AB 791 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Student financial aid: Cal Grant Program: cost of attendance.

Summary
Existing law, the Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A Entitlement Awards, the Cal Grant B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Expanded 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. Existing law establishes eligibility requirements for awards under the Cal Grant Program for participating students attending qualifying postsecondary educational institutions, and prescribes requirements that postsecondary educational institutions must comply with in order to be a qualifying postsecondary educational institution for purposes of the Cal Grant Program, including, among others, certain disclosure requirements. This bill would require, as part of the criteria to be a qualifying institution under the Cal Grant Program, an institution to develop and implement a cost of attendance policy and adjustment process to estimate and adjust cost of attendance information in a manner that is consistent with federal standards, as specified.
Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 18, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

02/18/25 - Introduced 04/24/25 - Amended Assembly · 2 edits · Apr 24, 2025
MINOR
The amended version of AB 791 makes one substantive policy change: it softens the prohibition on cost of attendance (COA) adjustment request deadlines. The introduced bill banned institutions from imposing any deadlines for COA adjustment requests, while the amendment allows institutions to set deadlines as long as they fall no earlier than three weeks before the end of each term. This gives colleges more operational flexibility while still protecting students' ability to seek adjustments near term's end.
REQUIREMENT

Institutions may now impose cost of attendance adjustment request deadlines, provided the deadline is no earlier than three weeks before the end of each term. The introduced version prohibited any such deadlines entirely.

TECHNICAL

Cross-reference in the qualifying institution definition was clarified from 'paragraphs (2) to (4), (5), inclusive' to 'paragraphs (2) to (5), inclusive,' which is a cleaner way to express the same range.

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
10
Key actions
4
Committee
6
Amendments
2
Feb 2, 2026
Lower · Passed
From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56.
lower
May 23, 2025
Lower · Passed
In committee: Held under submission.
lower
May 7, 2025
Committee
In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.
lower
Apr 28, 2025
Committee
Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
lower
Apr 24, 2025
Lower · Passed
Read second time and amended.
lower
Apr 23, 2025
Introduced
From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 22).
lower
Mar 3, 2025
Committee
Referred to Com. on HIGHER ED.
lower
Feb 19, 2025
Lower · Passed
From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Marc Berman
Marc Berman
DDemocratic
CA
23