Citizenship Status

Citizenship Status

No. Proposition 300 requires that students who are not legal citizens of the United States or who are without lawful immigration status be precluded from classification as in-state or county residents. It also holds that a person who is not a U.S. citizen and without lawful immigration status will not be entitled to receive financial assistance that is paid or subsidized in whole or in part with state funds. It does not prohibit such students from enrolling at a public community college or university.

No. Proposition 300 does hold, however, that a person who is not a citizen of the United States, who is without lawful immigration status and who is enrolled as a student at any university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona Board of Regents or at any community college under the jurisdiction of a community college district in this state is not entitled to tuition waivers, fee waivers, grants, scholarship assistance, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies.

Maricopa's current accounting processes would still allow these students to receive scholarship or similar assistance from either the Maricopa Foundation or private sources. Other Maricopa funds presently could not be used to provide financial assistance to these students.

Proposition 300 principally requires that those institutions semi-annually report to the Arizona Legislatures Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) the total number of students who were entitled to classification as an in-state student and the total number of students who were not entitled to classification as an in-state student because the student was not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or without lawful immigration status. The law also requires that the institutions semi-annually report to JLBC the total number of students who applied and the total number of students who were not entitled to tuition waivers, fee waivers, grants, scholarship assistance, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies because the student was not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or not lawfully present in the United States.

When the implementation process is complete, all students both new and continuing will be required to comply with the new law. At that time, all students who are not citizens or legal residents of the United States or who are without lawful immigration status will be precluded from classification as either in-state students or county residents. Moreover, persons who are not citizens of the United States, are without lawful immigration status and enrolled as students will not be eligible for tuition waivers, fee waivers, grants, scholarship assistance, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies.

No. The law requires that institutions report only aggregate numbers of students, and not those students names or other personally identifiable information. Generally, the confidentiality of such information is protected as to all students under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has for several years been obligated under ARS §15-232 to make available and supervise a program of adult education in other institutions . . . of this state. Various Maricopa community colleges have, under the auspices of ADE pursuant to this law, offered adult education programs. Proposition 300, however, now mandates that ADE may provide such classes only to adults who are citizens or legal residents of the United States or are otherwise lawfully present in the United States. This change in the law would have no impact, however, on classes at a Maricopa community college that are not offered pursuant to ARS §15-232.

The requirement out of Proposition 300 that students who are not legal U.S. citizens or without lawful immigration status pay out-of-state tuition does not distinguish between credit and non-credit offerings by a college or university. Maricopa presently does not assess charges for students in non-credit offerings based on residency, but rather the cost to provide the course; therefore, all students pay the same fees to attend regardless of where they reside. The new requirements of Proposition 300, then, would not affect what students pay to enroll in Maricopa non-credit offerings.