SearchGovernor’s Final Actions
Yesterday, September 30, 2024, the deadline passed for Governor Newsom to sign legislation that the Legislature passed at the end of session. The Governor has been busy this past week acting on hundreds of bills before him and he cleared his desk for the second year of a two-year legislative session hours before the midnight deadline. The Legislature introduced a total of 2,531 bills this year and off those, Governor Newsom acted on 1,206 bills. He signed 1,017 and vetoed 189 bills, having a veto rate of about 15.7 percent.
The Legislature is currently in a special session called on by the Governor to address rising gas prices and any bills that pass may be acted on later this month.
This report highlights key proposals that CASBO has been actively working on that were vetoed, signed, or stalled during the legislative process. For an in-depth look at the Governor’s message, please click the links to see his veto messages. Unless the bill notes otherwise, the bills signed into law will take effect on January 1, 2025.
CASBO had a position on 23 bills this year, below is a highlight of each bill and its status.
Facilities/Contracting
AB 247 (Muratsuchi) Education finance: school facilities: Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024. The K-12 and California Community Colleges school facilities bond totaled $10 billion: $8.5 billion for elementary and secondary school facilities, and $1.5 billion for Community Colleges.
Senate had a similar measure, SB 28: Education finance: school facilities: Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024. CASBO had a Watch position for this bill. SB 28 was held in the Assembly Education Committee, and instead, AB 247 moved forward.
Note: AB 247 is now Proposition 2 and will be on the November ballot.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
SB 956 (Cortese): Design-build contracts. This bill would reauthorize K-12 districts to use the design-build delivery method when constructing and designing school facilities and removes the sunset altogether.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
SB 1374 (Becker): Net energy metering. This bill would have required the California Public Utilities Commission, by July 1, 2025, that any contract or tariff, as part of the Net Energy Metering program for renewable electrical generation facilities constructed, to serve multiple customers with meters on a single property or multiple meters of a single customer on a property or a set of contiguous properties to be eligible to use or collect their electrical load.
Legislative Committee Chair, Mark Schiel shared his opinion on the veto, by stating “For many years now, California school districts have faced significant increases in electricity rates. Many LEAs have installed solar to be more environmentally friendly and generate operational savings in an effort to stretch our financial resources further. CASBO is disappointed in the veto of SB 1374 which would have provided some assurances to public school districts that have or will install solar infrastructure.”
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Vetoed
SB 937 (Weiner) Development projects: fees and charges. This bill would prohibit local government from requiring payment of fees or charges for public improvements or facilities on a designated residential development project before the development receives a certificate of occupancy, except under certain conditions. It also authorizes local government to collect certain unpaid fees or charges following a specified procedure if the housing developer does not post a performance bond or letter of credit.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Signed
AB 1851 (Holden) – Drinking water: schoolsites: lead testing pilot program. This bill would have required the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) to establish a pilot program to test for and remediate lead in drinking water in the schools of 6-10 local educational agencies (LEAs).
CASBO Position: Neutral:
Note: CASBO’s amendments was accepted by the author, which led us to change the position from Concern to Neutral.
Status: Died in Senate
Curriculum/Instruction/Assessment
AB 1871 (Alanis): Personal financial literacy for grades 7-12. This bill would add personal financial literacy to the adopted course of study within the social sciences for grades 7-12.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
AB 2268 (Muratsuchi) English language proficiency assessment. This bill would exempt students in transitional kindergarten from being assessed for English language development using the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
Governance/Accountability
AB 2112 (Muratsuchi): Expanded Learning Opportunities Program. This bill would have required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a workgroup to develop and provide recommendations related to funding and operations of Expanded Learning Opportunities Programs in schools to the Legislature by November 1, 2025.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations Committee
SB 1315 (Archuleta): Reporting requirements. This bill requires the California Department of Education to conduct a report on the number and types of reports that local educational agencies are required to submit on an annual basis.
CASBO Position: Co-Sponsor
Status: Signed
SB 1288 (Becker): AI working group. This bill would require the California Department of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and or convene a working group to study Artificial Intelligence in education. The guidance on the safe use of AI in education must be developed on or before January 1, 2026. The developed model policy, to be posted on the working group’s website on or before July 1, 2026. A report of findings or recommendations to be submitted on or before January 1, 2027, to the legislature.
