The Protecting Students from Creditor Colleges Act (AB 1160) aims to protect students from the educational barriers and economic harms associated with institutional debt owed to institutions and extend consumer protections

To protect students in California from the economic harms caused by institutional debt we need to pass AB 1160. The Protecting Students from Creditor Colleges Act will extend critical consumer protections and address the state’s ballooning institutional debt crisis by: 

• Establishing a one-term grace period for students with institutional debt to allow them to register or re-enroll in their coursework. This will allow students the chance to make critical progress towards their degree while giving them the opportunity to get back on track and pay off their institutional debt.

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• Prohibiting institutions of higher education from withholding a degree that has been earned by a student simply because the student owes an institutional debt.

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• Establishing important guardrails on the use of third-party debt collection and protect students from tax return and benefit garnishment.

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• Providing much-needed transparency on the growth and impact of institutional debt by requiring consistent data collection and reporting.