On May 14, the Legislature’s respective Appropriations Committees dispensed with their suspense files. The suspense file compiles bills with a price tag of over $150,000 to be considered in bulk in order to assess their fiscal impact upon the state as a whole. Suspense hearings provide the Legislature with a singular opportunity to address bills with significant financial price tags and even some politically difficult measures. Legislation that is “held on suspense,” does not move forward this legislative cycle.
Of CSBA’s 10 sponsored bills, three have been adopted. Of the remaining seven, the five that were on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee passed with flying colors.
Here is a breakdown on the outcomes of the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees’ suspense file, including CSBA’s legislative package and other notable bills:
CSBA-sponsored legislation
SOS for Student Achievement legislative package
Assembly Bill 2225 (Patel, D-San Diego) – State plan to close the achievement gap
- Convene a broad stakeholder workgroup to create a plan for greater state-level support to help local educational agencies close achievement gaps
- Emphasizing students and LEAs, the proposal will require clear goals and benchmarks, annual performance targets and evaluations of key state education bodies and programs
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 2514 (Ransom, D-Tracy) – State of the Achievement Gap Dashboard
- Establishes a dashboard to provide a clear and concise method of informing the public of the state’s progress in implementing the state plan for closing the achievement gap
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 2149 (Garcia, D-San Bernardino) – Annual Report on State Plan Progress and Alignment
- Requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) to annually evaluate and report on the alignment between the state plan and the state’s proposed and adopted budgets, including a review of the funded status of mandates
- Intent is for the report and associated recommendations to help guide the work of the state and to help implement and align to the state plan established pursuant to AB 2225
- Status: Passed the Assembly and is awaiting referral to Senate Education Committee
AB 2202 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance) – Embedding the state plan into the work of the State Board of Education
- Establishes a Closing the Achievement Gap Commission under the State Board of Education (SBE). The commission would help develop and recommend to the SBE and other policymakers a publicly available system of monitoring the performance of new and existing state programs to support LEAs in closing the achievement gap, consistent with the state plan
- Working with the California Collaborative on Educational Excellence, the commission would also help identify more efficient methods of supporting LEAs through the Statewide System of Support
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
Report on reports legislative package
AB 2008 (Patel)
- Place a time limit on report requirements, including procedural requirements
- Co-sponsored with the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the Small School Districts Association
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 2496 (Solache, Jr., D-Lynwood)
- Eliminate the School Accountability Report Card, which is duplicative to the California School Dashboard, the mid-year Local Control and Accountability Plan update, and eliminate other duplicative and overlapping reports
- Co-sponsored with CASBO and ACSA
- Status: Passed the Assembly Floor and is on its way to the Senate
House Resolution 87 (Muratsuchi)
- Urges the Governor and Legislature to analyze questions of purpose, audience, value, feasibility, duplication and duration as part of the existing committee and floor bill analysis process when analyzing, considering, developing or implementing new reporting or planning requirements
- Co-sponsored with CASBO and ACSA
- Status: HR 87 was adopted by the Assembly April 6, 2026
Other CSBA-sponsored legislation
AB 2490 (Valencia, D-Anaheim) – 60-day substitute
- A re-introduction of AB 1224 from last year, which was vetoed by the Governor, it would expand the amount of time an authorized substitute teacher could serve in a single general, special or career technical education classroom from 30 days to 60 days
- This bill is co-sponsored with ACSA, the California County Superintendents and CASBO
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 1381 (Muratsuchi) – Educational workforce housing revolving loan fund
- Would provide no-interest grants to LEAs to support workforce housing predevelopment work
- Status: AB 1381 is a two-year bill and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee
Senate Resolution 73 (Choi, R-Irvine) and HR 77 (Carrillo, D-Palmdale) – School Board Recognition Month
- Both measures declare the month of January as School Board Member Appreciation Month
Other notable bills
Curriculum and instruction
AB 1631 (Muratsuchi) – Mandatory kindergarten
- This measure would have required a student to complete a full year of kindergarten before enrolling in the first grade
- CSBA position: Tracking
- Status: Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2615 (Zbur, D-Santa Monica) – Combatting antisemitism
- A follow up to AB 715 from last year, which CSBA opposed, AB 2615 attempts to address growing incidences of antisemitism. Addressing prejudice and discrimination is critical to providing a safe and supporting learning environment, which includes addressing incidences of antisemitism; however, the amendments make provisions of AB 715 more problematic as it relates to teacher instruction, instructional materials and what is considered “factually accurate”
- CSBA position: Oppose Unless Amended: Amendments CSBA is seeking would retain local control and protections against discrimination and bias in teacher instruction and instructional materials
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
SB 1067 (Weber-Pierson, D-San Diego) – Math screenings
- Requires the SBE to adopt a list of approved screening instruments for identifying math difficulties and requires LEAs to use one of these instruments to screen students in kindergarten through second grade
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is on the Senate Floor
LCFF and school funding
AB 1204 (Alvarez, D-San Diego) – Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) reform
- Would “remodel” LCFF by establishing a minimum cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), developing regional COLA adjustments, increasing supplemental grants and lowering the concentration grant threshold, and adding homeless students as unduplicated pupils
