CA’s SB 88 sets new safety standards for student ride-share drivers, including background checks and training, impacting all student transport providers.

Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) must report cybersecurity attacks. Incidents of cyber attacks on LEAs had already...

Over the last few years, student services issues have been addressed largely through the state budget rather than...

Pair of bills aims to keep kids safe from gun violence while at school. The Governor signed two bills that raise...

Unprecedented revenue growth drives historic Proposition 98 funding. California tax revenue continued to grow at an...

Historic State Investment in School Facilities Focused on State Budget While Statewide Bonds Stalled. We began the...

In what seems to have become the norm over the past few years, some of the biggest bills for schools this year came in...

Temporary Changes to Brown Act teleconference requirements signed into law. During the pandemic, it became impossible...

2022 was a relatively quiet year in terms of the Legislature making significant changes to curriculum &...

State invests $6 billion in broadband infrastructure over 3 years. A problem that has been persistent in California for years, the digital divide was highlighted in a major way when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Perhaps more than any other sector, schools felt the impact of a sudden and almost total reliance on access to high-speed internet. In an effort to help remedy the issue, bills were quickly introduced in both houses of the state Legislature in 2020 and 2021. However, one of the most significant proposals this year came via enactment of the state budget.

This year, the youth mental health crisis received much-needed attention. Policymakers prioritized the issue responding to the pandemic’s exacerbation of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation rates amongst youth. A leading proponent on this issue was Senator Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), whose own family has been affected by suicide. The Senator authored companion bills related to youth mental health, both of which were signed by the Governor. SB 14, an urgency measure that took effect upon the Governor’s signature on October 8, adds “for the benefit of the pupil’s mental or behavioral health” to the list of categories of excused absences for purposes of school attendance. SB 14 also requires the California Department of Education (CDE), by January 1, 2023, to recommend best practices and identify evidence-based training programs for schools to address youth behavioral health. The language that would have required LEAs to train their staff utilizing these programs was removed from the bill late in the legislative process due to associated costs.

Brown Act flexibilities for teleconference meetings extended through 2023. In the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order (EO) N-29-20, which, among other things, allowed public agencies to conduct meetings virtually without having to comply with certain provisions of the Brown Act, including that every teleconference location be accessible to the public. Originally only intended to last as long as social distancing was required by State or local public health agencies, the Governor signed another EO, N-08-21, in June 2021, extending these flexibilities through September 30, 2021. With that deadline only a few weeks away, Governor Newsom then signed AB 361, authored by Assembly Member Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), which, until January 1, 2024, exempts local legislative bodies from certain provisions related to teleconference public meetings under the Brown Act, including the Act’s teleconference quorum, meeting notice, and agenda requirements, during states of emergency.

While only a handful of bills dealing with early learning and care were signed into law this year, that did not preclude the sector from seeing a truly seismic policy shift. As with many other areas dealing with PreK-12, the most significant policy change was carried out with the enactment of the state budget.