AB 1871 authorizes community college districts to enter College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) partnerships specifically aimed at pupils who are underrepresented in higher education or not already college bound, and it prescribes what those partnership agreements must contain. The bill defines covered high school settings, enumerates underrepresented groups, requires partnership agreements to specify projected full‑time equivalent (FTE) students and course lists, and mandates a single parental consent and principal recommendation for a pupil’s duration in a partnership.
Beyond access, the bill builds accountability: partners must file agreements with the community college chancellor and the department, certify instructor criminal‑background and non‑displacement conditions, align career technical education (CTE) pathways with workforce input, and submit annual, disaggregated data on participation and FTE generation. For K‑12 and community college administrators, AB 1871 creates concrete operational, reporting, and labor‑relation obligations tied to dual‑enrollment expansion.
At a Glance
What It Does
Permits community college districts to form CCAP dual‑enrollment partnerships targeted to underrepresented or non‑college‑bound pupils and requires written CCAP partnership agreements that set course scope, projected FTE, one parental consent and one special‑part‑time application, employer‑of‑record designations, and annual reporting. It also limits the types of courses offered and requires certifications to prevent instructor displacement and certain criminal convictions.
Who It Affects
Community college districts, K‑12 school districts (including continuation, juvenile court, and adult high‑school programs), county offices of education, charter schools, participating pupils (especially low‑income and foster youth), and the Chancellor’s Office which receives filings and enforces compliance.
Why It Matters
The bill expands dual‑enrollment access toward equity goals while creating a standardized compliance framework that governs apportionments, enrollment priority, unit caps for special part‑time students, and annual, site‑level reporting—shifting administrative effort and fiscal accounting between K‑12 and community colleges.
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What This Bill Actually Does
AB 1871 refocuses CCAP dual‑enrollment toward pupils who are underrepresented in higher education or not already headed to college. It clarifies that “high school” includes community schools, continuation schools, juvenile court schools, and adult education programs offering high‑school diplomas or equivalency.
The bill lists groups that may be considered underrepresented—first‑time college students, low‑income pupils, current or former foster youth, homeless pupils, pupils with disabilities, and pupils with dependent children—so districts can target outreach and program design.
Any CCAP partnership must be memorialized in a board‑approved agreement. That agreement must specify the total high‑school headcount and projected FTE the community college will claim, list the community college courses to be offered (with time, location, scope), identify criteria for who can benefit, and name a point of contact.
To reduce repetitive paperwork, the agreement must allow a pupil to submit a single parental consent form and a single principal recommendation for the entire period of participation, and the community college must permit a one‑time special part‑time application for the pupil’s duration in the partnership. Partners must file the agreement with the Chancellor’s Office and the department; the chancellor can void agreements that do not meet the section’s intent.The bill restricts course types and enrollment mechanics to protect missions and access.
Community colleges may not offer physical education or other courses that do not advance CCAP goals. A community college may limit a course offered on a high‑school campus to eligible high‑school pupils during the regular schoolday and be credited FTE for those pupils.
A special part‑time student in a CCAP partnership may enroll up to 15 units per term (no more than four community college courses per term) only when the units belong to the CCAP academic program and the program is designed to award both a high‑school diploma and an associate degree or certificate. The bill exempts participating pupils from several community college fees and requires enrollment priority for CCAP participants equivalent to middle college high school pupils; units completed through CCAP can count toward future registration priority.To address labor and safety concerns, each agreement must certify that community college instructors teaching on a high‑school campus have no disqualifying sex‑offense or controlled‑substance convictions and that community college instructors or qualified high‑school teachers have not displaced existing teachers or college faculty.
Partnerships must also comply with local collective bargaining and federal teacher reporting rules, designate the employer of record for assignment monitoring, and assign responsibility for federal teacher quality reporting. For remediation, pretransfer courses taught by community college faculty on high‑school campuses must be targeted interventions for juniors or seniors who fail interim grade‑10 or 11 assessments and must be delivered collaboratively with high‑school faculty.Finally, the statute sets detailed reporting and fiscal rules.
