CCA Fall Bargaining and Leadership Conference

73,000 students under the age of 18 enrolled in CC’s (fall 2005) the number is increasing.

Only 19,083 had graduated from high school

More than 2,500 were under 14 years of age.

Ed Code authorizes colleges to admit minors and permits college to establish criteria for admission based on age, grade, level, and eligibility. However if the college denies admission to a minor who is identified as “highly gifted” the Board must record the reasons for denial within 60 days.

Some of the faculty concerns are:
•    Pedagogy; curriculum
•    Safety
•    Mature topics
•    Student maturity ( critical thinking, analytical ability)
•    Ability to do own work
•    Group work outside of class; Field trips
•    Child Abuse reporting

Some Frequently Asked Questions are:
What is the youngest age that can be admitted to a Community College?
There is no age limit.  Some districts allowed the minimum age as young as 12 for admission. Many others districts establish a different admissions for minors in different age ranges, such as some allowed over 15 years of age, some over 12 years of age, and others under 12 years of age. The Education Code authorizes even elementary age children to enroll in a community college.

How can a Faculty member know that a student is a minor?
At the moment, the majority of the colleges do not inform faculty of the minors in the classroom.  However, as faculty, you are mandated to report any sign of child abuse or suspicion of child abuse (based on the opinion from the System Office CCCCO 2000, which itself was based on a ruling by the Attorney General in 1989, the term “Teacher” used in Penal Code 11165.7. As faculty, you should have access to this information.  Some colleges use a symbol such as -, * or & to identify a minor on the roster.

Even though a college’s admissions policy permits the admission of minors, is an individual instructor obligated to enroll a minor in a specific course?
The Academic Senate supports the right of a faculty member to deny enrollment to an individual student, if the faculty member deems the student unable to benefit from instruction.  However, the right of a faculty member to have final say in enrollment of minors, and students in general, should be made clear in board policy.
When minors are enrolled in a course, does the instructor act “in loco parentis,” i.e. act with the authority and responsibility of the absent parent?
At this time, there is no definitive answer to this question.

Jose Villalobos, Coastline representative, was interested in GASB45.  The Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement 45 (GASB45) was issued to provide more complete, reliable, and decision – useful financial reporting regarding the costs and financial obligations that governments incur when they provide other post-employment benefits (OPEB), not pensions, as part of the compensation for services rendered by the employees. Post-employment health care benefits, the most common form of OPEB, are a very significant financial commitment for many governments.

Prior to GASB 45, governments typically followed a “pay-as–you-go” accounting approach in which the cost of benefits is not reported until after employees retire. However, this approach is not comprehensive–only revealing a limited amount of data and failing to account for costs and obligations incurred as governments receive employee services each year for which they have promised future benefit payments in exchange.

When they implement GASB 45, many governments will report, for the first time, annual OPEB cost and their unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities for past service costs. This will foster improved accountability and a better foundation for informed policy decisions about; for example, the level and types of benefits provided and potential methods of financing those benefits.  It provides to the diverse users of a government’s financial reports, more accurate information about the total cost of the services that the government provides to its constituents.  It also clarifies whether the amount the government has paid or contributed for OPEB during the report years has covered its annual OPEB cost. Generally, the more its annual OPEB cost that a government chooses to defer, the higher will be (a) its unfunded actuarial accrued liability and (b) the cash flow demands on the government and its tax or rate payers in future years.  Further, it results in reporting the estimated cost of the benefits as expense each year during the years that employees are providing services to the government and its constituents

(Note:  GASB is NOT mandatory, but it has become the standard among governmental agencies.)