Today's Law As Amended


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AB-175 Cal Grant B awards: access costs.(2007-2008)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The state provides significant tuition and fee assistance for financially needy, meritorious students through the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement Awards Programs.
(b) For students from the most financially disadvantaged families, the state provides a Cal Grant B award to meet “access costs,” which are defined in statute to include textbooks, supplies, transportation, and living expenses.
(c) These access costs, particularly in the case of textbooks, have increased sharply in recent years; low-income students and families find it more difficult to pay for postsecondary education and are going more deeply into debt by obtaining student loans.
(d) While these access costs have increased dramatically in the last 20 years, the amount of the Cal Grant B award has remained unchanged, thereby steadily eroding the relative value of that award and diminishing the state’s historic commitment to its most disadvantaged students, who are the least able to afford textbooks or incur additional indebtedness.

SEC. 2.

 Section 69435 of the Education Code is amended to read:

69435.
 (a) (1) A  Commencing with the 2001–02 academic year, and each academic year thereafter, a  Cal Grant B award shall be used only for tuition, student fees, and access costs in a for-credit instructional program that is not less than one academic year in length.
(2) The commission, or a qualifying institution pursuant to Article 8 (commencing with Section 69450),  commission  shall award access grants in a student’s first academic year. In subsequent years, the award shall include an additional amount to pay tuition or fees, or both, to attend college at a public or private four-year college or university or other qualifying institution for all Cal Grant B awards pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 66021.2. In no event shall the total award in any year exceed the applicant’s calculated financial need.
(3) Not more than 2 percent of new Cal Grant B recipients enrolling for the first time in an institution of postsecondary education shall be eligible for payments for tuition or fees, or both, in their first academic year of attendance. The commission shall adopt regulations specifying the criteria used to determine which applicants, if any, receive both tuition and fees plus the access grant in the first year of enrollment. Priority shall be given to students with the lowest expected family contribution pursuant to Section 69432.7 and the highest level of academic merit.
(b) An   (1) Except as provided in subdivisions (c) and (d), the maximum  award for access costs under this article shall be in an annual amount not to exceed one thousand five hundred fifty-one dollars ($1,551) or, if the recipient meets the qualifying criteria pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 69465, the amount of the award provided pursuant to Article 9 (commencing with Section 69465), or if the recipient meets the qualifying criteria pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 69470, the amount of the award provided pursuant to Article 10 (commencing with Section 69470). These amounts may be adjusted in the annual Budget Act. that equals at least 20 percent of the access costs for the budget category of a student living off-campus as determined by the triennial Student Expense and Resource Survey (SEARS), undertaken by the commission. 
(2) For each of the years between the triennial updates of SEARS, the maximum award for access costs under this article shall be adjusted by an amount that reflects the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index, as it is prepared by the Division of Labor Statistics and Research of the Department of Industrial Relations.
(c) For the 2008–09 award year, the maximum award for access costs under this article shall be in an annual amount that equals at least one thousand five hundred fifty-one dollars ($1,551).
(d) Commencing with the 2009–10 award year, the maximum award for access costs under this article shall be increased by not less than 5 percent and not more than 10 percent per year until the maximum amount equals the amount specified in subdivision (b).