BPPE Annual Report and School Performance Fact Sheet Requirements

California career schools approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) file an Annual Report every year and publish a School Performance Fact Sheet for every program. The placement rate sits at the center of both, and BPPE expects a documented file behind every graduate a school counts as placed. This guide covers what to report, how the placement rate is built, what to keep, and where schools lose placements they earned. The 2025 Annual Report is due December 1, 2026.

This post summarizes BPPE's published materials as of October 2026. Confirm each requirement against the BPPE Annual Reports page and the current regulations before you file.

What to report in the BPPE Annual Report

BPPE's 2025 Annual Report notice splits the filing into an online part and a mailed part. The table below lists each item and where the rule comes from.

Two exceptions come straight from the notice. An institution newly approved in 2025 or 2026 does not file this year, and an Out-of-State Registered or Exempt institution does not file at all.

How the BPPE placement rate is calculated

The formula is in California Education Code section 94929.5 and Title 5 CCR section 74112(i). Placement is reported per program, for the students who began the program and were scheduled to graduate in each reporting year.

Graduates available for employment means all graduates minus the graduates unavailable for employment (Ed. Code 94928). BPPE lists the unavailable groups, and the list is short.

• Graduates who died, became incarcerated, or were called to active military duty.
• International students who left the United States or do not have a visa that allows employment.
• Graduates who are continuing their education at an accredited or Bureau-approved postsecondary institution.

Here is a worked example with made-up numbers. A program graduates 40 students. Two are called to active duty and one enrolls full time at an accredited college, so 37 graduates are available for employment. Twenty-eight of them start qualifying jobs within six months. The placement rate is 28 divided by 37, or 75.7%. The three unavailable graduates must each have documentation of their status on file.

What counts as employed in the field

A graduate is employed in the field when the job begins within six months after the student completes the program. For occupations that require a state licensing exam, the six months run from the announcement of results for the first exam available after completion. On top of timing, the graduate must be gainfully employed as defined in 5 CCR 74112(d)(3).

• Standard employment. The job falls in a Detailed Occupation (six-digit) SOC code that the school listed in its catalog and employment positions list for the program. The graduate holds a single position, or concurrent positions that add up, for at least 30 hours per week for 5 weeks (35 calendar days).
• Part-time by choice. At least 20 hours per week for 5 weeks, with a statement signed by the graduate that they chose part-time work over full-time work.
• Same employer as before enrollment. The graduate counts if the SOC code changed, or the employer or graduate provides a statement that the job is a promotion with increased pay due at least in part to the program, or that the program was required to keep the job.
• Self-employed or freelance. Reasonable evidence such as a business license, fictitious business name statement, advertising other than business cards, a website, or business receipts. A signed graduate attestation of self-employment, dated after graduation, also works.

If a school makes any job placement claim, the employment positions list must name positions at the six-digit SOC level (5 CCR 74112(i)(3)). A positions list written at a broad level does not meet that rule.

The documentation BPPE expects you to keep

Title 5 CCR 74112(m) requires documentation supporting all reported data to be kept electronically for at least five years from the last time the data appeared in an Annual Report or a fact sheet. BPPE can ask for it. For each program the file includes, at a minimum:

• The list of job classifications the school treats as gainful employment for the program.
• Student name, address, phone, email, program completed, start date, scheduled completion date and actual completion date.
• Place of employment, position, start and end dates, actual salary, hours per week and the date employment was verified.
• For each employer, the name, address, general phone number, contact person with phone and email, and all written communication verifying the student's employment or salary.
• For self-employed graduates, all documentation needed to show the self-employment.
• A description of every attempt to contact each student or employer.
• For each graduate marked unavailable, the type and dates of unavailability and the documentation.
• The name, title and contact details of the staff member primarily responsible for gathering the data, the date gathered, and copies of the emails or letters used to request it.

Notice what the list implies. Dates, hours and contact attempts matter as much as the employer name. A file that says only where a graduate works cannot show that the job started inside the six-month window or ran 30 hours a week.

