A BPPE enrollment agreement is the written contract every California beauty and barber school must sign with each student before instruction begins. It must contain every disclosure listed in California Education Code (CEC) § 94911 and carry the signatures required by CEC § 94902. Under § 94902, a student can enroll only by signing that agreement. A student who sits in class before it is fully signed is attending without being enrolled. Inspectors from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) check that gap in nearly every file they pull.

This guide is for owners, directors, admissions staff, and compliance staff at California cosmetology, esthetics, and barber schools who prepare or review enrollment agreements. If you are preparing for a full inspection, start with our BPPE inspection checklist for California beauty schools and come back here for the agreement itself.

Key Takeaways

• Content rule: CEC § 94911 lists the minimum contents of an enrollment agreement, from (a) through (k). 5 CCR § 71800 adds more items on top of that list, including the period the agreement covers.
• Signature rule: Under CEC § 94902(a), both the student and an authorized employee of the institution must sign. The student must receive a copy, either on paper or electronically.
• Timing rule: The student must receive the catalog and the School Performance Fact Sheet (SPFS) before signing. The SPFS items must be signed, initialed, and dated before the agreement is signed.
• Two sets of initials: The SPFS items need initials and dates under § 94912. The agreement itself has a separate initial line under § 94911(i)(2). Schools often miss one of the two.
• The stakes: In Bella's own analysis of BPPE citations to California barber and beauty schools from July to December 2025, 54 of 94 violations were student record violations. Fines ran $1,001 to $2,501 per violation.

What Must a BPPE Enrollment Agreement Include?

CEC § 94911 sets the floor. If any item is missing, the agreement is deficient, and so is every file that uses the same template.

Copy the required statements word for word from the current text of CEC § 94911. Paraphrasing a required statement is a common way to fail a template review.

The STRF disclosure stays in the agreement even when the assessment rate is $0.00 per $1,000 of institutional charges. For the reporting side of STRF, see our field guide to STRF substantiating data.

Who Must Sign the Enrollment Agreement, and When?

CEC § 94902 has four requirements:

• Signatures: the student and an authorized employee of the institution both sign.
• Before signing: the student receives the catalog and the SPFS.
• Approval: the school holds a valid approval to operate when the agreement is signed.
• Copy: the student receives a copy of the signed agreement, whether or not charges are paid.

The point most explainers skip: the statute says a student enrolls solely by signing the agreement. That makes the start date a hard line. Suppose a student attends on Monday and signs on Thursday. Those three days of attendance happened before the student was legally enrolled. Your attendance records will show the gap on their own.

The statute does not say how you designate an "authorized employee." That part is up to your school. Good practice is a written, dated list of the staff authorized to sign enrollment agreements, updated whenever someone is added or leaves. If an inspector asks who signed a file and whether that person was authorized, you can answer with a document instead of a recollection.

Which Initials Does BPPE Check?

Two separate rules require initials, and they apply to two different documents.

1. SPFS items (CEC § 94912). Before the agreement is signed, the institution and the student both sign and date the SPFS disclosures. The student also initials and dates each item.
2. Agreement initial line (CEC § 94911(i)(2)). The agreement must have a line where the student initials to certify that they received the catalog and the SPFS.

Worked Example: Count the Marks in One File

Here is our own count of the handwritten or electronic marks a single complete file needs. It assumes the SPFS has four items under § 94910(a) to (d).

That is 4 + 8 + 4 + 1 = 17 marks per student. If an inspector pulls nine files, that is 17 × 9 = 153 marks, and each one has to be present and dated in the right order. Missing even one makes the file deficient. That is why spot-checks catch problems that a quick look does not.

How Does the Student's Right to Cancel Work?

Under CEC § 94911(e)(1), a student can cancel and get a refund of charges paid through the first class session or the seventh day after enrollment, whichever is later.

• Example 1: A student signs on Monday, March 2, 2026, and starts class on Wednesday, March 4. The seventh day after enrollment is Monday, March 9. That date is later than the first class, so the cancellation window runs through March 9.
• Example 2: The same student signs on March 2 but starts on Monday, March 16. The first class session is later than March 9, so the window runs through March 16.

