Over the weekend, Governor Newsom acted on a large batch of bills ahead of his September 30 deadline to sign or veto. Below is a quick rundown of the actions we think are most relevant. He has two more days to act on bills remaining on his desk. We will have more detail in our Changes in Law series, due out mid-October.

Bills Signed Over the Weekend

Prop 28 Arts and Music in Schools: Allowable Uses, Pooling, and Supplement Certification

AB 2440 (Muratsuchi) is the Prop 28 cleanup bill. It takes effect January 1, 2027. The most consequential change is that the supplement-not-supplant certification now comes with a statutory calculation. Under the new statutory process, an LEA identifies its existing arts funding by taking prior-year total arts education expenditures, subtracting Prop 28 spending and spending from resources that are no longer available (expired one-time state funds, federal funds, parent fundraising, donations, grants, and other sources lost for reasons outside the LEA’s control, as well as savings from replacing one general fund employee with another providing the same services), then adding any newly available non-Prop 28 resources spent on arts. If current-year non-Prop 28 arts spending equals or exceeds that figure, the LEA is in compliance. This gives districts a defensible way to document the supplement/not supplant test, which has paralyzed action in some places and has been the biggest source of Prop 28 compliance complaints. This is the time to ensure you have a documented methodology that matches the new statutory steps before the 2027-28 certification.

Other Changes Worth Noting

• Pooling. LEAs may pool schoolsite allocations, on the condition that expenditures for each site stay proportional to that site’s allocation, each site’s expenditure plan is followed, and all other requirements of the chapter are met.
• Allowable uses. The definition of arts education program now expressly includes curriculum, instructional materials, and professional development, and programs must be consistent with the California Arts Standards, the Arts Education Framework, or the Preschool/TK Learning Foundations.
• Posting. Each schoolsite or preschool must post its expenditure plan and any granted waivers on its website, or the LEA may centralize that posting on the district site. CDE must post approved waivers.
• Annual report. The board-approved annual report is due September 30 in a manner determined by CDE and is posted on both the LEA’s and CDE’s websites.
• 2027-28 certification. Beginning in 2027-28, each LEA must certify that all Prop 28 requirements have been implemented at each of its schoolsites.
• Audit. The annual audit must cover all Prop 28 funds and determine whether they were spent consistent with the LEA’s certifications.

Early Math Assessment in Kindergarten Through Grade 2

The Governor signed SB 1067 (Weber-Perison, D-San Diego), which creates a statewide framework for early math assessment in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade beginning in the 2028-29 school year. Under the bill, the State Board of Education approves criteria for evidence-based diagnostic assessments, CDE publishes an approved list and guidance, and LEAs may self-certify an alternative assessment that meets the same standards. LEAs must assess each pupil annually, including pupils who enroll later in the year, share results with families, and use the results to trigger supports and interventions. Results may not be used for high-stakes purposes. With prior written parent or guardian consent and specified disability, evaluation, or language-proficiency criteria, an LEA may elect not to assess an individual pupil.

Combined with the math professional learning and network investments in the 2025 and 2026 budgets, this signals the state’s early math focus is moving from professional development toward measurement and intervention. Districts will want to start thinking about assessment selection, staff training, and how screening results feed into existing MTSS and intervention structures well ahead of 2028-29.

Emergency Career Substitute Teaching Permit: Alternative Pathways

AB 2490 (Valencia, D-Anaheim) creates new pathways to qualify for the emergency career substitute teaching permit for substitutes who have not yet met the existing experience-based requirement of 90 days per year of substitute teaching. The new pathways rely on LEA verification of special education or general education preparation and require professional development, orientation, and mentoring, with LEAs able to count existing training and documented mentorship hours. Permits issued under the new pathways carry a 12-month term with a 30-hour training requirement at first renewal.

Most importantly for staffing, these permit holders may serve up to 70 cumulative days in a single classroom, including special education classrooms. The current limits are 30 days for general assignments and 20 days for special education. Parent notice, assignment prerequisites, and annual reporting to the local governing board and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing apply. The bill does not change existing proper-assignment rules or the definition of a vacancy. The bill was supported by several groups in response to the teacher shortage and the new paid pregnancy leave.

LCAP, SARC, and Dashboard Reporting Streamlining

AB 2496 (Solache, D-Lakewood) trims LEA reporting by removing several School Accountability Report Card disclosures and adjusting the timing of some annual parent reports. It also directs CDE to study duplication in the SARC, compare its data elements with other publicly available sources, and identify where the SARC template goes beyond what statute requires. The bill also updates physical education monitoring. The changes are modest, but the CDE study is a useful step toward the broader reporting relief many of you have been asking for and it gives us a hook for next year’s conversation about LCAP and SARC redundancy.