BPPE also collects graduate identification data so it can match graduates to wage data held by the Employment Development Department, according to its notice on the reporting requirement. A placement file built from dated, sourced evidence is the file that holds up when someone compares it to an independent record.

Steps to prepare the report

1. 1Fix the program list and the positions list. Confirm every program in the 2025 catalog and write the employment positions list at the six-digit SOC level.
2. 2Define the cohorts. For each program and each of the two reporting years, count the students who began and were scheduled to complete in that year, excluding cancellations during the cancellation period.
3. 3Classify every graduate. Place each one in available or unavailable, with the document that supports the status.
4. 4Collect employment evidence. Record start date, hours per week, SOC-matched title, employer contact and the date you verified it. Log each contact attempt, including the ones that fail.
5. 5Calculate and review by program. Check that no rate exceeds 100% and that every number on the fact sheet ties to a file.
6. 6Build the fact sheets. Start from the BPPE fact sheet template, keep every required table and verbatim statement, and combine all programs into one PDF.
7. 7File and keep the receipt. Submit through the portal using one account for the whole report, mail the financial statements, and keep the confirmation email. The report counts as filed when you receive it, and BPPE says that email does not confirm the content is compliant.

Common mistakes

• Counting a job that starts outside the window. The six months run from completion, or from exam results for licensed fields.
• Leaving continuing-education graduates in the denominator. Graduates continuing at an accredited or Bureau-approved institution are unavailable for employment, and the status needs a document.
• Using a job title instead of the SOC match. The test is the six-digit classification on your positions list, not whether the title sounds right.
• Missing the hours test. A job counts after 5 weeks at 30 hours, or 20 hours with the signed part-time statement. A start date alone does not show either.
• Skipping the contact log. Regulation 74112(m) asks for a description of every attempt to reach each student or employer.
• Sending financial statements through the portal. They have to be mailed or delivered as hard copies.
• Splitting the report across users. BPPE recommends one person and one account per reporting year because workflows are user specific.

How to collect defensible employment evidence

Most placement gaps are timing and channel gaps. Nobody asked the graduate for a second way to be reached at orientation, the first outreach came after the six-month window, or the only record of a job is a conversation. Each of those is a point where career work can be wired into the program earlier.

• Capture a personal email and phone number at enrollment and again at completion, since school email often expires.
• Start outreach at completion, not at the six-month mark, so every contact attempt is dated inside the window.
• Use more than one source. A graduate reply, an employer confirmation and a public profile each make the file stronger together than any one does alone.
• Collect hours per week and start date in the same message that asks where the graduate works.
• Collect the signed part-time and self-employment statements at the time of the first reply, not months later.

How Prentus helps

Prentus is the career outcomes platform. Students use one platform from day one until they are hired, and the same record feeds the outcomes your team reports. Prentus runs an automatic monthly LinkedIn scan plus dozens of third-party sources that verify employment. AI reviews those sources and surfaces what it believes are legitimate outcomes, and your staff confirm each one. First-destination surveys go out by email and SMS, and surveys you already run can be migrated in.

Your team still prepares the BPPE forms and keeps the employer, hours and attestation evidence the rules call for. What changes is that staff start each file with a dated, sourced lead instead of a blank spreadsheet. See Prentus for career schools, the Workforce Pell placement measure, and our guide to job placement software for colleges and career schools. For the accreditor side of the same documentation, read ACCSC employment verification requirements and our guides to the ACCSC annual report and the ABHES placement rate and annual report.

Primary sources

• BPPE Annual Reports page (due date, portal opening, resources)
• BPPE 2025 Annual Report submission notice
• BPPE Annual Report instructions
• BPPE School Performance Fact Sheet template and definitions
• Title 5 California Code of Regulations, sections 74110 and 74112 (effective July 1, 2026)
• California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, sections 94910, 94928, 94929.5 and 94934

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current regulations and BPPE notices before you file.