Your agreement must describe this right under the exact caption the statute requires, along with your refund policy and the steps to cancel. If your school participates in federal aid, it must also include the statement that the student is entitled to a refund of money not paid from federal aid funds.

Where Schools Get Cited on Enrollment Agreements

These are the patterns we see in BPPE citations to beauty and barber schools:

1. Student signed after starting class. The enrollment conversation happened, the student began attending, and the paperwork followed days later.
2. Missing or unauthorized employee signature. No staff member signed, or the signer was not on any authorization list.
3. Blank initial fields. This includes the SPFS item initials, the agreement's initial line, or both.
4. Outdated template. The template is missing a § 94911 statement, uses old STRF language, or bundles charges into one total.
5. No proof of SPFS timing. The SPFS was handed out during a tour, but nothing in the file shows it came before the signature.
6. Partially completed agreements. Required fields were left blank, or the form was started and never finished.

These fall inside the student records category that made up 54 of 94 violations in our July to December 2025 data. At $1,001 to $2,501 per violation, three violations from one inspection would cost $3,003 to $7,503 (our arithmetic). For the broader records picture, read how to manage student records and avoid BPPE citations.

How to Build a Compliant Enrollment Process

• Make the agreement a gate. No student attends a class until all 17 marks are in place and the student has a copy.
• Use a second reviewer. The person who enrolled the student should not be the person who checks the file.
• Review the template every year. Compare it line by line against CEC §§ 94902, 94911, and 94912, 5 CCR § 71800, and 5 CCR § 76215. Also review it whenever any of those rules change.
• Keep a version log. Record the date of each template version, what changed, and when it went into use. Inspectors reviewing files from several years can then see which template applied to each student.

Enrollment Agreement File Checklist

Run this on three student files this week:

• Student signature dated on or before the first day of attendance
• Authorized employee signature and date, with the signer on your written authorization list
• All SPFS items initialed and dated, and the SPFS signed and dated by both parties before the agreement
• The § 94911(i)(2) initial line completed
• The three charge totals on the signature page, in underlined capitals with bold, underlined amounts
• STRF disclosure matching the current regulation
• Template version in use on the enrollment date recorded in your log
• Proof that the student received a copy of the signed agreement

For the rest of the inspection, use our beauty school compliance checklist.

How Bella Handles Enrollment Documents

Bella is an AI school management system for beauty and barber schools. With Bella, students fill in their details and upload documents from their phone, and the paperwork assembles in their student profile. Every file is in one place and ready to show an inspector. Bella does not write your agreement template. The legal content of your template is still your school's responsibility to keep current.

Sign Before They Sit Down

A compliant BPPE enrollment agreement has three parts: every disclosure in § 94911, both signatures under § 94902, and two sets of initials, all completed before the student's first class. Pull three files this week and count the marks.

If you want every enrollment document in one student profile, ready before the inspector asks, book a Bella demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Must a California Beauty School Enrollment Agreement Be Signed Before Classes Start?

Yes. Under CEC § 94902(a), a student enrolls only by signing an enrollment agreement, so a California beauty or barber school student who attends before signing is attending without being enrolled. Signing dates that fall after the first day of attendance are a common BPPE citation.

What Does CEC § 94911 Require in an Enrollment Agreement?

CEC § 94911 requires at least 11 categories of content in a California enrollment agreement. These include the program name and clock hours, an itemized schedule of charges, the three charge totals in underlined capitals, the student's right to cancel, loan statements, the transferability disclosure, the catalog and SPFS statement with an initial line, and BPPE's contact information. 5 CCR § 71800 adds more items, such as the period the agreement covers.

Do Students Have to Initial a BPPE Enrollment Agreement?

Yes, in two places. CEC § 94911(i)(2) requires a student initial line on the enrollment agreement itself. CEC § 94912 requires the student to initial and date each SPFS disclosure item before signing the agreement.

Does an Enrollment Agreement Need STRF Language if the STRF Rate Is $0?

Yes. A California enrollment agreement must still include the Student Tuition Recovery Fund disclosure required by 5 CCR § 76215 even when the assessment rate is $0.00 per $1,000. Agreements with outdated STRF language have been cited by BPPE.