CTE Incentive Grant Allocation Formula

AB 1590 (Ransom, D-Stockton) requires CDE to adopt a revised California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant allocation formula that fully allocates each year’s appropriation to applicants to the maximum extent practicable, applying to allocations beginning no later than the 2027-28 fiscal year. It also shifts administrative and monitoring responsibilities from the Superintendent to the department. Practically, the goal is to get more of each year’s CTEIG appropriation out the door to applicants rather than leaving funds on the table, which has been common (though it was almost all allocated in this most recent funding round).

K-12 Omnibus Cleanup Bill

AB 2467 (Assembly Education Committee) is the annual K-12 education omnibus and was signed as an urgency measure, so it is in effect now. Items most relevant to LEAs:

• TK multilingual learner screening. Delays the start of the required screening of transitional kindergarten pupils whose primary language is other than English to the 2028-29 school year, and extends availability of the $10 million appropriated for screening instruments and training through June 30, 2029.
• Contractor policy fee exceptions. For the contractor evaluation and approval policy that governing boards must adopt by July 1, 2027, clarifies that the prohibition on contractors charging fees to pupils or parents does not apply to California State Preschool, High School ASSETs, ASES, ELO-P, school-age childcare, and specified childcare programs. It also exempts contracts with licensed family childcare homes and license-exempt alternative payment program providers from the license or certificate requirement.
• Audit guide. Refocuses the independent study audit check on whether ADA-to-FTE certificated employee ratio calculations comply with Education Code Section 51745.6, and adds a check that chartering authorities have documented their oversight and teacher assignment monitoring tasks.
• Charter oversight. Moves the chartering authority’s notice of material concerns to a July 1 timeline covering the previous 12 months of oversight activity.
• Teacher assignment monitoring. Removes educational joint powers authorities, but not charter schools, from the LEA definition for CTC assignment monitoring, and adds annual teacher assignment and credential candidate reporting.
• Military families. Expands the documentation military families may use to establish residency.
• Biliteracy. Updates biliteracy scoring language and adds a California Spanish Assessment pathway.

Other Education Bills Signed Over the Weekend

Here is a quick list of other signed bills that touch K-12 operations. We will cover the ones with implementation implications in more depth in our Changes in Law client brief soon.

• AB 1871 (Fong) – Dual enrollment: College and Career Access Pathways partnerships
• AB 2107 (Pellerin) – Expanded Learning Opportunities Program: offering access to unduplicated pupils
• AB 2468 (Patel) – School accountability: pupils with disabilities: inclusion
• AB 2555 (Patel) – English learners: reclassification
• AB 2316 (Hoover) – Charter School Facilities Program: undue financial burden
• AB 2332 (González) – Dual language immersion coordinator
• AB 2242 (Davies) – Pupil safety: sextortion informational poster
• AB 1809 (Fong) – Public contracts: school and community college districts
• SB 845 (Pérez) – CTE, career education, work-based learning, work experience education, and apprenticeships
• SB 998 (Gonzalez) – Educational equity: discrimination prevention coordinators
• SB 1082 (Niello) – Interdistrict transfers: agreements and policies
• SB 1083 (Pérez) – Noncertificated school employees: egregious misconduct: statewide data system and background checks
• SB 1347 (Niello) – Pupil health: emergency stock albuterol inhalers
• SB 1374 (Niello) – Restraining orders: educational institutions

Bills Vetoed Over the Weekend

Condom Access in Schools

The Governor vetoed SB 608 (Menjivar, D-Burbank), Senator Menjivar’s third attempt at a condom access bill. SB 541 (2023) and SB 954 (2024) were both vetoed on cost grounds. This year’s version dropped the requirement that high schools provide condoms free of charge. Instead, it would have barred LEAs from prohibiting school-based health centers from making condoms available to pupils in grades 7 through 12, required schools to allow condom availability through specified educational or public health programs, and prohibited retailers from refusing to sell nonprescription contraception based solely on age. This time the Governor pointed to local control, writing that “the implementation decisions required by this legislation are best made locally.” The veto message is here.

SELPA Apportionments: Alternate Assessments

The Governor also vetoed AB 2526 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance), which would have created an alternate low-incidence funding formula for SELPAs that add pupils eligible for alternate assessments to the count, but only when the Budget Act appropriates funding above the existing low-incidence formula. The veto message is here.

What’s Next?

The Governor has until Wednesday, September 30 at midnight to act on the remaining bills on his desk.