires each community college district to designate a dedicated Title IX coordinator by July 1, 2027 who may not have duties outside those specified in the bill. The coordinator must submit complaints to the managing entity, maintain records for 7 years, develop prevention and outreach programs, meet quarterly with the district CEO, and meet monthly with a managing entity liaison.

Creates an appeal process allowing complainants or respondents dissatisfied with a managing entity or Title IX coordinator decision to appeal to the Chancellor's office within 10 working days. The Chancellor's office must issue a final decision within 30 days and may only reverse decisions based on procedural errors, new evidence, or objectively unreasonable determinations.

Establishes the External Resolution Services Fund in the State Treasury as a continuously appropriated fund, with stated legislative intent to appropriate $100 million annually. Community college districts must deposit proportional shares based on FTE student counts: 7% for districts over 60,000 FTE, 5% for 25,001-60,000, 2% for 10,001-25,000, 1% for 1,001-10,000, and 0.09% for 151-1,000 FTE.

Imposes a fine of up to $1,000 per day on governing boards that fail to adopt the nondiscrimination policy within 30 days of receiving it, withheld from state apportionments. Districts that fail to pay their proportional share into the fund have that amount withheld from their second principal apportionment.

Adds definitions for 'Board of Governors,' 'California Community Colleges,' 'Chancellor,' 'Chancellor's office,' 'Governing board,' 'Managing entity,' and 'Sexual harassment' in the new chapter.