The Legislature concluded its 2019 business in the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 14 after marathon hearings on the Senate and Assembly Floors. Gov. Gavin Newsom now has until Oct. 13 to sign or veto all legislation passed by the Legislature and sent to his desk — bills that were not passed by the Legislature this year (referred to as “two-year bills”) have the option to be heard and passed in 2020, the second year of the current two-year legislative session.

CSBA will release the “What’s New for 2020” report detailing all new K-12 education laws in October following the Governor’s signing deadline.

In total, 1,328 bills were passed by the Legislature and sent to Gov. Newsom in 2019. Of those, CSBA has adopted a formal position on 64 measures and has monitored an additional 97.

Key bills passed and sent to Gov. Newsom:

Senate Bill 328 (Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge), school start times: Would require all non-rural middle and high schools to begin the regular school day no earlier than 8 a.m. (middle schools) or 8:30 a.m. (high schools). CSBA Position: Oppose. Click here to email Gov. Newsom to urge his veto of SB 328.

AB 751 (O’Donnell), Pathways to College Act: Would allow LEAs the flexibility to administer an alternate assessment (such as the SAT or ACT) for 11th-grade students during the school day in place of the Smarter Balanced Summative Test. CSBA Position: Cosponsor. Click here to email Gov. Newsom to request he sign AB 751.

Assembly Bill 48 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach), The Public Preschool, K-12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2020: Would place a $15 billion facilities bond on the March 3, 2020 ballot, with a total of $9 billion going to K-12: $2.8 billion to new construction and $5.2 billion to modernization, including money for lead in water testing and remediation, and $500 million each for Career Technical Education and charter schools. CSBA Position: Support. View author’s fact sheet | Read more from EdSource

AB 1505 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach), charter petitions and renewals: Would make a series of sweeping changes to charter school petition and renewal processes that will benefit local educational agencies. CSBA is supportive of AB 1505, and will continue to work with legislative leadership on remaining implementation issues with the bill when the 2020 legislative year begins. Read more | View author’s fact sheet

AB 1507 (Smith, D-Santa Clarita), charter schools location, resource center: Would delete the authority of a charter school to locate outside the jurisdiction or geographic boundaries of the chartering school district because the charter school has attempted to locate a single site or facility to house the entire program, but a site or facility is unavailable in the area in which the charter school chooses to locate, or the site is needed for temporary use during a construction or expansion project. CSBA Position: Support.

AB 967 (Smith), LCAPs – Would specify that requirements for Local Control and Accountability Plan development, adoption and transparency, which currently apply to governing boards of traditional public schools, would also apply to charter schools. CSBA Position: Support.

AB 218 (Gonzalez, D-San Diego), Damages: childhood sexual assault: statute of limitations: Would substantially extend the statute of limitations to bring a civil action against an employer — including school districts, public agencies and others — where there has been a claim against an employee of that organization for alleged child sexual abuse. The Department of Finance opposes the legislation amid estimates that it could results in “significant costs to state and local agencies.” CSBA Position: Oppose Unless Amended; CSBA has worked extensively with the author and key committee staff throughout 2019 in the effort to amend the bill to reduce the potential impact on LEAs. CSBA will provide additional information and guidance for members on the bill if signed by Gov. Newsom.

SB 5 (Beall, D-San Jose), Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program: SB 5 endeavors to address the housing crisis by, among many other things, authorizing cities and counties to reduce their required contributions to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, which provides a stable source of revenue for school districts and determines the level of state funding under Proposition 98. CSBA Position: Oppose Unless Amended: CSBA has worked as part of a coalition including CTA, ACSA, CASBO, CCSESA, LAUSD and others seeking amendments to the bill that would protect ERAF funding while still maintaining the meritorious policy efforts of the bill.

AB 773 (Gonzalez), voter education: Would require school districts to implement voter education programming — developed by the Secretary of State and Department of Education, and further customized by local elections officials – for 12th-grade students during a presentation or assembly at the high school campus. CSBA Position: Support.

SB 223 (Hill, D-San Mateo), medical cannabis: Would authorize LEAs to allow a parent or guardian to administer medical cannabis to their child on school grounds in a non-smoking and non-vaping form, if the child is a qualified medical cannabis patient with a doctor’s recommendation. Parents would be required to take all cannabis from school grounds after administration and bill does not require school staff to administer medicinal cannabis. Districts and counties that opt-in can opt-out for any reason, including if federal funding is at risk. A similar measure was vetoed by then Gov. Jerry Brown last year. CSBA Position: Support.

Key two-year bills which can be brought back up in 2020:

AB 39 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance), LCFF funding: would express legislative intent to increase the Local Control Funding Formula base grant targets equivalent to the national average in per-pupil funding. AB 39 was made a two-year bill on Sept. 12, as conversations surrounding education funding are expected to continue at the Capitol into the fall and CSBA continues its push for Full & Fair Funding. CSBA Position: Co-sponsor.

AB 331 (Medina, D-Riverside), ethnic studies: Would add a one-semester course in ethnic studies for high school students as a graduation requirement beginning in 2024–25 and would authorize, subject to an LEA’s course offerings, a student to satisfy the course requirement by completing either an ethnic studies course or an ethnic studies course taught as a course in another subject. CSBA Position: Support if Amended.

All bills with CSBA positions passed by the Legislature in 2019: