More than half of the state's 72 community college districts violated state law when they received public money for courses offered to high school students, a three-month investigation by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office has found.
The 35-page report, released publicly Tuesday, identifies up to $8.3 million that the state could recover from districts that mismanaged the popular "concurrent enrollment" program.

It was unclear when or how much of the $8 million the state would recover. That figure falls short of the $36 million that the report estimates may have been distributed for unlawful courses during the 2001-2002 academic year.
Community college officials are hoping that most of the $36 million -- roughly $27 million -- will be covered by the 45,000 students that campuses over-enrolled and had received no funding for.

Tuesday's report -- done in conjunction with the state Department of Finance -- was the first phase of what is expected to become a statewide audit.

The results were based on self-reports filed by officials in 70 districts, under penalty of perjury. The statewide inquiry focused on classes with 50 percent or more concurrent enrollment students.

"I'm not seeing evidence that students were being defrauded or that colleges were bilking the state," Chancellor Tom Nussbaum said. "But the problem is still serious."

The most common problem, Nussbaum said, were campuses that couldn't justify claims for payment for high school enrollees because they lacked written proof that the courses met state requirements.

Courses that are offered to high school students must also be open to the public in order to receive state funding. Most districts weren't able to prove that unequivocally, particularly for physical education classes, Nussbaum said.

Some districts also failed to prove that high school students had received permission from parents and their principals before enrolling.

Nussbaum said 18 districts will be investigated further by the chancellor's office. None is in the Sacramento region.

Concurrent enrollment programs were designed to offer college-level courses not available in high schools. Students go to classes at a campus or, in some cases, at their own high school.

State finance officials called for the investigation last year following media accounts that alleged fraud and mismanagement. In Southern California, there were reports of classes that never met and high school students being coerced into enrolling.

Finance officials also feared state coffers were being over-drawn to pay twice for high school students. Each high school receives roughly $5,300 for each of its students, and, at the same time, community colleges were receiving up to $3,600 per pupil for the same students enrolled in their courses.

"We certainly believe that this self-reported survey confirms that there is a problem and we need to look further to quantify it," said Anita Gore, a finance department spokeswoman.

Officials at Los Rios and Sierra community college districts said Tuesday they found non-compliant courses and had already adjusted their enrollment figures.

At Rocklin-based Sierra College, the problems were with physical education courses that may not have been adequately advertised as open to the public, an official said.

"There were comments from some P.E. classes that said the course was best suited for someone who had played \[junior varsity\] basketball," said Mandy Davies, associate vice president for student services at Sierra College. "I couldn't state with assurance that course was truly open, so I erred on the conservative side."

Davies said her internal audit found that $300,000 may have been directed to non-compliant courses.

Los Rios spokeswoman Susie Williams said the district's problem was mostly a record-keeping one. In the past two years, the district's three campuses -- Sacramento City, American River and Cosumnes River colleges -- applied for funds for 351 full-time-equivalent students who were enrolled in unlawful courses.

In those cases, the district was not able to prove with documentation that the classes were available to the public and that high school students had received permission from parents and principals.

Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, is pushing legislation that would clarify the rules that community colleges must follow when enrolling high school students.