Partners must annually report schoolsite‑level enrollments, course counts and completions, completion of 12+ units by graduation or credential attainment, successful course‑completion rates by delivery mode, and FTE totals (including online). The chancellor aggregates those data and must report to the Legislature, Director of Finance, and the Superintendent by May 1 each year.
Violations trigger the same penalties available under the referenced education code section, and preexisting partnerships from before 2016 must comply before operating as CCAP agreements under this section.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The CCAP agreement must allow a pupil to submit one parental consent form and one principal recommendation for the entire duration of participation.
A community college may restrict a course offered on a high‑school campus to eligible high‑school pupils during the regular schoolday and be credited FTE for those pupils for apportionment purposes.
Special part‑time students in a CCAP partnership may enroll up to 15 units per term (maximum of four community college courses) only when those units are part of a CCAP program designed to award both a high‑school diploma and an associate degree or certificate.
Partnership agreements must certify that community college instructors teaching at high‑school campuses have no convictions as defined in Sections 87010 or 87011 and must certify that the CCAP has not displaced existing K‑12 teachers or community college faculty.
Partners must file annual, schoolsite‑level reports (enrollment by gender/ethnicity, course categories, successful completions, online vs in‑person FTE) with the Chancellor’s Office, which aggregates and forwards the data to the Legislature, Director of Finance, and Superintendent by May 1.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Purpose, covered school types, and who is ‘underrepresented'
This opening subsection expands CCAP’s mission to target pupils who are not college bound or who are underrepresented in higher education and explicitly lists settings (community schools, continuation, juvenile court, adult education) that count as high school. By naming categories of underrepresented pupils, the bill signals allowable targeting and eligibility considerations for outreach and program design without creating an exhaustive definition.
Board approval, public hearing, and workforce consultation for CTE
Partners must approve CCAP agreements at an open public meeting and, for CTE pathways, consult the local workforce development board to assess alignment with regional labor needs. The governing boards retain final decision‑making authority over which CTE pathways to offer, preserving local control while injecting workforce input into program choices.
Mandatory agreement contents, single consent/application, and filing
Agreements must specify projected student headcount and FTE the college will claim, list courses with time/location, set standards for pupil readiness, establish information‑sharing protocols compliant with privacy law, and name points of contact. Critically, the agreement limits paperwork by allowing one parental consent and one principal recommendation for a pupil’s participation and requires a single special‑part‑time application for the pupil’s duration. Each agreement must be filed with the Chancellor’s Office and the department; the chancellor may void noncompliant agreements.
Course restrictions, fees, and enrollment priority/FTE credit
The bill bans offering physical education or any course that does not serve the CCAP goals and forbids charging fees that Section 49011 prohibits. It grants CCAP pupils enrollment priority equivalent to middle college high school pupils, allows CCAP units to count toward future registration priority, and clarifies that when a community college runs a closed course at a high‑school campus during the schoolday, the college will be credited with the FTE generated by eligible high‑school pupils.
Instructor vetting, non‑displacement certifications, and labor/reporting designations
Agreements must certify that any community college instructor on a high‑school campus has no disqualifying sex‑offense or controlled‑substance convictions. They must also certify that community college faculty or qualified high‑school teachers teaching for college credit have not displaced existing teachers or college faculty. The agreement must show compliance with collective bargaining and federal reporting requirements, designate the employer of record for assignment monitoring, and identify which partner handles federal teacher‑quality reporting—creating clear operational lines for labor and compliance.
Pretransfer intervention courses and closed‑course authority
Pretransfer‑level courses taught by community college faculty on high‑school campuses are limited to juniors or seniors who fail interim grade‑10 or 11 math or English assessments and must be co‑delivered as an intervention. The community college may run a closed course on a high‑school campus limited to eligible pupils, allowing focused remediation while preserving the college’s ability to claim apportionment for those pupils.
