BILL NUMBER: SB 1105	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Liu

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2014

   An act to amend Section 69433 of the Education Code, relating to
voter registration.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1105, as introduced, Liu. Voter registration: Cal Grant Program
application.
   Under existing law, operative when the Secretary of State
certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database
that complies with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote
Act of 2002 or executes a declaration stating that certain conditions
have occurred, a person who is qualified to register to vote and who
has a valid California driver's license or state identification card
is authorized to submit an affidavit of voter registration
electronically on the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State.
   Existing law establishes various student financial aid programs
under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law
requires the commission to authorize the use of standardized student
financial aid application forms and requires these forms to be used
for the Cal Grant Program and all other programs funded by the state
or a public institution of postsecondary education.
   This bill would require the standardized student financial aid
application, if the application is submitted online, to permit the
applicant to apply to register to vote online by submitting an
affidavit of registration electronically on the Internet Web site of
the Secretary of State.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 69433 of the Education Code is amended to read:

   69433.  (a) (1) A Cal Grant Program award shall be based upon the
financial need of the applicant, and shall not exceed the calculated
financial need for any individual applicant. The minimum level of
financial need of each applicant shall be determined by the
commission pursuant to Section 69432.9. The commission may provide
renewal awards.
   (2) A student attending a nonpublic institution shall receive a
renewal award for tuition or fees, or both, in an amount not to
exceed the maximum allowable award amount that was in effect in the
year in which the student first received a new award.
   (b) A Cal Grant award authorized pursuant to this chapter shall be
defined as a full-time equivalent grant. An award to a part-time
student shall be a fraction of a full-time grant, as determined by
the commission.
   (c) (1) The commission shall prescribe the use of standardized
student financial aid applications for California. These applications
shall be simple in nature, and collect common data elements required
by the federal government and those elements needed to meet the
objectives of state-funded and institutional financial aid programs.
 If an application is submitted online, the application shall
permit the applicant to apply to register to vote online by
submitting an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the
Internet Web site of the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 2196
of the Elections Code. 
   (2) The applications prescribed in paragraph (1) shall be 
utilized   used  for the Cal Grant Program, all
other programs funded by the state or a public institution of
postsecondary education (except for the Financial Assistance Program
of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
authorized by Chapter 1118 of the Statutes of 1987, for which a
simplified application designed for that sole purpose may be used),
and all federal programs administered by a public postsecondary
education institution.
   (3) Supplemental application information may be  utilized
  used  if the information is essential to
accomplishing the objectives of individual programs. All supplemental
application information used for the purposes of
commission-administered programs shall be subject to approval by the
commission, and applications shall be identical for programs with
similar objectives, as determined by the commission.
   (4) Public postsecondary institutions are encouraged to use, but
may decide whether to use, the standard applications for funds
provided by private donors.
   (5) The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best
interest of students that all postsecondary education institutions in
California participating in federal and state-funded financial aid
programs accept the standard applications prescribed by the
commission.
   (d) Nothing in this chapter shall prevent an individual public
postsecondary institution from processing, with its own staff and
fiscal resources, the standard financial aid applications specified
in subdivision (c) for student aid programs for which it has legal
responsibility.
   (e) The commission may enter into contracts with a public agency
or a private entity to improve the processing and distribution of
grants, fellowships, and loans through the use of electronic networks
and unified  data bases   databases  .