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Materials Fees

Education Code section 76365 allows the college district to require students to provide various types of instructional materials and enables the district to sell such materials to students who wish to purchase the required materials from the district.

The suggested approach for analyzing the application of Education Code section 76365 and Title 5 regulations to the case of instructional materials (§§ 59400- 59408) is to answer, "yes" to all of the following questions.

  1. Required Material? Must the material be procured or possessed as a condition of enrollment or entry into a class, or to achieve those required objectives of a course, which are to be accomplished under the supervision of an instructor during class hours?
  2. Tangible personal property? Is the material the student's tangible personal property?
  3. Owned or controlled by the student? Is the material owned or primarily controlled by an individual student?
  4. Solely available from the district? Is the material only available through the district, or because the district requires that the material be purchased or procured from it? A material will be considered to be solely or exclusively available from the district if it is provided to the student at the district's actual cost, and there are health and safety reasons for the district being the provider, or if the district is providing the material at a lower cost than would be charged by other sources from which the material would be available.
  5. Continuing value outside the classroom setting? Can the material be taken from the classroom setting, and is it not wholly consumed, used up, or rendered valueless as it is applied in achieving those required objectives of a course, which are accomplished under the supervision of an instructor during class hours?

Legal Opinion Student Fees:  California Community College Chancellor's Office 12/21/01  (M 01-40)

If you believe the course requires a materials fee, contact the Course Evaluation Subcommittee Chair or Academic Services Office for clarification and instruction. A separate request memo must accompany the course proposal or course change request. This will be reviewed through the district's course approval process. A sample template is provided in the Faculty Curriculum Reference Booklet or on the Academic Services web site, http://oas.lbcc.edu/curriculum/RefBook/