Students enrolled at community college campuses or at a California State University are exempt from paying nonresident tuition or any other fee exclusively applicable to nonresident students if the student resides in California, meets the definition of “covered individual under federal law or receives education benefits under a GI Bill. Federal law required the expiration of a student’s classification as a “covered individual” to expire after receiving benefits for a period of three years. However, the expiration of the three-year period did not impact the student’s classification at a campus so long as the student continued to take course. On January 5, 2021, federal law was enacting eliminating the three-year period expiration requirement. To conform to federal law, SB 701 removes the language related to the expiration of the three-year period.
The law was also revise to exempt exempts qualifying students from paying nonresident tuition fees for the academic term beginning on or after August 1, 2021.
The bill eliminates the requirement in Section 89705 of the Education Code that a nonresident student has to be a noncitizen of the United States to qualify for a waiver, reduction, or fixed rate of the tuition fee applicable to a nonresident student.
This bill also amends section 89707 of the Education Code by reducing the course load that a nonresident student or nonresident graduate student must be enrolled in to qualify for a reduced fee at a California State University.
(SB 701 amends Sections 68075.7, 89705, 89706, and 89707 of the Education Code.)
