Provides that if the net balance of the reimbursement account exceeds two million five hundred thousand dollars, any amount over two million five hundred thousand dollars shall be transferred to the proprietary vocational school supervision account.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2235
SPONSOR: Hyndman TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to the transfer of
certain funds from the licensed private career schools tuition
reimbursement account to the proprietary vocational school supervision
account
PURPOSE:
To allow the State Education Department to transfer funds from the
tuition reimbursement account to the proprietary vocational school
supervision account when the balance of the tuition reimbursement
account exceeds $2.5 million.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill adds a new paragraph (i)to subdivision 10 of
section 5007 of the education law to allow the State Education Depart-
ment to transfer funds from the tuition reimbursement account to the
proprietary vocational school supervision upon request by the Commis-
sioner when the balance of the tuition reimbursement account exceeds
$2.5 million.
Section 2 of the bill provides for the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The State Education Department's (SED) Bureau of Proprietary School
Supervision (BPSS) is responsible for licensing and monitoring the
private "proprietary" schools in New York State to ensure that students
receive a quality education and to protect the students' financial
interests. BPSS is also in charge of investigating student complaints
and conducting comprehensive investigations of proprietary schools to
assure compliance with Education Law and SED regulations.
Unfortunately, BPSS has been faced with limited resources making it
difficult for the office to carry out its functions. Currently, there
are nearly 500 licensed proprietary schools in New York and that number
is growing each month. BPSS is facing extremely high caseloads for
educational technical assistance and backlogs in licensure renewals and
investigations of complaints. BPSS has no resources to investigate unli-
censed proprietary schools engaging in unlawful activities.
This legislation would allow SED to transfer funds from the tuition
reimbursement account, which has funding above and beyond what is needed
to ensure student protection, to the proprietary school supervision
account.
Transferring this funding to the proprietary school supervision account
would allow BPSS to work to reduce educational technical assistance
caseloads, reduce backlogs in complaint investigations, improve licen-
sure renewal and other vital services, improve the quality of guidance
provided to the public regarding this sector of higher education, and
improve the fiscal tracking of assessments, penalty payments, and review
of annual financial statements. BPSS would also be able to establish a
more innovative method of curricular review and method of ensuring the
continued educational quality of proprietary schools. Enacting this
legislation would enhance BPSS's ability to fulfill its mission and
would provide tremendous benefit for the students attending proprietary
schools and the proprietary schools themselves.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2235
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 25, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HYNDMAN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the transfer of
certain funds from the licensed private career schools tuition
reimbursement account to the proprietary vocational school supervision
account
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 10 of section 5007 of the education law is
2 amended by adding a new paragraph i to read as follows:
3 i. In the event that the net balance of the tuition reimbursement
4 account is in excess of two million five hundred thousand dollars, as
5 defined in paragraph a of this subdivision, any amount over two million
6 five hundred thousand dollars shall be transferred directly to the
7 proprietary vocational school supervision account upon request by the
8 commissioner.
9 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06031-01-3
