Next fall, students who graduate from Long Beach Unified School District won’t have to worry about tuition at Long Beach City College for their first two years.

The Long Beach College Promise started in 2008 and originally offered one semester free to LBUSD students. In 2015, it expanded to a full year. Now, the LBCC Foundation will provide the funding for a second year.

“Thanks to the generosity of the LBCC Foundation, we will continue to grow our Long Beach College Promise and help LBUSD students by removing the financial barriers to higher education,” LBCC President Reagan Ferragamo Romali said in a written statement.

State legislation passed in 2017 built on the “promise” program in Long Beach by extending a free year of college to California students, as long as they enroll full-time.

The foundation funds the local promise program through donations from the community.

“There is a whole community of individuals, corporations and local groups like the Long Beach Rotary who give generously to the LBCC Foundation,” LBCC Foundation Board of Governors President Lorain Brault said in a statement.

In September, LBCC announced the “Long Beach College Promise 2.0,” which lets freshmen who have been admitted to Cal State Long Beach to take their lower division classes at LBCC first.