The Community College Student Access, Retention, and Debt Cancellation Program.

Existing law appropriates $120,000,000 in the 2021–22 fiscal year to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, for allocation by the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, to support efforts to increase student retention rates and enrollment by primarily engaging former community college students who may have withdrawn from a community college due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, current community college students who may be hesitant to remain enrolled at a community college due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and prospective community college students who may be hesitant to enroll at a community college due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing law authorizes a community college to use those funds to provide a fiscal incentive for students to reenroll, or for prospective students to enroll, at the community college. This bill would, contingent upon an appropriation for its purposes, establish the Community College Student Access, Retention, and Debt Cancellation Program for those same purposes, as provided. The bill would additionally authorize community college districts to use funds allocated pursuant to the program to discharge unpaid fees due or owed by a student to a community college in the district and would additionally require the governing board of a community college district to prioritize the use of those funds for community colleges in the district with the largest declines in enrollment due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.