TOPEKA — If students have been kicked out of another school or criminally convicted for sexual assault, state university leaders want to know before agreeing to admit them.

University presidents gave their stamp of approval on Wednesday to a proposed Kansas Board of Regents policy that would help inform them.

The proposed policy requires all state universities to add nonacademic misconduct transcript notations for students expelled for forcible sex offenses or other serious personal offenses. To catch prior offenders coming in from community colleges or out-of-state schools, the policy also would require state universities to ask on admission and re-admission applications whether students have been convicted of a personal crime or suspended or expelled from any other educational institution.

If approved, the policy would go into effect July 1, 2017. After Wednesday’s approval by the Regents Council of Presidents, the next steps are consideration by the Regents Governance Committee and then the full board, which could happen as early as February.

It was students, via the Regents Students’ Advisory Committee, who first introduced the idea last year, Regents general counsel Julene Miller said.

The resulting policy proposal is not as broad as what students initially requested, Miller said, but individual universities may enact tougher policies if they wish.

“These are the required,” Miller said. “If you want to make academic or nonacademic transcript notations beyond these, you are still free to do so.”

According to the proposed policy, if a university expels a student for assault, criminal homicide (including murder and negligent manslaughter), kidnapping or a forcible sex offense, the school must add “nonacademic expulsion” to that student’s transcript. If a school’s disciplinary decision is reversed after an appeal, the notation must be removed.

The language for those four offenses comes directly from the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, Miller said.

Since the transcript wording itself is generic, it would be up to university officials to contact one another to communicate what type of offense caused the notation.

“The existence of a criminal conviction or disciplinary suspension/expulsion shall not automatically result in refusal of admission, but may be the basis for refusal to admit or for placement of conditions on admission,” the proposed policy says.

FERPA — often cited as the reason universities won’t disclose anything about student conduct proceedings — does allow university officials to share some information without students’ consent. That includes communicating disciplinary results with officials at an institution where the student seeks to enroll.

Of the six Regents universities, two — Kansas University and Kansas State University — already apply nonacademic misconduct transcript notations.

Wichita State University President John Bardo said his school gets a lot of transfers coming from community colleges, so lacking information about past offenses they may have committed was a problem.

The Regents do not have the authority to require the same transcript notations from community colleges, Miller said. But asking about criminal or school discipline history on admissions forms is hoped to help plug that gap.

“Students, you have to trust them to tell you the truth, but you have a question to tell you whether they’ve been dismissed from another institution,” she said.