69435.
(a) (1) 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), 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) Commencing with the 2014–15 academic year:
(b) (1) An award for access costs under this article shall be in an annual amount not to exceed no less than one thousand five seven 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 ten dollars ($1,710), unless the award would exceed the amount of the award provided pursuant to Article 10 (commencing with Section 69470). These amounts may be adjusted in the annual Budget Act. student’s calculated financial need, in which case the award amount shall equal the amount of the student’s calculated financial need.
(2) The award for access costs shall include the percentage increase, if any, in the California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers as calculated and certified by the commission from data reported by the Department of Industrial Relations. No later than January 15, 2014, for the 2014–15 academic year, no later than September 1, 2014, for the 2015–16 academic year, and no later than September 1 of the year prior to each academic year thereafter, the commission shall calculate and certify the percentage change using the data from the two most recent June indices. In the event that the California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers decreases from the prior academic year, the award amount shall remain at its most recently certified level.