Less than a month ago, Governor Brown of California signed into law an amendment to the existing California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009. This amendment, called California Assembly Bill 2296, could cause ramifications for the for-profit school industry. The bill introduced additions to a document called the “Performance Fact Sheet” created by each school. Under the Act, each school operating in, or owning a branch in, California must provide prospective students with a Performance Fact Sheet prior to enrollment. With the enactment of Bill 2296, institutions are now required to include a Performance Fact Sheet for each program offered on their websites. They are also required to post the school catalog, brochures, and an annual report (that is submitted to the Bureau each year) on their websites. If the schools within California do not follow these new regulations, the state of California could enforce these with lawsuits against the schools.

In addition to requiring these documents on a school websites, the bill also made some changes to what must be included in them. Performance Fact Sheets for each educational program a school offers must list the following information:

• The most recent 3-year cohort default rate for federal student loans
• Percentage of students receiving federal student loans (if the institution participates in that program)
• Graduates who are gainfully employed within 6 months of a specified date within their specific program
• Annual program completion rates
• Job placement rates
• License examination passage rates
• Salary and wage information (all of these previously mentioned rates must be documented and maintained for at least 5 years)
• Descriptions of how the data was obtained and calculated
• Information where prospective students may obtain a list of positions within the field of study for a particular program
• Description of how salary disclosure information was obtained and calculated

Furthermore, if a program is too new to provide data, there is specific language which must be included explaining that variance from other programs with data.

The majority of the points above are encompassed within the Gainful Employment regulations released in July 2011, with the exception of “License Examination Passage Rates.” An example of this would be schools offering a nursing or massage therapy degree. These schools would need to gather the data that displays the rates in which the students passed the tests to receive their licenses. This extra information allows prospective students to gain a better understanding of how the classes will prepare them for the licensing exams.

CUnet has highlighted the Performance Fact Sheet changes to be an important piece of California Assembly Bill 2296, but schools should be aware that the bill also includes other extra additions for schools’ websites and new branding rules. For more information please see our FAQ sheet or visit the bill here.