Public postsecondary education: exemption from tuition and fees for qualifying survivors of deceased public safety and fire suppression personnel: notice.

(1) Existing law prohibits the Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Trustees of the California State University, and, if they adopt an appropriate resolution, the Regents of the University of California, from collecting mandatory systemwide tuition and fees from any surviving spouse or surviving child of a deceased person who was a resident of the state and employed by or contracting with a public agency, whose principal duties consisted of active law enforcement service or active fire suppression and prevention, and who died as a result of his or her duties, as specified. This bill would require the Hastings College of Law, and each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University that has an Internet Web site, and, in the event that the regents adopt an appropriate resolution, each campus of the University of California that has an Internet Web site, to provide an online posting or notice of systemwide fee or tuition waivers available to students pursuant to the provision described above. The bill would require that the online posting or notice be accessible through a prominent direct link to an application for a waiver of the systemwide fee or tuition, that the direct link appear on the primary Web page of the financial aid section of the campus Web site, and that the direct link be accompanied by a description of eligibility requirements for the waiver of the systemwide fee or tuition, as specified. To the extent that this bill would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.