(a) An institution shall not merge classes unless all of the students have received the same amount of instruction. This subdivision does not prevent the placement of students, who are enrolled in different educational programs, in the same class if that class is part of each of the educational programs and the placement in a merged class will not impair the students’ learning of the subject matter of the class.

(b) After a student has enrolled in an educational program, the institution shall not do either of the following:

(1) Make any unscheduled suspension of any class unless caused by circumstances beyond the institution’s control.

(2) Change the day or time during the period of attendance in which any class is offered to a day when the student is not scheduled to attend the institution or to a time that is outside of the range of time that the student is scheduled to attend the institution on the day for which the change is proposed unless at least 90 percent of the students who are enrolled consent to the change and the institution offers full refunds to the students who do not consent to the change. For the purpose of this paragraph, “range of time” means the period beginning with the time at which the student’s first scheduled class session for the day is set to start and ending with the time the student’s last scheduled class session for that day is set to finish.

(c) If an institution enrolls a student in an educational program that is conducted at a specific site at the time of enrollment, the institution shall not convert the educational program to another method of delivery, such as by means of distance education. This subdivision does not apply to an educational program that also includes a distance education component, if the student is notified during the enrollment process, in writing, that the program contains a distance education component.

(d) An institution shall not move the location of class instruction more than 25 miles from the location of instruction at the time of enrollment unless any of the following occur:

(1) The institution discloses in writing to each student before enrollment in the educational program that the location of instruction will change after the educational program begins and the address of the new location.

(2) The institution applies for, and the bureau grants, approval to change the location. The bureau shall grant the application within 60 days if the bureau, after notice to affected students and an opportunity for them to be heard as prescribed by the bureau, concludes that the change in location would not be unfair or unduly burdensome to students. The bureau may grant approval to change the location subject to reasonable conditions, such as requiring the institution to provide transportation, transportation costs, or refunds to adversely affected students.

(3) The institution offers a full refund to students enrolled in the educational program who do not voluntarily consent to the change.

(4) An unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstance outside of the control of the institution requires the change in the location of instruction.

(Added by Stats. 2009, Ch. 310, Sec. 6. (AB 48) Effective January 1, 2010. Repealed as of January 1, 2021, pursuant to Section 94950.)