Bill Text: CA AB490 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Community Colleges: Community College Extended
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB490 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB490-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 490 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Alejo and Gatto
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
An act to amend Section 69642 of the Education Code,
relating to community colleges.
colleges, and making an appropriation therefor.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 490, as amended, Alejo. Community Colleges:
Community College Extended Opportunity Programs and
Services. Services and the Cooperative Agencies
Resources for Education program.
Existing law establishes the Community College Extended
Opportunity Programs and Services to encourage local community
colleges to establish and implement programs directed to identifying
those students affected by language, social, and economic handicaps,
and to assist those students to achieve their educational objectives
and goals, including, but not limited to, obtaining job skills,
occupational certificates, or associate degrees, and transferring to
4-year institutions. Existing law defines extended
opportunity services for these purposes.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that definition.
Existing law authorizes the Chancellor's office of the California
Community Colleges, in cooperation with the State Department of
Social Services and the State Employment Development Department, to
enter into agreements with community college districts, which, prior
to July 1, 1984, established cooperative agencies resources for
education programs, for the purpose of providing additional funds for
support services for those programs.
This bill would appropriate, for the 2015-16 fiscal year,
$40,000,000 from an unspecified source to the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges to be allocated, as specified, for
Extended Opportunity Programs and Services and for the administration
of the Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education, thereby making
an appropriation.
Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the
minimum funding requirements for school districts and community
college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the
California Constitution.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no yes
. Fiscal committee: no yes .
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) The Extended Opportunity Programs and Services program (EOPS)
was established in 1969 through Senate Bill 164 of the 1969-70
Regular Session (Chapter 1579 of the Statutes of 1969), which was
authored by the Honorable Alfred E. Alquist to extend the opportunity
for community college enrollment to all who may profit from that
education regardless of economic, social, and educational status.
(b) EOPS was established to provide academic and resource support
to community college students whose educational and socioeconomic
backgrounds might prevent them from successfully completing college.
(c) EOPS was specifically designed for students with a multitude
of educational needs who are first-generation, English language
learner, underprepared, reentry, or at-risk college students, or
students who may fall into more than one of these categories.
(d) EOPS provides essential services that are specifically
designed to supplement community colleges' academic and student
services and vocational programs, and to help eligible students
complete their educational goals.
(e) EOPS serves as the first social and education justice program
which addresses the issues of access, equity, and completion.
(f) EOPS strategically conducts outreach and recruitment that
targets high-risk students who demonstrate educational and financial
need, and celebrates the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of our
community college system and state.
(g) EOPS student support services include intensive directive
counseling and guidance to help students with educational planning
and career assessment, monitoring of academic progress, peer-to-peer
advising, basic skills instruction, tutoring, child care, work study,
book grants, and emergency student loans.
(h) EOPS was the first state-funded program to recognize the
unique educational needs of welfare-dependent single parents.
(i) The Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE)
program was established under the auspices of EOPS through the
enactment of Assembly Bill 3103 of the 1981-82 Regular Session
(Chapter 1029 of the Statutes of 1982), which was authored by the
Honorable Teresa P. Hughes, to help single parent EOPS-eligible
community college students break the welfare-dependency cycle.
(j) Through the CARE program, EOPS students receive personal
counseling and academic advising, social service referrals and
advocacy, specialized courses and workshops on parenting, personal
development, self-esteem, and college survival skills, and
educational grants for child care, textbooks, supplies, and
transportation.
(k) The EOPS and CARE programs have successfully assisted over
1,000,000 community college students since 1969 to fulfill those
students' educational and personal aspirations.
(l) Inadequate state funding in recent years has caused many EOPS
and CARE programs to reduce the amount of financial aid, textbook
support, and child care grants provided to eligible students in need,
to prematurely close the application deadline for acceptance to the
program, to deny program services to eligible EOPS and CARE students,
or to do a combination of these.
(m) EOPS has achieved well-established outcomes, including
increasing access, equity, and completion.
SEC. 2. Notwithstanding any other law, for the
2015-16 fiscal year, forty million dollars ($40,000,000) shall be
appropriated from ____ to the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges to be allocated in accordance with the following
schedule:
(a) Thirty-two million dollars ($32,000,000) for Extended
Opportunity Programs and Services.
(b) Eight million dollars ($8,000,000) for the administration of
the Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education program.
SECTION 1. Section 69642 of the Education Code
is amended to read:
69642. Definitions:
(a) "Extended opportunity program" means a special program or
method of instruction designed to facilitate the language,
educational, or social development of a student and increase his or
her potential for success in the college.
(b) "Extended opportunity services" means a program of assistance
designed to aid a student with socioeconomic handicaps to permit him
or her to enroll in and participate in the educational activities of
the college, and to progress toward completing his or her educational
goals and objectives, including, but not limited to, graduation from
college.
