Implementation AuditPUBLISHED v1.0 (2026-08-27): all 58 counties and all 148 campus pages codedLast verified 2026-08-26
California College Fee Waiver Implementation Audit
How 58 counties and three public systems implement one state benefit
Read the published auditScope: Current legal authority, plan structures, what is and is not waived, county application pathways, campus implementation instructions, treatment of extension and self-supporting programs, campus-based fees, published deadlines, and differences among CCC, CSU, UC, and counties.
Audit progress
- 2026-08-27: Version 1.0 PUBLISHED with the full county and campus tables, coding guide, data dictionary, downloadable CSV and JSON with SHA-256 file hashes, findings, limitations, and a two-page policymaker brief (HTML and PDF).
- 2026-08-26: All 10 UC campus veterans pages independently verified and published in the campus directory, with a coded flag for whether the audited page mentions the fee waiver (UCLA, UCSB, and UCSC do; the other seven do not on the audited page).
- 2026-08-26: CalVet program page recoded: plan-specific Chapter 35 concurrency confirmed (Plan A prohibited with a signed election; Plan B permitted) and CalVet's statement that self-supported and extension programs are not required to apply the waiver.
- 2026-08-26: First confirmed discrepancy record published from the audit: two Plan B income limits appear in different sections of CalVet's own page (see the source discrepancy tracker).
- 2026-08-26: County pathway coding began: 7 of 58 county pages verified, including San Diego County's published email, fax, mail, and in-person submission channels (see County pathways).
- 2026-08-26: County pathway coding COMPLETE: all 58 county pages verified across four tranches. Findings: 46 of 58 pages mention the fee waiver, 17 publish specific intake channels, 5 publish online submission, and 12 verified pages never name the benefit. Two counties required a browser-rendered audit and one an Internet Archive snapshot, all labeled in the map's methodology. Completion shared with the county VSO association and logged on the record.
Method commitments
- Documented coding protocol applied to each campus and county page, with retrieval dates
- Every coded field backed by an archived source; missing information coded as missing, never as failure
- Discrepancies routed to the source discrepancy tracker with clarification requests
Data sources
- CalVet program materials
- County Veterans Service Office pages
- Campus registrar, student accounts, and veterans office pages
- Records requested from CalVet and the system offices
Will publish: Full institution and county table; Coding guide; Source list; Missing-data table; Discrepancy table; Methodology; Downloadable CSV. Unit of analysis: Campus and county published instructions, coded under a documented protocol. Review status: Independent analysis, not peer reviewed.
Sourcebook / Technical ReferenceFramework published; records collection underwayLast verified 2026-08-26
VR&E and California Higher Education
A technical sourcebook on Chapter 31 in California classrooms
Scope: VR&E's employment purpose, support-and-services tracks, long-term services and education, the roles of counselor, student, school, and certifying official, authorization and billing workflows, subsistence, academic progress rules, coordination with GI Bill entitlement and campus aid, and California-specific public data gaps.
Method commitments
- Every statement classified by source level; campus practices reported as campus-reported, never as federal rules
- Individualized counselor decisions identified as such rather than answered generically
Data sources
- 38 U.S.C. chapter 31 and implementing regulations
- VA VR&E published guidance
- Records requested from VA on California participation
- Campus billing office workflows
Will publish: The sourcebook; Current forms and official contacts; A data-gap table for California. Unit of analysis: Program rules by source level: statute, regulation, VA guidance, campus practice. Review status: Independent analysis, not peer reviewed.
Implementation AuditFramework published; records collection underwayLast verified 2026-08-26
California Student-Veteran Financial-Aid Coordination Audit
How campuses explain benefit and aid interaction
Scope: How public campuses explain the interaction among federal education benefits, VR&E, the College Fee Waiver, Pell, Cal Grant, the Middle Class Scholarship, institutional aid, refunds, enrollment changes, late VA payments, overpayments, and satisfactory academic progress.
Method commitments
- Responsibility and sequence diagram from application through refund, built per segment
- No claim that all campuses handle these processes identically; variation is the finding
Data sources
- Campus financial aid pages
- CSAC packaging rules
- Federal Student Aid guidance
- Records requested from CSAC
Will publish: Sequence diagram; Campus explanation table; Missing-data table; Downloadable CSV. Unit of analysis: Campus published financial-aid explanations, coded under a documented protocol. Review status: Independent analysis, not peer reviewed.
Data StudyFramework published; records collection underwayLast verified 2026-08-26
California GI Bill Access and Outcomes
A reconcilable-definitions framework for veteran education data
Scope: Beneficiary counts, program participation, institution type, enrollment, persistence, transfer, completion, time to degree, debt, complaints, school closures, certification delays, benefit exhaustion, and credit for military learning, using only definitions that reconcile across sources.
Method commitments
- Definitions reconciled across VA education data, the GI Bill Comparison Tool, College Scorecard, IPEDS, system data, CSAC data, and Observatory records before any figure publishes
- Claims never mixed with people; beneficiaries never mixed with all student veterans; academic years never mixed with fiscal years
Data sources
- VA education data and Comparison Tool exports
- College Scorecard and IPEDS
- CCC, CSU, and UC data offices
- Records requested from VA and the systems
Will publish: Measure-by-measure dataset with a data dictionary; Reconciliation notes; Known-gaps table. Unit of analysis: Defined per measure; people, awards, enrollments, and institutions never mixed. Review status: Independent analysis, not peer reviewed.
Policy BriefTemplate established; first edition publishes when its sections are supported by verified recordsLast verified 2026-08-26
State of Veteran Education in California (annual report)
The durable annual synthesis
Scope: Laws and policy changes, benefit use, public-campus access, certification infrastructure, financial-aid coordination, fee waiver implementation, VR&E education, GI Bill trends, military-credit implementation, outcomes, oversight findings, data gaps, and policy options.
Method commitments
- Sections publish only when supported by verified records; unavailable data is documented as a finding, never filled with estimates presented as fact
Data sources
- All Observatory datasets, audits, and records responses
Will publish: The annual report; Every underlying table as CSV. Unit of analysis: Annual edition. Review status: Independent analysis, not peer reviewed.