The State Assembly and Senate raced to finish their work ahead of the July 14 deadline for legislation to be approved by the policy committees in their second house (Assembly bills to be approved by the Senate committees and vice versa). Bills that made it past will move on to be considered in the Appropriations committee in each house or to floor votes of the full Senate and Assembly.
As legislators head back to their home districts for the month-long recess, which ends Aug. 14, here’s where the chips have fallen for some of the year’s most significant TK-12 education proposals.
Six CSBA-sponsored bills will continue to move forward when the Legislature reconvenes:
Assembly Bill 1023 (Papan, D-San Mateo): Would increase cybersecurity support for school districts by requiring the California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC) to include representatives from the California Department of Education and explicitly lists school districts, county offices of education and charter schools among the specified entities with which Cal-CSIC is to coordinate information sharing. Result: Passed by the Senate Governmental Organization Committee on June 27 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
Senate Bill 765 (Portantino, D-Glendale): Would streamline the 180-day mandatory waiting period and the salary earning cap local educational agencies must observe before hiring a recently retired teacher. Result: Under consideration by the Assembly Committee on Public Employment & Retirement, to be heard in August.
SB 551 (Portantino): Would enhance the collaboration between county mental health agencies and school districts by requiring county mental health boards with five to eight members to include one LEA employee who has experience providing mental health services to students and one person aged 25 years or younger, with scaled requirements for larger boards. Result: Passed by the Assembly Health Committee on June 13 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 483 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance): Would increase funding for and expand access to school-based health and mental health services by improving and streamlining the Local Education Agency Medi-Cal Billing Option Program (LEA BOP). Result: Passed by the Senate Health Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
AB 417 (Bennett, D-Ventura): Would increase county boards of education’s authority to appoint a student school board member by addressing a loophole in current law — allowing students in high schools maintained by the county board an equal opportunity to serve on their governing board in cases where a county board does not receive a student petition to create a student board member. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on June 7 and awaiting consideration by the full Senate.
AB 557 (Hart, D-Santa Barbara): Would extend the opportunity for school boards to offer virtual meeting options during states of emergency. Result: Passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 27 and awaiting consideration by the full Senate.
Also under consideration were key TK-12 education bills concerning transportation, school funding, curriculum and more.
School transportation
SB 88 (Skinner, D-Berkeley): As written, would have undermined home-to-school transportation programs by imposing redundant and excessive driver requirements for anyone who receives compensation for providing transportation for students. In response to advocacy by CSBA and partners (including more than 200 local education leaders who reached out to the committee members), the author agreed to an amendment framework that should address most major concerns. However, the amended bill is not yet in print and CSBA advocates will wait to see the exact language before removing the Oppose position. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Assembly Education Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 579 (Ting, D-San Francisco): Would require, commencing Jan. 1, 2035, all newly purchased or contracted school buses to be zero-emission vehicles. LEAs that determine this goal is not feasible due to both terrain and route constraints may request a one-time extension for five years and frontier school districts would also be authorized to annually apply for an extension beginning in 2040 and ending in 2045. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on June 28 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
Funding and finance
SB 98 (Portantino): Beginning in 2023–24, would authorize LEAs to annually receive a supplemental funding allocation equal to the difference between their Local Control Funding Formula base grant and their enrollment. At least 30 percent of the supplemental funding would be required to be spent to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy. Would also impose an ongoing maintenance of effort equal to the expenditures on staff in 2019–20 for efforts to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Made a two-year bill by the author and will not move forward in 2023.
AB 938 (Muratsuchi): Would establish new LCFF funding targets for the 2030–31 fiscal year and express the Legislature’s intent to use the funds to increase the salaries of classified and certificated school site staff. CSBA Position: Disapprove. Result: Passed by the Senate Labor, Public Employment & Retirement Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
Facilities
AB 247 (Muratsuchi): Would place a $14 billion state general obligation bond measure on a 2024 statewide ballot to fund TK-12 and community college facilities construction and modernization. CSBA Position: Support. Result: Passed by the Senate Governance & Finance Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
SB 28 (Glazer, D-Orinda): Would authorize a $15 billion bond measure for the construction and modernization of public preschool, K-12, community college, UC and CSU facilities to be placed on the March 2024 primary election ballot. CSBA Position: Support. Result: Passed by the Assembly Education Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
SB 499 (Menjivar, D-San Fernando Valley): Would require school sites to replace low, specific heat surfaces like cement the next time resurfacing or replacement of outdoor surfaces occurs with cool pavement technologies, natural grass, shrubs, trees, wood chips or other natural systems that mitigate heat and pollution. Would also require schools to develop an extreme heat action plan by Jan. 1, 2025, and begin implementation by Jan. 1, 2027, including addressing the planting of shade trees and the installation or planting of a school garden and green barrier, and require CDE to develop a template for an extreme heat action plan and a model program guidebook. However, the bill does not come with any identified funding nor acknowledges the diverse environmental challenges LEAs face in planting and maintaining shade trees or mini-forests and “green barriers” on school campuses. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Assembly Education Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
Curriculum
AB 1078 (Jackson, D-Riverside): Would make significant changes to the laws that ensure sufficient textbooks and instructional materials are available to students. By modifying the complaint procedures related to insufficient textbooks, would allow enforcement by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction — even before the district itself has an opportunity to investigate — requiring financial penalties and personally name individual school district board members in online public notices for a noncompliant district. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on July 5 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
Governance
SB 494 (Newman, D-Fullerton): Would prohibit the governing board of a school district from taking action to terminate a superintendent or assistant superintendent of the school district without cause at a special or emergency meeting of the governing board or within 30 calendar days after the first convening of the governing board after a general election. A recent amendment sought by CSBA and adopted in the Assembly Education Committee would protect a board’s authority to act during months when a regular meeting is not scheduled. CSBA Position: Tracking. Result: Passed by the Assembly Education Committee on June 28 and awaiting consideration by the full Assembly.