Unit caps, fee exemptions, charter rules, and apportionment safeguards
Special part‑time CCAP students may enroll up to 15 units per term (no more than four college courses) provided those units are part of the CCAP academic program and the program leads to a diploma plus an associate degree or certificate. Participating pupils are exempted from several community college fees. The statute prevents double counting of instructional apportionments between partners and authorizes community college credit/reimbursement for attendance so long as no K‑12 entity was reimbursed for the same activity. For charter schools, the bill requires at least 80% of CCAP instructional time to be on site and mandates specific attendance minimums for special part‑time students.
Annual reporting, chancellor aggregation, penalties, and preservation of older partnerships
Partners must report annually detailed, site‑level data (enrollment by demographic group, courses, completions, FTE totals online and in‑person) to the Chancellor’s Office; the chancellor aggregates and reports to the Legislature, Director of Finance, and Superintendent by May 1. Violations expose a community college district to penalties referenced elsewhere in the code, and the bill preserves pre‑2016 partnerships only if they comply with the new rules. The statute explicitly allows charter schools to enter CCAP agreements subject to the same requirements.
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Explore Education in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Low‑income and other underrepresented high‑school pupils: Gains earlier access to college coursework, CTE credentials, and prioritised seats—improving pathways to postsecondary credentialing and career readiness.
- High schools serving nontraditional populations (continuation, juvenile court, adult ed): Obtain formalized college partnerships and a single‑consent process that reduces administrative friction for students.
- Regional employers and workforce boards: See stronger alignment of CTE pathways to regional labor needs due to required workforce consultation when designing pathways.
- Community colleges seeking pipeline students: Can build structured, campus‑connected feeder programs and potentially generate FTE from high‑school campus instruction while bringing in students better prepared for college.
Who Bears the Cost
- Community college districts: Must absorb administrative work to craft compliant agreements, track projected versus actual FTE, file annual schoolsite reports, monitor instructor vetting, and defend against chancellor enforcement actions.
- K‑12 districts and county offices: Need to coordinate assessments, consent processes, employer‑of‑record arrangements, and ensure local collective bargaining compliance—plus possible scheduling changes to accommodate in‑school college courses.
- Chancellor’s Office and state agencies: Face increased oversight and aggregation duties and must make judgment calls on voiding agreements without prescriptive review standards.
- Existing community college faculty and K‑12 teachers: May gain protections from displacement clauses but also see restrictions on hiring flexibility and adjunct deployment where CCAP courses are available.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances two legitimate goals—broadening CCAP access for underrepresented pupils and protecting community college mission, adult learner access, and incumbent teachers—but every mechanism that widens CCAP participation (closed high‑school courses, preferential enrollment, FTE credit) risks reducing campus course availability or administrative capacity; enforcing non‑displacement and accurate apportionment without creating heavy compliance roadblocks is the central dilemma.
AB 1871 tries to thread a needle between expanding dual‑enrollment for underrepresented pupils and protecting existing college and K‑12 instructional capacity, but the operational details leave several practical questions. Non‑displacement certifications require partners to attest that instructors have not displaced others, yet the statute provides little detail on the evidentiary standard, dispute resolution, or remedies—creating potential labor conflicts and litigation risk if a teacher or faculty member claims displacement.
Similarly, the chancellor’s power to void agreements for failing to meet the section’s intent centralizes enforcement without elaborating specific triggers or a remediation process, which could create uneven outcomes across regions.
The apportionment and FTE mechanics aim to avoid double funding by barring partners from claiming reimbursement for the same instructional activity, while crediting community colleges with FTE for closed courses on high‑school campuses. That balance depends on precise attendance and reporting data; the required site‑level, disaggregated reporting reduces opacity but increases administrative burden and the chance of inconsistent accounting.
The one‑time parental consent and single application reduce friction for students but raise recordkeeping and privacy‑compliance demands—particularly where aggregated demographic reporting and cross‑agency filings are required. Finally, the statute contains a dated deadline reference (a July 31, 2020 revision) that appears to be legacy language and could produce confusion during implementation if not clarified.
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