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POST-SECONDARY SCHOOLS
AB 48 (Chap. 319) amends B&P sections 27, 101, 146, 149, and 473.1; adds Educ. Sections 95000 et seq.
Background: Many students who attend vocational schools often end up with expensive loans they cannot afford to pay, as well as without meaningful training to help them get good jobs. In 1989, a statute was enacted to regulate private post-secondary vocational schools. Over the years, the legislation was scaled back. In 2008, the legislation expired.
The new law: This new law is an effort to regulate post-secondary schools and provide consumer protection by prohibiting a number of bad practices. Under this new law, the California Department of Consumer Affairs is to establish regulations by February 1, 2010 to ensure that the content of educational programs can achieve its stated objective. Among the new statute’s most prominent prohibitions are:
- Promising or guaranteeing employment, or overstating the availability of jobs upon graduation.
- Soliciting students for enrollment by running ads in "help wanted" columns or using "blind" advertising that fails to identify the institution.
- Paying any consideration to a person to induce that person to enroll.
- Making unscheduled suspension of any class.
- Moving the location of class instruction more than 25 miles from the location of instruction at the time of enrollment.
- Reinstitutes the Student Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF) to help students left stranded by schools that shut down.
For more information:
County of Los Angeles Department of Consumer Affairs
B-96 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 W. Temple Street * Los Angeles, CA 90012-2706
Telephone (800) 593-8222 (within the County) * (213) 974-1452
Web site: dca.lacounty.gov