Is a college program funded by taxpayers allowed to exclude students with convictions?

A local, for-profit college has been advertising a free nurse assistant training program on major intersections across L.A. County.

The program offers classroom and hands-on training where students can learn best practices, along with the legal responsibilities involved in this form of care. Prestige Career College — with campuses in Huntington Park, Pomona, and Van Nuys — also promises to prepare students for the state certification exam and to help them find work.

The college can afford to provide the program for free because it’s funded in part by California’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers unemployment benefits and workforce development programs. To qualify for Prestige’s program, prospective students must be unemployed or have a part-time job. They also can’t have felonies on their record.

The college hasn’t responded to multiple requests for interviews. But in a country where occupational licenses are increasingly required for entry into a number of fields, advocates say excluding formerly incarcerated students can serve to keep them from securing gainful employment. Plus, in California, a conviction does not automatically bar you from becoming a nurse assistant.

EDD has given Prestige Career College more than $4 million. In an email, the state agency said its partnership with the college dates back to 2022, and that it’s set to expire next spring. In a follow up email, EDD said it “can’t speak to a provider’s admission criteria or process.”

What does the law say?

Multiple times over the last decade, California has extended rights to people who were previously incarcerated.

In California, the Fair Chance Act — also known as the “ban the box” law — generally bars employers with five or more workers from asking a job candidate about conviction history before making a job offer.

And in 2020, California lawmakers passed SB 118, which amended the state’s Education Code to generally ban the box from applications for higher education.

But the law specifically exempts a ban “for purposes of an application for a professional degree or law enforcement basic training courses and programs.”

Beth Avery, a program director at the National Employment Law Project, said the nurse assistant training program offered by Prestige likely falls outside the scope of the Fair Chance Act and might also be excepted from SB 118.

What about public community colleges?

Local community colleges, including Mt. San Antonio College, Pasadena City College, Santa Ana College, and Santa Monica College, also offer nurse assistant programs. These programs tend to be tuition-free, but students may have to pay for other essentials, including textbooks, uniforms, and physical exams. These programs also require background checks — but this doesn’t mean students with convictions can’t participate.

In separate emails, spokespeople for Santa Ana College and Santa Monica College said LiveScan (background check) results are sent directly to the California Department of Public Health.

The CDPH website states:

According to Avery, after a person with a record gains their education, “they must then apply for any required license or certification. The [corresponding] government board or agency often conducts a background check and ‘good moral character’ evaluation.”

So while a professional degree training program might be able to deny people with felony convictions, “in general, it sounds like [Prestige Career College’s program] is unnecessarily exclusive,” Avery said. “While an educational institution should absolutely provide accurate information to their students about whether a past record might prevent a student from ultimately working in their chosen profession, not every record will prevent a person from working in a field like [nurse assisting]."

By excluding anyone with a record, Avery said, the school would be preventing potentially eligible nurse assistants from obtaining their education and training.

Prospective students hear from those enrolled in Santa Ana College's certified nurse assistant program.

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Julia Barajas

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LAist

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How hard is it to overcome a felony conviction?

Rebecca Oyama, director of East Bay Community Law Center’s clinical program in Berkeley, is a legal advocate who helps people with records overcome such barriers.

Ever since AB 2138 went into effect in 2020, she told LAist, there are a lot of limitations on what certification boards may consider when making a decision about a formerly incarcerated applicant.

But there’s another quirk, she said: For prospective certified nurse assistants, the law actually changed in 2015.

In the past, certain convictions led to automatic disqualification. Now, Oyama said, the California Department of Public Health is “required to consider evidence of rehabilitation before denying someone’s [nurse assistant] application because of a conviction.”

Evidence of rehabilitation can include:

• Character references
• Employer recommendations
• Completing other types of training

AB 2138 “opened the doors for many people in California,” Oyama added. “But there are still many boards that were not subject to that change, and there's a lot of work to be done now by the legislature.”

Who can help me if I have a criminal history?

In L.A. County, Oyama recommends reaching out to:

• A New Way of Life
• Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles