A Contractual Education Task Force was created by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges to study contractual education in the state's community colleges. All districts and colleges were surveyed regarding contractual education services offered between July 1982 and June 1985. Study findings, based on responses from 67 districts, included the following: (1) 58 districts had entered into at least one contractual education program; (2) community colleges reported entering into contracts totalling $41,872,511 during the 3-year period, of which 85% was from public training funds, 8% was from contracts with private industry, and 7% from contracts with public entities; (3) half of all contractual education classes were offered for community college credit; (4) programs supported by public training funds tended to be skills or occupational programs designed to prepare students for new jobs; (5) relatively few (22%) of the programs were open to the public; (6) over half of the instructors in contractual education programs were employed part-time; (7) the majority of the courses were either existing college courses (44%) or modifications of existing courses (35%), though 17% of the respondents indicated that contractual courses were developed specifically for the contracting company or agency; (8) contractual programs were offered in a variety of areas, with the most frequent programs being in business and management; and (9) each district operated its contractual education programs in a different manner. Task force recommendations concerning the role and mission of contract education; credit, non-credit, and not-for-credit contractual education classes; the role of foundations, auxiliary organizations, and other corporations; and program operations are appended, along with the text of Assembly Bill 3938. (EJV)