Note: AB 2652 (Muratsuchi) State Department of Education: artificial intelligence working group, was jointed into SB 1288 because both bills were identical to each other.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
Human Resources
AB 1997 (McKinnor) Teachers’ Retirement Law. This bill would redefine “annualized pay rate” to mean the salary, as described, a person could earn during a school term in a position subject to membership if creditable service were performed for that position on a full-time basis, to be determined pursuant to a publicly available pay schedule by a prescribed method.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Signed
AB 2088 (McCarty): Public postings: vacancies. This bill would have required an education employer to accept a current part-time classified employee who meets the minimum qualification of a position with the most seniority, regardless of the prior positions held with the employer. It would also require classified employees who work part-time assignments that equal the number of hours for a full-time assignment to receive the same benefits as employees who work full-time.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Vetoed
AB 2245 (Carrillo): Permanent status: ROCPs. This bill would require service as an instructor at specified regional occupational centers or programs to be included in computing the service required to attain permanent employee status at a school district.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Signed
AB 2557 (Ortega): Contracts for special services and temporary help: performance reports. This bill would have required, as of July 1, 2025, each board of supervisors that solicits for and enters a specified contract for special services to post that contract and any related documents on its internet website. It would also require, as of July 1, 2026, each contract to include the objectives, desirables, and goals of the contract.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations Committee
AB 2901 (Aguiar-Curry): Paid leave. This bill would have required a public school employer to provide up to 14 weeks of fully paid leave for certificated or classified employees who are absent due to pregnancy-related conditions.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Pulled by the author in the Senate (Dead)
Note: While we acknowledged the intent of the author for granting employee leave for these purposes, our opposition to the bill stems from having no dedicated funding, and the complexity it would add to an already complicated set of employee-leave programs.
AB 1927 (Alanis): Golden state teacher grant program. This bill would have expanded eligibility for the Golden State Teacher Grant Program to prospective instructors who commit to at least 4 years of work as a credentialed CTE instructor.
CASBO Position: Support
Status: Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 3106 (Schiavo): COVID-19 protections. This bill would have required an education employer to give unlimited COVID-19 leave to their education employee.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1116 (Portantino): Unemployment benefits: trade disputes. This bill would restore eligibility for unemployment benefits after the first 2 weeks for an employee who left work because of a trade dispute.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Died in Policy Committee
AB 938 (Muratsuchi) Education finance: classified and certificated staff salaries: This bill requires schools to report certificated and classified staff salaries annually, and requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to report the changes in school staff wages over time to the Legislature. The bill would require LEAs, by January 31, 2026, and annually thereafter, to complete Form J–90 for specified classified and certificated staff assigned to a school site or sites and report Form J–90 to the Department.
CASBO Position: Neutral
Status: Signed
Note*: Initially, CASBO had concerns with the bill’s original language. AB 938 was amended on August 28th from its original form, addressing CASBO’s concerns.
Mark Schiel, CASBO legislative Committee Chair showcased his appreciation by stating “CASBO would like to thank the author’s office for working with us to address our concerns on AB 938. We are hopeful that the new J-90 reporting requirements will not result in a significant administrative burden to California school districts.”
Public Safety
SB 1026 (Smallwood- Cuevaz) School safety: school security departments: This bill would have established that the governing board of a school district that establishes a security department and the governing board or body of a local educational agency that enters into a contract on or after January 1, 2025, with a private licensed security agency to provide school security services, shall specify the parameters on the use of weapons, and specify the roles and responsibilities of school administrators, school security department personnel employed and contracted school security officers.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Status: Died in Senate
Career Technical/Workforce Development
AB 2019 (Hoover) Early and middle college high schools and programs: This bill would have established a reporting mechanism for early or middle college high school programs, thereby recognizing these programs separately from early or middle college high schools.
CASBO Position: Neutral
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee (Dead)
Budget
Governor Gavin Newsom also signed AB 176 Education finance: education omnibus trailer bill. The bill highlights:
- Requires LEAs to report final expenditures for their 2021-22 and 2022-23 ELO-P funds to the CDE by October 31, 2024. For 2023-24, and each fiscal year thereafter, reporting of final expenditures to the CDE by September 30 of the second fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the appropriation is made. Failure to report will lead to the forfeiture of that fiscal year’s ELO-P funds.
- Proposes additional flexibilities that allow specified local entities to apply for remaining of the universal preschool planning grant funds.
- Technical changes to the attendance recovery program.
- Extends the emergency closure submission plan into the school safety plan timeline to July 1st, 2026.
- For Independent study, adjusts the manner LEAs document student’s work product and time engaged in asynchronous instruction to hours, or fractions of hours. This then may be converted to days for purposes of attendance or ADA. Attendance for apportionment in independent study can be earned through a combination of work product (including time when a student is engaged online or computer-based asynchronous instruction) and synchronous instruction participation.
What’s Next
CASBO’s Advocacy team will be hosting two webinars:
- Legislative Wrap-Up Webinar with our Legislative Committee leadership to review this year’s advocacy efforts and look ahead on Oct. 11th at 10:00 AM.
- Proposition 2: School Facilities Bond co-hosted with CASH to provide an update on the proposition to members on Oct. 15th at 10:00 AM.
- Please be on the lookout for information on how to register.
Elections
- November 5th is the presidential election. The School Facilities Bond will be on the ballot as Proposition 2. There are a total of 10 propositions on the ballot, including two bonds and three constitutional amendments.
