The Overview

If a California high school student in your family is taking college-level classes, a new law drops the principal-recommendation requirement and the four-courses-per-term limit, allowing them to now file only one application for their enrollment as part-time college students. ​

California's Assembly Bill 1871, the Pupil Instruction: Dual Enrollment: College and Career Access Pathways Partnerships bill, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Sept. 27. California students who took dual-enrollment courses were more likely to continue at a community college after high school than students nationally, 41 percent compared with 30 percent, according to EdSource.

What the Law Does

The law changes how the College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) program works, which lets community college districts partner with school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to offer dual-enrollment courses to high schoolers, especially those underrepresented in higher education.

It removes the requirement that partnership protocols include a principal's recommendation, eliminates the limit of four community college courses per term for special part-time students enrolling in up to 15 units, and requires partnership agreements to set protocols that authorize one application covering a pupil's entire time as a special part-time student.

Annual reporting to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office also changes: districts must now report how many students completed 12 or more units of college coursework by graduation, earned a certificate, or finished the courses needed for an associate degree.

Legislative Status

Asm. Mike Fong (D) sponsored the bill, with coauthors Asm. Jeff Gonzalez (R), Asm. Heather Hadwick (R), and Asm. Al Muratsuchi (D).

A 10-0 vote on March 17 approved the bill and sent it back to the Education committee, a 9-0 vote on March 25 sent it to the Appropriations committee, a 15-0 vote on May 14 passed it outright, and the full Assembly approved it 74-0 on May 21. The Senate Education Committee passed it 7-0 on June 17.

HOPE, the bill's sponsor, said the law "removes barriers to dual enrollment and gives students greater flexibility to earn college credit while in high school," according to 2UrbanGirls.

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