5010 - Advisory council. - New York Statutes

§ 5010. Advisory council. 1. An advisory council for registered business and licensed trade schools is hereby created for the purpose of advising the board of regents and the commissioner as provided herein. The council shall be composed of eleven members appointed by the governor, two of whom shall be upon the recommendation of the temporary president of the senate, two of whom shall be upon the recommendation of the speaker of the assembly, one of whom shall be upon the recommendation of the minority leader of the senate and one of whom shall be upon the recommendation of the minority leader of the assembly. Of the five remaining members, one shall be an owner or director of a school regulated pursuant to this article, one shall be a currently enrolled student at the time of appointment or a graduate of such a school who graduated within three years of appointment and one shall be a student advocate. The governor shall designate a chairperson from such members. The commissioner of education, the president of the higher education services corporation, the chair of the consumer protection board, the comptroller, the director of the division of the budget, and the executive director of the job training partnership council, or their designees, shall serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of the council. 2. The council shall meet no less than four times a year. Members of the council shall receive no compensation for their services but shall be reimbursed for reasonable expenses actually and necessarily incurred by them in the performance of their duties. 3. The council shall advise the commissioner on the following matters: (a) trust accounts; (b) performance standards; (c) the effectiveness and utilization of the tuition reimbursement fund; (d) the efficacy of instituting a fee-for-service system; (e) the effectivesness of the timelines mandated by this article; (f) the impact of assessments on schools; (g) recruitment bonuses; and (h) such other matters as the council determines are appropriate. 4. The proprietary school advisory council shall conduct a study concerning the methodologies used to determine student refunds. Such study shall include, but not be limited to, refund policies promulgated pursuant to federal statute or regulation, state statute or regulation and the policies of national accrediting organizations as they relate to term-based and clock hour-based programs. Not later than July first, nineteen hundred ninety-four, the advisory council shall make recommendations to the commissioner and the board of regents for any changes in legislation, regulations, policy or practice needed to improve and simplify the student refund process. The commissioner shall submit a report of the findings of the advisory council together with the recommendations of the department to the legislature and the governor not later than the first day of October, nineteen hundred ninety-four. 5. The advisory council shall report to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, and the commissioner on the status of unlicensed proprietary schools in this state. The report shall also contain a statement on the effectiveness of the change in the tuition reimbursement fund and any recommendations for an extension of the changes or the consideration of different changes when such changes are repealed. Such report is to be delivered on April first, two thousand two.