Community colleges: inmate education programs: computation of apportionments.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law requires the board of governors to appoint a chief executive officer, to be known as the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Existing law provides that, notwithstanding open course provisions in statute or regulations of the board of governors, the governing board of a community college district that provides classes for inmates of certain facilities may include the units of full-time equivalent students generated in those classes for purposes of state apportionments. This bill would instead waive the open course provisions in statute or regulations of the board of governors for any governing board of a community college district for classes the district provides to inmates of those facilities and state correctional facilities, and would authorize the board of governors to include the units of full-time equivalent students generated in those classes for purposes of state apportionments. Existing law provides for the method of computing apportionments for purposes of these inmate education programs. This bill would make revisions to that method of computation. The bill would prohibit a community college district from claiming, for purposes of apportionments for these inmate education programs, any class for which a district receives full compensation for its direct education costs for the conduct of the class from any public or private agency, individual, or group of individuals, or any class offered pursuant to a contract or instructional agreement entered into between the district and a public or private agency, individual, or group of individuals that has received from another source full compensation for the costs the district incurs under that contract or instructional agreement, as prescribed. This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, on or before March 1, 2015, to enter into an interagency agreement to expand access to community college courses that lead to degrees or certificates that result in enhanced workforce skills or transfer to a 4-year university. This bill would require that courses for inmates in a state correctional facility developed as a result of this agreement supplement, but not duplicate or supplant, any adult education course opportunities offered at that facility by the Office of Correctional Education of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, to develop metrics for evaluations of the efficacy and success of the programs developed through the interagency agreement, conduct the evaluations, and, on or before July 31, 2018, report findings from the evaluations to the Legislature and the Governor.