SB619 - Public postsecondary education.

Senate Bill No. 619 CHAPTER 74 An act to amend Sections 48800, 66721.7, 66739.5, 66746, 79420, and 79500 of, and to amend the heading of Article 8 (commencing with Section 79420) of Chapter 9 of Part 48 of Division 7 of Title 3 of, the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education. [ Approved by Governor July 28, 2025. Filed with Secretary of State July 28, 2025. ] LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 619, Committee on Education. Public postsecondary education. (1) A part of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, requires a student who earns an associate degree for transfer to be deemed eligible for transfer into a California State University baccalaureate program when the student meets certain requirements, including the completion of specified number of units that are eligible for transfer to the California State University, including the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or the California State University General Education-Breadth Requirements. Existing law requires the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges to establish a singular lower division general education pathway that meets the academic requirements necessary for transfer admission to both the California State University and the University of California. Existing law, commencing with the fall term of the 2025–26 academic year, requires that singular lower division general education pathway to be the only lower division general education pathway used to determine academic eligibility and sufficient academic preparation for transfer into the California State University and the University of California, as specified. Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California act, by resolution, to make them applicable. This bill would require, for purposes of the above-described eligibility requirement for transfer to a California State University baccalaureate program, a student to complete the California General Education Transfer Curriculum, established pursuant to the above requirements, commencing in the fall term of the 2025–26 academic year, instead of the IGETC or the California State University General Education-Breadth Requirements. The bill would deem a student who is placed on the IGETC or the California State University General Education-Breadth Requirements before the fall term of the 2025–26 academic year and completes the pattern with appropriate certification to have met that requirement. The bill would also make conforming changes by replacing references to the IGETC or the California State University General Education-Breadth Requirements with a reference to the California General Education Transfer Curriculum. (2) Existing law requires funds appropriated to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for the Foster Care Education Program to be used for foster parent and relative/kinship care provider education, as specified. This bill would rename the program the Foster and Kinship Care Education Program and would instead require funds appropriated for the program to be used for education for resource families, as defined. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 48800 of the Education Code is amended to read: 48800. (a) The governing board of a school district may determine which pupils would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work. The intent of this section is to provide educational enrichment opportunities for a limited number of eligible pupils, rather than to reduce current course requirements of elementary and secondary schools, and also to help ensure a smoother transition from high school to college for pupils by providing them with greater exposure to the collegiate atmosphere. The governing board of a school district may authorize those pupils, upon recommendation of the principal of the pupil’s school of attendance, and with parental consent, to attend a community college during any session or term as special part-time or full-time students and to undertake one or more courses of instruction offered at the community college level. (b) If the governing board of a school district denies a request for a special part-time or full-time enrollment at a community college for any session or term for a pupil who is identified as highly gifted, the governing board shall issue its written recommendation and the reasons for the denial within 60 days. The written recommendation and denial shall be issued at the next regularly scheduled board meeting that falls at least 30 days after the request has been submitted. (c) A pupil shall receive credit for community college courses that the pupil completes at the level determined appropriate by the governing boards of the school district and community college district. Using available funding apportioned to the community college district pursuant to Section 84750.4, the governing board of the community college district shall report the pupil’s completed courses and grades received through eTranscript California, also referred to as “eTranscriptCA,” for purposes of enabling the uniform integration of the pupil’s completed courses and grades received into the pupil’s universal and electronic high school transcript that is housed on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform. (d) (1) The principal of a school may recommend a pupil for community college summer session only if that pupil meets both of the following criteria: (A) Demonstrates adequate preparation in the discipline to be studied. (B) Exhausts all opportunities to enroll in an equivalent course, if any, at the pupil’s school of attendance. (2) For any particular grade level, a principal shall not recommend for community college summer session attendance more than 5 percent of the total number of pupils who completed that grade immediately before the time of recommendation. (3) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), a high school pupil recommended by the pupil’s principal for enrollment in a course shall not be included in the 5-percent limitation of pupils allowed to be recommended pursuant to paragraph (2) if the course in which the pupil is enrolled is part of a College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) program established pursuant to Section 76004 in which a majority of the pupils served are unduplicated pupils, as defined in Section 42238.02, the course meets one of the criteria listed in clauses (i) and (ii), and the high school principal who recommends the pupil for enrollment provides the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, upon the request of that office, with the data required for purposes of paragraph (5). (i) The course is a lower division, college-level course for credit that is designated as part of the California General Education Transfer Curriculum. (ii) The course is a college-level, occupational course for credit assigned a priority code of “A,” “B,” or “C,” pursuant to the Student Accountability Model, as defined by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and reported in the management information system, and the course is part of a sequence of vocational or career technical education courses leading to a degree or certificate in the subject area covered by the sequence. (B) The 5-percent limitation of pupils allowed to be recommended