Community colleges: Chancellor of the California Community Colleges: data request fee policy.

Senator Laird's legislation authorizes the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to implement fees for researchers requesting access to individually identifiable or student data. The policy would require approval from the Board of Governors, public posting on the chancellor's website, and compliance with federal and state privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Under the measure, fees would apply only to data requests requiring substantial compilation, extraction, or programming work, with charges limited to recovering actual processing costs. The policy includes specific exemptions for most state agencies, undergraduate and graduate students conducting individual studies, and community college faculty pursuing their research. However, the University of California, California State University, and State Department of Education may incur fees when requesting data for research purposes.

The chancellor's office must make the fee structure publicly available and update it periodically to reflect changing costs and requirements. While the legislation establishes the framework for implementing data request fees, it leaves the specific fee amounts and administrative procedures to be determined through the policy development process, subject to Board of Governors oversight.