The California School Performance Fact Sheet

Before a prospective student enrolls, a private postsecondary institution approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education must give them a current School Performance Fact Sheet (Education Code §94910). The Bureau asks for one fact sheet for each approved program at each main and branch location (Bureau annual-report page); the regulation requires a separate fact sheet for each program (5 CCR §74112(a)) and the Act requires completion figures to be stated separately for each campus or branch (Education Code §94928(c)).

Institutions exempt from the Act do not publish one. An institution accredited by WSCUC (the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities) or ACCJC is exempt under Education Code §94874(i), unless Education Code §94874.2 removes the exemption: an institution approved to participate in veterans' financial aid programs that is not an independent institution of higher education is not exempt. Accreditation by any other agency is not an exemption under §94874(i).

The fact sheet must be current and available by 1 December, and it reports the previous two calendar years (5 CCR §74112(e)(2)). The Bureau sets the annual report's due date (Education Code §94934) and currently takes reports from 1 August to 1 December, with the fact sheets submitted alongside (Bureau annual-report page). For reporting year 2025, the annual report and fact sheets are due 1 December 2026, and the fact sheets cover 2024 and 2025.

Each year's figures count the students who were scheduled to complete the program within 100% of its published length in that calendar year, excluding anyone who cancelled during the cancellation period (5 CCR §74112(d)(1)). A cohort belongs to the year it was due to finish, not the year it started.

• At least 12-point type in a readable font, 1.15 line spacing, and every title and column heading in bold 14-point type that names the program (5 CCR §74112(a)).
• All and only the information the Act and the regulation require or specifically permit (5 CCR §74112(a)).
• A definitions section using the regulation's definitions, in the same format (5 CCR §74112(l)).
• A student initials and date line after each section, as shown in the regulation's charts (5 CCR §74112(f)–(k)).
• A separate page captioned “STUDENT'S RIGHT TO CANCEL” in bold 14-point type, the same size as the fact sheet, carrying the cancellation disclosure from the enrollment agreement (5 CCR §74112(n)).

• On-time completion rates: students who began, students available for graduation, on-time graduates and the rate, for each year (5 CCR §74112(h); Education Code §94929(a)).
• 150% completion rates, optional. A program longer than one year that reports them gives four calendar years (5 CCR §74112(h)).
• Job placement rates, when the program is designed to lead to an occupation or the school makes any claim about preparing students for one (Education Code §94910(b); 5 CCR §74112(i)). They come with four gainful-employment tables: 20–29 hours a week against 30 or more, single against concurrent aggregated positions, self-employed or freelance, and employment by the institution or a related employer (5 CCR §74112(i)).
• The self-employment disclosure, initialled by students, for a program where most graduates who find work are self-employed or freelance (5 CCR §74112(i)(5)).
• License examination passage rates, for programs leading to an occupation that requires a state licensing exam: graduates in the year, those who took the first available exam, passed and failed, and the rate (Education Code §94910(c); 5 CCR §74112(j)). Exams that are not continuously administered are reported per sitting with the exam and results dates.
• Salary and wage information for graduates employed in the field, in $5,000 bands, with the number for whom no salary was reported (Education Code §94910(d); 5 CCR §74112(k)).
• Total charges for completing on time, and the statement that charges may be higher for students who do not (5 CCR §74112(f)).
• Federal student loan information if the school participates in federal aid: the cohort default rate, the share of enrolled students and of graduates with federal loans, and average federal loan debt. A school that does not participate prints one of two statements instead (5 CCR §74112(g)).
• Required statements: where to get a description of how the figures are calculated, the list of jobs counted as in the field, and the salary sources (Education Code §94910(f)); the two Bureau statements (Education Code §94910(g)); and, for a program too new to have two years of data, the new-program statement, the date it began and the date two years of data will be available (Education Code §94910(e); 5 CCR §74112(b)).

Students available for graduation

Students who began the program, minus those who died, were incarcerated, or were called to active military duty.

5 CCR §74112(l); Education Code §94928(g), (h)

On-time completion rate

On-time graduates (completed within 100% of the published program length in the year) divided by students available for graduation.

Education Code §94929(a); 5 CCR §74112(l)

150% completion rate

Students who completed within 150% of the published length in the year, on-time graduates included, divided by students available for graduation.

