SB 15: Student financial aid: Cal Grant awards.

(1)The Cal Grant Program establishes the Cal Grant A and Cal Grant B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C award, and the Cal Grant T award under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law requires that a Cal Grant C award be utilized only for occupational or technical training in a course of not less than 4 months. Existing law also requires that the maximum award amount and the total amount of funding for the Cal Grant C awards be determined each year in the annual Budget Act.

This bill would instead set the maximum amount for annual Cal Grant C awards at $2,462. The bill would also provide that, notwithstanding the maximum amount specified in the bill, the maximum amount of a Cal Grant C award could be adjusted in the annual Budget Act for that award year.

The bill would delete provisions specifying the duties of the Student Aid Commission in determining areas of occupational or technical training that meet the criteria of the Cal Grant C award program. The bill would instead require the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to annually provide the Student Aid Commission with eligible occupational and technical training programs that meet specified conditions set forth in the bill. The bill would require private or independent postsecondary educational institutions that meet the definition of a qualifying institution set forth in a specified provision relating to the Cal Grant Program to provide, at a minimum, occupational or technical training programs that meet specified conditions in order for their Cal Grant C eligible students to receive a Cal Grant C award. The bill would also require the Student Aid Commission to publish, and maintain on its Internet Web site, a current list of the eligible and prioritized occupational and technical training programs that are in demand in each economic and workforce development region, as specified.

(2)Existing law authorizes Cal Grant C awards to be used for purposes such as tuition, living expenses, local transportation, and books, among other things. Existing law authorizes Cal Grant B awards to be used only for tuition, student fees, and access costs, and, for purposes of the Cal Grant Program, defines access costs as living expenses, transportation expenses, supplies, and books.

This bill would authorize Cal Grant C awards to be used for technology. The bill would also authorize Cal Grant B awards to be used for technology by expanding the definition of access costs to include technology.

(3)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.