Reference: Board Policy 5055 Enrollment Priorities; Administrative Procedure 5055 Enrollment Priorities

 

The Ventura County Community College District assigns enrollment priority to all new, continuing, and returning students in accordance with the California Education Code and Title 5 Administrative Code. Enrollment priority is also known as registration priority.

New for-credit students receive enrollment priority after completing orientation, placement and a student educational plan. This may be accomplished in different ways including, but not limited to, completing the online orientation or attending an in-person session; placement through multiple measures including but not limited to evaluation of other college coursework, high school courses and grades, and informed self-placement which result in course placement recommendations for Math, English, and English as a Second Language; completing a one or two-semester “abbreviated” educational plan, or developing a comprehensive educational plan that is approved by an academic counselor.

• Exemption from a service: New students have the right to request an exemption from orientation, placement, and educational planning activities based on criteria identified below; students who claim exemption will not be eligible for enrollment priority. The exemption criteria are as follows:
  • Student has earned an Associate or higher degree.
  • Student is enrolling solely to take a course that is legally mandated for employment or necessary in response to a significant change in industry or licensure standards.

Continuing for-credit students receive enrollment priority based on the number of completed and in-progress degree-applicable units taken at any of the colleges in this district providing they have not been placed on academic or progress notice or more serious academic sanction for two consecutive terms. Transfer units are not used to calculate enrollment priority.

Limitations

• Continuing students who have earned more than 90 units will lose enrollment priority and will register during open registration unless they successfully petition for a waiver that reinstates them to the previous enrollment priority. The petition for reinstatement of enrollment priority is initiated through a counseling appointment.
• Students may petition for reinstatement of registration priority if they are enrolled in a high-unit major or program of study, high-unit transfer major; or are registering for their last semester at a college within the VCCCD.
• Continuing students who are placed on academic or progress notice or more serious academic sanction for two consecutive terms will lose enrollment priority and will register during open registration. Students who lose their priority may appeal if they have verifiable extenuating circumstances as defined below; an approved appeal will result in the reinstatement of enrollment priority. The petition to appeal loss of enrollment priority is initiated through a counseling appointment.
• Extenuating circumstances are defined as verifiable cases of accident, illness or other circumstances beyond the student’s control. Appeals must be supported by verifiable documentation of circumstances.

Returning for-credit students who have not attended in at least one year, who have completed fewer than 90 units, are in good academic standing in the Ventura County Community College District, and have completed orientation, placement, and an educational plan will have registration priority over returning students who do not meet these criteria.

Non-credit only students register during the same period as continuing for-credit students but are restricted to enrolling in non-credit courses only.  If a non-credit only student seeks to enroll in for-credit courses, that student would be subject to the requirements and enrollment priority as a new for-credit student. 

Special Admission Dual Enrollment students register behind other groups as designated by California Education Code, Section 76001(e)(1). Where the District has an MOU with specific high schools that designate them as partners in a “middle college high school” agreement, the students from those high schools will be afforded priority (see tier 7 below).

ASSIGNMENT OF ENROLLMENT PRIORITIES IN THE VENTURA COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Pursuant to Title 5 Sections 58106, 58108; Education Code Section 66025.8 et. seq. within the Ventura County Community College District, priority registration appointments are assigned based on the following criteria and in the following order:

1) Priority as defined by statute for:

• CalWORKS students
• EOPS students
• DSPS students
• Foster youth and former foster youth
• Homeless students and homeless youth
• Military Veterans and active duty personnel
• Rising Scholars
• Student Parent

Note: All continuing and returning students in the above groups must be in good academic standing; all new students in the above groups must have completed orientation, placement, and an educational plan.

*Foster Youth students are exempt from the unit and academic standards requirement.

2) Student athletes beyond their first semester as verified by a designated athletics counselor, students currently participating in a First Year Experience cohort, students currently participating in the Federal TRIO programs, and Associated Students elected and appointed officers from each college as verified by the Associated Students' advisor. All continuing students must be in good academic standing; students new to the college must have completed orientation, placement, and an educational plan.

3) Continuing students with 76-90 units* who are in good academic standing.

4) Continuing students with 45-75 units* who are in good academic standing.

5) Continuing students with 30-44 units* who are in good academic standing.

6) Continuing students with 15-29 units* who are in good academic standing.