- CSBA position: Oppose Unless Amended: CSBA amendments seek to focus LCFF reform on increasing base LCFF funding and establish a minimum annual COLA of 4 percent
- Status: This is a two-year bill and is with the Senate Education Committee awaiting a hearing
AB 2509 (Schultz, D-Burbank) – Modernizing ADA apportionment calculations
- Would allow funded average daily attendance (ADA) to be calculated as the greater of the current year, prior year, average of the three most recent prior years, or the average of the five most recent prior years
- CSBA position: Support
- Status: Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
Public education governance
AB 1644 (Muratsuchi): Pupils use of smartphones: prohibition
- Requires LEAs to adopt and update a “bell-to-bell” ban on smartphone use for students in grades TK-8 and strongly encourages a similar ban for high schools
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 1861 (Lackey, R-Palmdale): Special education: public complaint database
- Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to create and maintain a public, online database of all special education complaints filed under alleged violations of federal law
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Died on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2117 (Alvarez, D-San Diego) – Education governance reform
- Would transfer oversight and administrative responsibilities of the CDE to a gubernatorially appointed education commissioner. The intent is to implement the Governor’s education governance reform proposal via policy legislation as opposed to including in budget trailer bill
- Position: Support if Amended: CSBA sought amendments that would make the education commissioner confirmed by the Senate and require the commissioner to have demonstrable experience running a large public or private organization with experience in public education leadership or its equivalent
- CSBA position: Support: CSBA secured the above amendments
- Status: Passed the Assembly and awaiting referral to the Senate Education Committee
AB 2303 (Muratsuchi) – Grant reporting portal
- Would require the LAO to study the possibility of a single grant reporting portal that LEAs would use to report all grant information to CDE, while also requiring LAO to develop and CDE to maintain a master calendar of reporting deadlines
- Position: Support if Amended: CSBA amendments seek to expand the study to include recommendations on eliminating unnecessary reports and/or planning requirements
- CSBA position: Support
- Status: Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2651 (Bonta, D-Alameda) – Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act
- Requires LEAs to notify parents when their child’s school vaccination rate falls below the level required to achieve herd immunity within 10 business days of receiving notice from the California Department of Public Health
- CSBA position: Tracking
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
Senate Bill 1082 by (Niello, R-Roseville) – Interdistrict transfers
- Requires a school district to determine whether an interdistrict transfer is incomplete and notify the parent within 30 days if additional information is needed
- CSBA Position: Neutral: CSBA obtained amendments removing more problematic language providing for the de-facto approval of interdistrict transfer requests
- Status: Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is on the Senate Floor
Labor and human relations
AB 1564 (Ahrens, D-Santa Clara) – Employer-employee relations: confidential communications
- Establishes a right to privilege for communications between a labor representative and a represented employee, similar to doctor-patient, marital and other forms of protected communications. In doing so, it would restrict the ability of LEAs to investigate or address issues of inappropriate or violations of LEA policies
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
AB 1750 (Coloza, D-Los Angeles) – School employees: absences due to illness or accident
- Would require LEAs to pay full salaries for up to five months to certificated and classified employees who remain absent due to illness or injury after exhausting their sick leave
- CSBA position: Disapprove
- Status: Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2142 (Garcia) – Classified staff: temporary employees
- Would make it more difficult for an LEA to hire temporary classified staff by mandating the LEA to make temporary staff permanent if they work up to 75 percent of a school year, even if the employee quits or is terminated and is then rehired at a later date, no matter how much time passes between employment
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is on the Assembly Floor
SB 1083 (Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena) – Classified staff: egregious misconduct
- Would undo some of the advancements made via SB 848 from last year, which put in place needed changes to help LEAs address incidences of inappropriate interactions between staff and students, i.e. egregious behavior. It also includes the ability to appeal the finding of a substantiated allegation to an administrative law judge (ALJ) and makes the ruling of the ALJ final, removing the final decision-making authority from the board of education.
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is on the Senate Floor
Artificial intelligence
AB 1898 (Schultz, D-Burbank) – Workplace artificial intelligence tools
- This bill would significantly restrict the ability of public agencies in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) including significant rules on how they may use AI
- It would also establish a private right of action and apply significant financial penalties and liabilities on public agencies, including LEAs
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
SB 947 (McNerney, D-Stockton) – Employment: automated decision systems
- Would effectively prohibit the use of AI platforms used by employers to make employment and employee-relations decisions
- It would also permit the California labor commissioner, public prosecutors or aggrieved employees to file suit against an employer if alleged to violate the bill’s provisions
- CSBA position: Oppose
- Status: Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is on the Senate Floor
What’s next?
These bills now head to the respective Floors of the Assembly and Senate. The Assembly and Senate will have until May 29 to pass out all measures.
Because this is the second year of the two-year legislative session, if bills fail to pass then they are dead and are unlikely to be resurrected prior to the adjournment of the two-year 2025–26 legislative session.
