BILL NUMBER: AB 1997INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Portantino FEBRUARY 17, 2010 An act to amend Section 69433 of the Education Code, relating to student financial aid. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1997, as introduced, Portantino. Community colleges: student financial aid programs: application forms. Existing law establishes various student financial aid programs under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law requires the commission to authorize the use of standardized student financial aid application forms and requires these forms to be used for the Cal Grant Program and all other programs funded by the state or a public institution of postsecondary education, except that a simplified form may be used for a specified financial assistance program of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. This bill would instead authorize a community college district to use the simplified form solely for purposes of specified fee waivers provided by the board of governors, and only under certain circumstances. The bill would require a community college district that elects to use the simplified form to annually report to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges the number of simplified forms used and its justifications for the use of that form. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 69433 of the Education Code is amended to read: 69433. (a) (1) A Cal Grant Program award shall be based upon the financial need of the applicant, and shall not exceed the calculated financial need for any individual applicant. The minimum level of financial need of each applicant shall be determined by the commission pursuant to Section 69432.9. The commission may provide renewal awards. (2) A student attending a nonpublic institution shall receive a renewal award for tuition or fees, or both, in an amount not to exceed the maximum allowable award amount that was in effect in the year in which the student first received a new award. (b) A Cal Grant award authorized pursuant to this chapter shall be defined as a full-time equivalent grant. An award to a part-time student shall be a fraction of a full-time grant, as determined by the commission. (c) (1) The commission shall prescribe the use of standardized student financial aid applications for California. These applications shall be simple in nature, and collect common data elements required by the federal government and those elements needed to meet the objectives of state-funded and institutional financial aid programs. (2) (A) The applications prescribed in paragraph (1) shall beutilizedused for the Cal Grant Program, all other programs funded by the state or a public institution of postsecondary education(except for the Financial Assistance Program of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges authorized by Chapter 1118 of the Statutes of 1987, for which a simplified application designed for that sole purpose may be used), and all federal programs administered by a public postsecondary education institution. (B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), a community college district may use a simplified form solely for purposes of fee waivers from the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges under Section 76300. The community college district may use the simplified form only in those cases in which it is determined by the governing board of the district to be appropriate. If a community college district elects to use a simplified form pursuant to this subparagraph, the district shall annually report to the Chancellor of the California community Colleges the number of simplified forms used by the district and its justifications for the use of that form. (3) Supplemental application information may beutilizedused if the information is essential to accomplishing the objectives of individual programs. All supplemental application information used for the purposes of commission-administered programs shall be subject to approval by the commission, and applications shall be identical for programs with similar objectives, as determined by the commission. (4) Public postsecondary institutions are encouraged to use, but may decide whether to use, the standard applications for funds provided by private donors. (5) The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best interest of students that all postsecondary education institutions in California participating in federal and state-funded financial aid programs accept the standard applications prescribed by the commission. (d) Nothing in this chapter shall prevent an individual public postsecondary institution from processing, with its own staff and fiscal resources, the standard financial aid applications specified in subdivision (c) for student aid programs for which it has legal responsibility. (e) The commission may enter into contracts with a public agency or a private entity to improve the processing and distribution of grants, fellowships, and loans through the use of electronic networks and unifieddata basesdatabases .