5 CCR §74112(l)

Graduates available for employment

Graduates minus those who, after graduating, died, were incarcerated, were called to active military duty, are international students who left the United States or cannot work here, or are continuing their education at an accredited or Bureau-approved institution.

5 CCR §74112(l); Education Code §94928(d), (f)

Placement rate

Graduates employed in the field divided by graduates available for employment.

5 CCR §74112(i)(4)

Graduates employed in the field

Graduates gainfully employed (a listed six-digit SOC job at 30 or more hours a week for five weeks, or 20 or more with a signed statement that they chose part-time work; the same employer after a change of job code, a promotion due to the program, or a program required to keep the job; or documented self-employment), beginning within six months of completing, whose employment was reported and verified by the school.

5 CCR §74112(d)(3), (l); Education Code §94928(e)

Passage rate

Graduates who passed the first available exam divided by graduates who took it.

5 CCR §74112(l); Education Code §94929.5(a)(2)

The regulation prints whole percentages and does not state a rounding rule. Its own example charts are consistent with rounding half up (78 of 80 is printed as 98% in the §74112(h) chart).

The school must keep electronic documentation for every figure for at least five years from the last time it appeared in an annual report or fact sheet, and give it to the Bureau on request. For each program that includes at least (5 CCR §74112(m)):

1. the list of job classifications counted as gainful employment ((m)(1));
2. each student's name, address, phone number, email address, program completed, start date, scheduled completion date and actual completion date ((m)(2));
3. each graduate's place of employment and position, start date, end date if any, actual salary, hours per week, and the date employment was verified ((m)(3));
4. for each employer that supplied employment or salary information, its name, address and general phone number, a contact person with their phone and email, and all written communication verifying the employment or salary ((m)(4));
5. for self-employed graduates, the documentation that shows it ((m)(5));
6. a description of every attempt to contact each student or employer ((m)(6));
7. all documentation behind the licence-exam figures ((m)(7));
8. for each student counted as unavailable for graduation or employment, who, the type of unavailability, the dates, and the documentation ((m)(8));
9. the name, email, phone and title of the staff member primarily responsible for gathering the data, the date it was gathered, and copies of the notes, letters or emails used to request and gather it ((m)(9)).

The Legislature's March 2026 sunset-review background paper lists “Failure to maintain supporting documentation for data reported on the school performance fact sheet and/or on the STRF assessment form” first among the most common violations for which the Bureau issues citations (page 15).

• One fact sheet for the whole school. Each program needs its own (5 CCR §74112(a)), and the Bureau asks for one per program at each main and branch location.
• Counting a withdrawal or transfer as unavailable for graduation. Only death, incarceration and a call to active military duty make a student unavailable for graduation (Education Code §94928(h)). A student who left or transferred stays in the count.
• Grouping students by start year. Each year's figures are the students scheduled to complete in that year (5 CCR §74112(d)(1)), and the fact sheet covers the two previous calendar years (5 CCR §74112(e)(2)).
• Measuring placement from graduation in a licensed occupation. Where the occupation requires a state exam, placement is measured six months after the results of the first exam available after completion are announced (5 CCR §74112(i)(2); Education Code §94928(e)(1)).
• Counting a part-time job without the signed statement. A job of 20–29 hours a week counts only with a statement signed by the graduate that they chose part-time work (5 CCR §74112(d)(3)(A)(ii)).
• Counting an unverified job. A graduate counts as employed in the field only when the employment was reported and the school has documented verification (5 CCR §74112(l)), with the verification date kept as a record (5 CCR §74112(m)(3)).
• Two years of 150% data for a long program. The 150% table is optional, but a program longer than one year that includes it reports four calendar years (5 CCR §74112(h)).
• A rate that does not match its counts. Each rate is a count divided by a count printed on the same sheet. We read a random sample of fact sheets filed for the 2024 reporting year: 130 drawn from the 758 institutions listed on the Bureau's 2024 annual-report site, 118 of them readable. 56 (47%) printed at least one completion, placement or licence-exam figure that did not match the counts on the same sheet, or covered the wrong calendar years; 45 (38%) were off by more than 5 percentage points, showed an impossible count, or covered the wrong years. Measured 1–2 October 2026.