Bill Text: CA AB492 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 492 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Community colleges: nursing faculty.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2009-07-15 - In committee: Set first hearing. Failed passage. Reconsideration granted. [AB492 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB492-Amended.html

BILL NUMBER: AB 492	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 7, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Conway

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2009

   An act to amend Section 87482 of the Education Code, relating to
community colleges.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 492, as amended, Conway. Community colleges: nursing faculty.

   (1) Existing 
    Existing  law establishes the California Community
Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the
California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public
postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes
community college districts, administered by a governing board,
throughout the state, and authorizes these districts to provide
instruction to students at the community college campuses maintained
by the districts.
   Existing law  , under specified circumstances, 
authorizes the governing board of a district to employ  a
person serving as full-time faculty or part-time faculty but
  any qualified individual as a temporary faculty member
for a complete school year but not less than a complete semester or
quarter during a school year. Existing law  prohibits employment
of a person as a temporary faculty member by any one district for
more than 2 semesters or 3 quarters, except that a person serving as
full-time or part-time clinical nursing faculty may be employed as a
temporary faculty member for up to 4 semesters or 6 quarters within
any period of 3 consecutive years between July 1, 2007, and June 30,
2014. Existing law prohibits a district from employing a person
pursuant to that nursing faculty exception if the hiring of that
person results in an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time
nursing faculty in that district.
   This bill would revise that exception to authorize the employment
of a clinical nursing faculty member as a temporary faculty member
for up to the total number of semesters or quarters within any period
of 3 consecutive academic years  between July 1, 2007, and June
30, 2014  . The bill would also delete that hiring limitation
that prevents an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time
nursing faculty in a district.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) The majority of available nursing program slots are at the
community college level for an associate degree.
   (b) California Community Colleges graduated almost two-thirds of
nursing students in the 2005-06 school year.
   (c) According to a 2007 California Board of Registered Nursing
(BRN) study, California nursing programs received 28,410 eligible
applications for only 11,000 first-year slots for the 2005-06 school
year. Therefore, there was a capacity to accommodate less than 40
percent of the applications received.
   (d) According to the BRN study, the nursing faculty vacancy rate
is growing statewide.
   (e) California has an aging population and the demand for
registered nurses is expected to increase.
   (f) Fifty-three percent of registered nurses provide direct care
to patients, 18 percent serve as supervisors or managers of health
care personnel, and 29 percent work in fields such as education,
research, and consulting.
   (g) Fifty-five percent of the state's registered nurses received
their nursing education in this state.
   (h) All California registered nurses must have a license issued by
the BRN, in addition to graduating from an approved nursing program
and passing the national licensing examination.
  SEC. 2.  Section 87482 of the Education Code is amended to read:
   87482.  (a) (1) Notwithstanding Section 87480, the governing board
of a community college district may employ any qualified individual
as a temporary faculty member for a complete school year but not less
than a complete semester or quarter during a school year. The
employment of those persons shall be based upon the need for
additional faculty during a particular semester or quarter because of
the higher enrollment of students during that semester or quarter as
compared to the other semester or quarter in the academic year, or
because a faculty member has been granted leave for a semester,
quarter, or year, or is experiencing long-term illness, and shall be
limited, in number of persons so employed, to that need, as
determined by the governing board.
   (2) Employment of a person under this subdivision may be pursuant
to contract fixing a salary for the entire semester or quarter.
   (b) A person, other than a person serving as clinical nursing
faculty and exempted from this subdivision pursuant to paragraph (1)
of subdivision (c), shall not be employed by any one district under
this section for more than two semesters or three quarters within any
period of three consecutive years.
   (c) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), a person serving as
full-time clinical nursing faculty or as part-time clinical nursing
faculty teaching 60 percent or more of the hours per week considered
a full-time assignment for regular employees may be employed by any
one district under this section for up to the total number of
semesters or quarters within any period of three consecutive academic
years  between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2014, inclusive 
.
   (2) A district that employs faculty pursuant to this subdivision
shall provide data to the chancellor's office as to the number of
faculty members were hired under this subdivision, and what the ratio
of full-time to part-time faculty was for each of the three academic
years prior to the hiring of faculty under this subdivision and for
each academic year for which faculty is hired under this subdivision.
This data shall be submitted, in writing, to the chancellor's office
on or before June 30, 2012.
   (3) The chancellor shall report, in writing, to the Legislature
and the Governor on or before September 30, 2012, in accordance with
data received pursuant to paragraph (2), the number of districts that
hired faculty under this subdivision, the number of faculty members
hired under this subdivision, and the ratio of full-time to part-time
faculty  was  for these districts in each of the
three academic years prior to the operation of this subdivision and
for each academic year for which faculty is hired under this
subdivision.