7) Continuing students with 1-14 units* who are in good academic standing and Middle College Dual Enrollment students.

8)     a) New students who have completed orientation, assessment, and an educational plan

b) Returning students who have not attended in at least one year, who have completed fewer than 90.5 units, are in good academic standing in the Ventura County Community College District, and have completed orientation, placement, and an educational plan.

9) Open registration for all students (excluding Special Admission Dual Enrollment students), including:

• All students that have been placed on academic or progress notice or more serious academic sanction for two consecutive terms unless they successfully appeal for reinstatement of enrollment priority based on verifiable extenuating circumstances.
• New and returning students who choose to be exempt from participating in orientation, placement, and/or the development of a student educational plan (see Exemption information above).
• Continuing and returning students with more than 90 units unless they successfully petition for reinstatement of enrollment priorities.

10) Other Special Admission Dual Enrollment students not participating with an established Middle College.

Criteria for Assignment of Enrollment Priorities
In addition to the Title 5 and Education code sections cited above, the district defines the following criteria for constituent groups seeking inclusion in enrollment priority for tier 2 through 10 above:

• Eligibility for inclusion in the proposed priority group is voluntary based on the clear choice of the student, where tier 1 enrollment priority is reserved for groups of students mandated by statute.
• Membership in the proposed priority group must be officially recorded for recognition when enrollment dates are assigned prior to the next registration cycle.
• Clear objective rationale is offered in writing to district’s participatory governance decision making process wherein consensus among the colleges is achieved. Representatives of constituent groups may be invited to present the written proposal but will not be present for workgroup dialog or consensus decision making.

The written rationale must include the following:   

• Why do group members need priority registration? What impact would there be if priority registration is not approved for this group? Have group members been unable to register for required courses?
• How many students are in this group?
• What percent of students in this group are taking advantage of any current priority registration?
• How is the proposed group (or its students) identified in the college's Student Equity Plan? How are students in this group disproportionally impacted?

Definitions

Student Parent: A student who has a child or children under 18 years of age who will receive more than half of their support from that student.

New For-Credit Student: Matriculated as First-Time Freshman or First-Time Transfer.

Continuing For-Credit Student: A student who has been enrolled in one or more of the two previous primary semesters.

Returning For-Credit Student: A student who has been previously enrolled at any of the colleges in the District, but has not been enrolled for either of the previous two primary semesters.

Non-Credit Only Student: A student enrolling in only non-credit courses. 

Special Admission Student: "Dual Enrollment" or a concurrently enrolled minor attending public, private, or home school who is also taking classes offered by a college in the District.

Foster Youth and Former Foster Youth: Persons whose dependency was established or continued by the court on or after the youth's 16th birthday and who are no older than 25 years of age at the commencement of the academic year.

Homeless Youth: A student under 25 years of age, who has been verified at any time during the 24 months immediately preceding the receipt of his or her application for admission by at least one of the following as a homeless child or youth:

1. A homeless services provider, as defined in the Health and Safety Code, section 103577(b)(3).
2. The director of a federal TRIO program or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs program, or a designee of that director. 
3. A financial aid administrator for an institution of higher education.

Once homeless youth status is verified, it will remain in place as long as the student attends in the District, even with breaks in enrollment, until the student reaches the age of 25. 

Abbreviated Educational Plan: A plan that identifies the courses a new student will take in their first one or two semesters. An abbreviated educational plan may be developed by a student with or without the help of an academic counselor, and is not approved by a counselor. Abbreviated educational plans are required for all new non-exempt students; however, a comprehensive educational plan will also satisfy this requirement.

Comprehensive (Active) Educational Plan: A plan that identifies the courses a student must take to complete their informed program of study and reach their educational goals. The comprehensive educational plan is generally at least two semesters long, and ideally will be long enough to identify everything a student must do to achieve their educational goal.

Good Academic Standing: Defined solely for purposes of assigning enrollment priority as a student who has not been placed on academic or progress notice or more serious academic sanction for two consecutive terms. Students who are on academic/progress notice for two consecutive terms will lose enrollment priority for the next term.

Informed Program of Study: The degree, certificate or transfer program of study that a student declares upon completing 15 units of college coursework. The “informed program of study” is the basis for a student’s comprehensive educational plan.

Primary Semesters: fall and spring.