Lasherica Thornton, Sathya Chaib and Emily Garcia
October 30, 2026
Isabella La Rocca has been waiting for her financial aid refund for more than a month.
Santa Rosa Junior College’s financial aid office told the 21-year-old she could expect her disbursement via the BankMobile app by Sept. 16 — a date that came and went, she said.
“When I logged into the account after updating and doing the new verification, there was nothing there waiting for me,” La Rocca said.
La Rocca is among the thousands of California college students who have been affected by a breach of the BankMobile app used by roughly 60 community college districts to issue school and federal financial aid and scholarships. Some universities also use the mobile banking system.
According to BankMobile communications with California community college officials, approximately 65,000 student accounts were impacted by data changes, roughly 1,000 accounts were accessed and about 400 accounts had financial aid funds stolen.