It is a perilous time to be a college student depending on the state of California to get through school.

Some 335,500 students going to California colleges this fall have qualified for Cal Grants because their family incomes are so low. They need the grants to pay tuition, buy books or cover basic living expenses.

But without a budget for the 2010-11 year, the state is not sending out any Cal Grants.

State budgets have been late for so many years now that larger institutions have adapted. Campuses in the University of California and California State University systems will front the Cal Grant money to their students, then get reimbursed when a budget is signed.

But at most community colleges and some private schools, California's poorest college students are in limbo until lawmakers hammer out a budget deal – now more than seven weeks late.

"The lines are long and students are inquiring about their financial aid," said Marisela Arce, director of financial aid at Yuba College in Marysville, where the fall term began Monday. "The students need the Cal Grant."

Yuba, like most community colleges, is waiting until the state approves a budget before handing out the $1,551 Cal Grant students get to help them through the year.

When the budget was late last year, about 15 percent of California's 112 community colleges advanced Cal Grant payments to students, said Paige Marlatt Dorr, spokeswoman for the statewide Community College Chancellor's Office. The number of campuses in a position to do that this year is likely to go down, said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, an advocacy group.

"Last year (community) colleges took significant cuts to categorical programs, and colleges burned through their reserve funds," Lay said. "So that normal cash cushion has shrunk dramatically."

The fall semester begins Monday at Sierra College in Rocklin, and students who are expecting Cal Grants won't get them. Spokeswoman Sue Michaels said the state is so backed up on paying schools for Cal Grants that Sierra just recently received its final payment from the 2008-09 year.

"We used to have faith that the funds would be available eventually, but we no longer have that faith," Michaels said. "So we are waiting until the budget is approved before we disperse the funds."

Students at Coastline Community College in Orange County are in the same boat: "We don't have any funds to front the money to our students," said Cynthia Pienkowski, director of financial aid.

Community colleges that are advancing Cal Grant payments include Butte, Lake Tahoe and the Los Rios colleges – Sacramento City, American River, Cosumnes River and Folsom Lake.

"It helps to be big," said Susie Williams, spokeswoman for the Los Rios district, the second largest community college system in the state. "We're in better fiscal shape. That doesn't mean we can go on forever."

Most students who get Cal Grants also get other forms of financial aid, including loans and federal grants. The budget standoff in the Capitol hasn't slowed their ability to get those funds, said Tim Bonnel, a financial aid coordinator in the Community College Chancellor's Office. Some community colleges are asking their foundations to help Cal Grant students cover the cost of books.

The situation at private colleges varies. Santa Clara University, St. Mary's College and University of the Pacific are advancing Cal Grant payments. But not all colleges can do it, said Jonathan Brown, president of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, which represents 78 nonprofit institutions.

"They're very committed to helping students get through college, but if they don't have the cash, they don't have the cash," Brown said.

Humphreys College in Stockton advanced students about $500,000 this summer when Cal Grants expected for the end of the 2009-10 year didn't come through from the state. The private school of roughly 1,000 students can't do that again for the fall, said President Robert Humphreys.

"This comes out of our financial reserves," he said. "It didn't draw us down to zero, but we can't put another half million dollars out in September and still make payroll and pay for the lights and heat."

Many proprietary trade schools do not advance Cal Grant payments to their students, said Diana Fuentes-Michel, director of the California Student Aid Commission, the agency that oversees Cal Grants.

"They are for-profit schools, and they see distributing the funds that they don't have as taking from their bottom line," she said.

Heald College, for example, is not advancing payment to the 2,432 Cal Grant recipients it's serving this year, President Eeva K. Deshon said in an e-mail interview. Heald has 10 campuses in California, including locations in Rancho Cordova and Roseville, where students train for entry-level positions in health care, business and legal fields.

"If the funds continue to be delayed, students may not be able to continue their educations or they may have to incur additional debt to remain in school," Deshon wrote.

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