Assembly Bill 705

What is AB 705?

California Assembly Bill 705 requires that a community college maximize the probability:

  • That a student will begin and complete transfer-level coursework in English within a one year timeframe
  • That a student will begin and complete transfer-level coursework in Math within a one year timeframe
  • That a student enrolled in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction will complete ESL and transfer-level coursework in English within a three-year timeframe of declaring of declaring a transfer- or degree-seeking goal. 

Placement of students into English and Math courses will be based on one or more of the following:

  • high school coursework
  • high school grades
  • high school grade point average 

In accordance with Assembly Bill 1805, SBCC's annual placement results for the 2021-2022 academic year can be found here: 

What this means for SBCC students enrolling for the first time:

  • SBCC's Math and English assessments will no longer be required or used for placement 
  • When applying to the college, students will provide responses to additional questions regarding their high school coursework, grades, and GPA
  • Instead of an assessment test, students will be placed into Math and English courses across the sequences using the information collected in the application 
  • Students for whom high school data is unavailable will be able to self-report thier high school data on a separate form 
  • Students seeking to enroll in ESL courses will complete the ESL placement 

Links to further information

California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office AB 705 website

Chancellor's Office - Academic Senate Memo July 2018

AB 705 Frequently Asked Questions