(a) Pursuant to the provisions of section 58051, the units of full-time equivalent student for apportionment purposes shall be computed for courses, including those delivered by distance education under article 1 (commencing with section 55200) of subchapter 3 of chapter 6, based on the type of course, the way the course is scheduled, and the length of the course.

(b) The governing board of each community college district shall, for each of its colleges or its district, select and establish a single primary term length for credit courses that are scheduled regularly with respect to the number of days of the week and the number of hours the course meets each week, inclusive of holidays. The units of full-time equivalent student of credit courses scheduled coterminously with the term, exclusive of independent study and work-experience education courses, shall be computed by multiplying the student contact hours of active enrollment as of Monday of the weeks nearest to one-fifth of the length of the term, unless other weeks are specified by the Chancellor to incorporate past practice, by the term length multiplier, and divided by 525. The term length multiplier for attendance accounting purposes shall be determined in accordance with this chapter, provided that the maximum multiplier for semester length terms shall be 17.5 and the maximum multiplier for quarter length terms shall be 11.67.

(c) For credit courses scheduled to meet for five or more days and scheduled regularly with respect to the number of hours during each scheduled day, but not scheduled coterminously with the college's primary term established pursuant to subdivision (b), or scheduled during the summer or other intersession, the units of full-time equivalent student, exclusive of independent study and work-experience education courses, shall be computed by multiplying the daily student contact hours of active enrollment as of the census days nearest to one fifth of the length of the course by the number of days the course is scheduled to meet, and dividing by 525.

(d) For credit courses scheduled to meet for fewer than five days, and all credit courses scheduled irregularly with respect to the number of days of the week and the number of hours the course meets on the scheduled days, the units of full-time equivalent student, exclusive of independent study and work-experience education courses, shall be computed by dividing actual student contact hours of attendance by 525.

(e) For all open entry-open exit credit courses and for all noncredit courses otherwise eligible for state aid, except those described in subdivision (f), the units of full-time equivalent student shall be computed by dividing actual student contact hours of attendance by 525.

(f) For distance education courses not computed using other attendance accounting procedures described in this section and for independent study, correspondence and work-experience education courses, the following alternative attendance accounting procedure shall be used:

(g) Notwithstanding subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section, the units of full-time equivalent student for any credit course other than independent study, correspondence and work-experience education courses may, at the option of the district, be computed by dividing the actual student contact hours of attendance by 525. When a district chooses to exercise the option of computing attendance for any course section by the actual student contact hours method, such method must be used consistently for all attendance accounting for that section.