AB 715 (Dahle, R-Bieber): Would establish the Rural Education Task Force to advise the Superintendent of Public Instruction on the needs of rural schools, to include members from various groups, including representatives from LEAs, members of school district governing boards and county boards of education, parents, school administrators and charter school leaders. CSBA Position: Support. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on June 28 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
AB 764 (Bryan, D-Los Angeles): Would make school districts, county boards of education and other local governments subject to similar criteria and process requirements that apply to counties and cities when adjusting the boundaries of the districts used to elect members of their governing bodies. Would also increase the public hearing and outreach requirements that apply to all local jurisdictions as part of the process for adopting or adjusting boundaries and allow for legal challenges when a local jurisdiction does not comply with the requirements of state law related to redistricting. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Passed by the Senate Committee on Governance & Finance on July 12 and waiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
AB 1352 (Bonta, D-Oakland): Would prohibit the governing board of a school district from taking an action that contradicts any existing law requiring a school district to have inclusive policies, practices and curriculum and authorize the governing board of a school district to censure a member or, by a 2/3 vote of the governing board, remove a member from office if the member prevents the governing board from conducting its business or adopts a policy that contradicts any existing law requiring a school district to have inclusive policies, practices, and curriculum. CSBA Position: Tracking. Result: Made a two-year bill by the author and will not move forward in 2023.
Health and wellness
SB 234 (Portantino): Would require all schools, including charter schools, to keep naloxone hydrochloride or any other opioid antagonist on their campuses at all times. It would also allow pupils in grades 9 to 12 to carry naloxone hydrochloride or another FDA-approved opioid antagonist while on a school campus or participating in school activities. CSBA Position: Support. Result: Passed by the Assembly Health Committee on July 11 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
SB 509 (Portantino): Would require LEAs to certify to CDE by July 1, 2027, that 75 percent of classified and certificated employees who have direct contact with pupils at each school have received specified youth behavioral health training. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Passed by the Assembly Education Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
Kindergarten and TK
AB 1192 (McCarty, D-Sacramento): Would eliminate the budget contingency language associated with the 1:10 teacher-to-student ratio requirement for transitional kindergarten, thereby mandating all LEAs to institute the ratio in the 2025–26 school year despite a lack of additional funding for TK facilities and an ongoing staffing shortage. Would also require LEAs to provide professional development to a teacher aide assigned to a TK classroom. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
Labor and human resources
SB 433 (Cortese, D-San Jose): Would remove the authority of an elected school board to make the ultimate decision on whether to take significant disciplinary action, such as the demotion, suspension or dismissal against a classified staff person, and place it into the hands of a third-party hearing officer. Would also require LEAs to fund the costs associated with obtaining a disciplinary ruling for cause from a third-party hearing officer, who would also be required to be jointly selected by the LEA and the union. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on June 27 and awaiting consideration in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 897 (McCarty): Would reduce the threshold for part-time probationary employees in adult education programs to be deemed to have served a complete school year if the employee has served 75 percent of a 60-percent short-term position. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on June 21 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
AB 1699 (McCarty): Would require LEAs to give priority to existing employees when hiring for open classified positions before making it available to the public. Would also provide that the position must be offered to a classified employee who meets the minimum job qualifications of the position or who could meet the minimum job qualifications after 10 or fewer hours of training paid for by the LEA. Additionally, would require LEAs to provide reasonable modifications to the work schedules to allow the employee to work both assignments. CSBA Position: Oppose. Result: Passed by the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment & Retirement on July 12 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
AB 383 (Zbur, D-West Hollywood): Would, upon a budget appropriation, modify the School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program (CSETCP) to require an LEA receiving CSETCP grant funds to provide a participating classified employee with a leave of absence of up to 600 hours to complete a teacher training program, wage replacement for that leave of absence and benefits during that absence. The bill specifies that the grant administrator, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, is to use CSETCP grant funds to pay LEAs to provide wage replacement and benefits. CSBA Position: Oppose unless Amended. Result: Passed by the Senate Education Committee on July 5 and awaiting consideration in Senate Appropriations.