pursuant to paragraph (2) shall apply to all physical education courses. (4) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), a high school pupil recommended by the pupil’s principal for enrollment in a course shall not be included in the 5-percent limitation of pupils allowed to be recommended pursuant to paragraph (2) if the course in which the pupil is enrolled is either of the following: (i) A lower division, college-level course for credit that is designated as part of the California General Education Transfer Curriculum. (ii) A college-level, occupational course for credit assigned a priority code of “A,” “B,” or “C,” pursuant to the Student Accountability Model, as defined by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and reported in the management information system, and the course is part of a sequence of vocational or career technical education courses leading to a degree or certificate in the subject area covered by the sequence. (B) The 5-percent limitation of pupils allowed to be recommended pursuant to paragraph (2) shall apply to all physical education courses. (5) On or before March 1 of each year, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall report to the Department of Finance the number of pupils recommended pursuant to paragraphs (3) and (4) who enroll in community college summer session courses and who receive a passing grade. The information in this report may be submitted with the report required by subdivision (c) of Section 76002. (6) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges shall not include enrollment growth attributable to paragraphs (3) and (4) as part of its annual budget request for the California Community Colleges. (7) Notwithstanding Article 3 (commencing with Section 33050) of Chapter 1 of Part 20 of Division 2, compliance with this subdivision shall not be waived. SEC. 2. Section 66721.7 of the Education Code is amended to read: 66721.7. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that community college students who wish to earn the baccalaureate degree at the University of California are provided with clear and effective directions that specify curricular paths to this degree. (b) This section shall not limit in any way the ability of students to gain admission through alternative paths to transfer, such as the California General Education Transfer Curriculum. (c) The University of California is requested to address deficiencies in the articulation of major preparation courses between the California Community Colleges and the various UC campuses to make it easier for prospective transfer students to identify the community college courses that meet major preparation requirements across the various campuses of the university. (d) The University of California is requested to identify commonalities and differences in similar majors across all UC campuses in order to accomplish all of the following: (1) To provide students with general descriptions of each major. (2) To identify lower division degree requirements that are common across UC campuses. (3) To identify additional academic requirements at each UC campus. (4) To describe additional criteria that students must achieve to be admitted at the various UC campuses. (e) (1) When four or more UC campuses that award undergraduate degrees have articulated specific courses and course sequences of the California Community Colleges for common requirements in similar majors, the remaining UC campuses that offer undergraduate degrees are requested to also articulate these specific community college courses and course sequences. The Legislature recognizes that UC may adopt provisions allowing individual UC campuses to opt out of this articulation process on a case-by-case basis, but these provisions should be infrequently used. The Academic Senate of the University of California is requested to notify the California Community Colleges when an articulation request is denied, and to provide information that will enable the California Community Colleges to achieve course comparability with UC. (2) For at least the 20 most high-demand undergraduate majors, and with the ultimate goal of including all majors for which it is feasible, UC is requested to specify lower division transfer paths clearly identifying commonalities and differences, on a comparative basis across UC campuses offering specific major programs. The Academic Senate of the University of California is requested to review the existing differences in lower division major preparation in each major across UC campuses, recognizing that one goal of these requirements should be to achieve similarity to the greatest degree that is academically appropriate. (3) The University of California is requested to include all of the following in the systemwide lower division transfer paths for the high-demand baccalaureate major degree programs: (A) Lower division general education requirements for the university. (B) Lower division major preparation requirements that are common across undergraduate campuses. (C) Additional lower division degree requirements that are unique to an individual campus. (D) Elective units, as appropriate. (E) Additional criteria, such as grade point averages and minimum grades, to ensure that students are competitive in selective majors. (4) The systemwide lower division transfer paths shall be specified in sufficient manner and detail so that existing and future community college lower division courses may be articulated, according to the usual procedures, to the corresponding UC courses or course descriptions. (f) (1) The University of California is requested to, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall, in consultation with the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, on or before January 1, 2008, facilitate the articulation of those lower division, baccalaureate-level courses at each campus of the California Community Colleges that meet the lower division transfer path requirements for each major specified by UC in paragraph (1) of subdivision (e). (2) The University of California is requested to annually review, and update as appropriate, the lower division transfer paths and articulation to ensure that they reflect current UC campus degree requirements and community college curricula, and share the results of that review with the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. (g) As allowed by enrollment demand and available space, UC is requested to develop transfer admission agreement programs for students at each campus of the California Community Colleges who demonstrate the intent to meet the requirements of this section, including the declaration of a major and identification of a choice of a destination campus. The transfer admission agreement shall guarantee admission to the campus and major identified in the agreement and transfer of all units specified in the agreement, subject to the student’s successful completion of the requirements of the agreement. It is the intent of the Legislature that the transfer admission agreements entered into under this section be made available to students early in their academic coursework. However, this section shall not preclude or limit the development or issuance of transfer admission agreements for students at any appropriate time up to the point o [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]