Legislative Update
The California Legislature has introduced 2741 measures since December 5th, 2022. On January 20, 2023, and February 16, 2023, CASBO’s Legislative Committee deliberated legislative proposals, and this report highlights the bills the committee has taken positions on.
AB 19 (Joe Patterson) Pupil health: opioid antagonists. This bill would require each individual public school operated by an LEA to maintain at least two doses of naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist for purposes of those authorizations.
AB 19 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal Gill
AB 95 (Hoover) Intradistrict and interdistrict transfer of pupils. This bill would require a school district of residence to approve an intradistrict transfer request for a pupil of that school district if the school of attendance is in the red or orange performance band in 2 or more of the state measures for 3 consecutive years on the California School Dashboard.
If there is no available school for an intradistrict transfer, the bill would authorize a pupil of a school district, if the school of attendance is in the red or orange performance band in 2 or more of the state measures for 3 consecutive years on the California School Dashboard, to apply for an interdistrict transfer and would prohibit the school district of residence from prohibiting that transfer if the school district of proposed enrollment approves the application for transfer.
AB 95 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Concern
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
SB 10 (Cortese) Pupil health: opioid overdose prevention and treatment. This bill would expand statewide prevention and education efforts to combat overdoses and fentanyl-related deaths that have plagued youth statewide.
SB 10 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Mishaal Gill
SB 28 (Glazer) Education finance: school facilities: PK–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024. This bill would place a $15.5 billion bond on the 2024 ballot for facilities at public preschools, K-14 and University of California (UC) campuses, and California State University (CSU) campuses. Schools can use the bond monies to construct, reconstruct, and remodel existing or new facilities.
SB 28 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
AB 249 (Holden) Water: schoolsites: lead testing: conservation. This bill would aim to remove all lead from school drinking water and requires water utilities to test all potable water faucets and fixtures in TK-12 schools for lead by 2027. Lead concentrations must be reduced to below five parts per billion (5 ppb) via filters and/or faucet replacements. This is the exceedance standard adopted by the Department of Social Services for the lead testing of water in licensed child care centers directives, pursuant to AB 2370. This bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board to allocate $10 million each fiscal year from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to pay for sampling and remediation in schools. The bill would require a community water system to prepare a sampling plan for each schoolsite where lead sampling is required.
AB 249 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Concern
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
AB 377 (Muratsuchi) Career technical education: California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program: Strong Workforce Program. This would provide $450 million in General Fund, beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year, to be made available for this purpose.
AB 377 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal Gill
AB 383 (Zbur) California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program: leave of absence for student teaching. This bill would expand the definition of “teacher training program” to include out-of-state teacher licensure programs that meet certain criteria. The bill would add wage replacement as one of the criteria that the commission is required to include in its selection of LEAs for the program. It would also require participating classified employees to be entitled to a leave of absence from a participating local educational agency of up to 600 hours for the purpose of completing a student teaching requirement as required by a teacher training program. The participant would need to provide reimbursement, along with interest, if the criteria is not met.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Mishaal Gill
AB 452 (Addis) Childhood sexual assault: statute of limitations. This bill would eliminate time limits for the commencement of actions for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault. The fact sheet references that last year, President Joe Biden signed the Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act, which removed statute of limitations for people who were sexually abused as minors to file civil claims in federal courts. Subsequently, numerous states, including Alaska, Delaware, Maine, and Utah have eliminated the statutes at the state level.
AB 452 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
SB 98 (Portantino) Education finance: additional education funding. This bill would define “average daily membership” as the measure of the total enrollment days for all pupils in an LEA from TK-12, divided by the total number of instructional days for the LEA in an academic year. This bill would require an LEA’s average daily membership to be calculated using data from the same fiscal year or years that the LEA used to calculate its ADA. The bill also requires at least 30 percent of the funds be used to address chronic absenteeism.
SB 98 Fact Sheet
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
AB 247 (Muratsuchi) Education finance: school facilities: Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024. This bill would create the K-14 Act Bond as a state general obligation bond act that would provide an unspecified amount to construct and modernize education facilities. This bond would become operative only if approved by the voters at the 2024 election.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) Report
On February 16, 2023, the LAO released their report which provides an analysis and recommendations regarding the administration’s proposals for using available 2021-22 Proposition 98 funds and provided recommendations to the Legislature.
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*Source: LAO
2022 Discretionary Block Grant: $1.2 billion Reduction
With the understanding that districts have already received the first half of this funding and have already adopted plans for how to use them, the LAO recommends the Legislature take actions that would free up funding or eliminate the proposed reduction to the block grant by reducing ongoing spending in 2023-24 and rejecting the additional literacy initiatives, helping free up $350 million in 2021-22. The LAO also recommends using $500,000 in Prop 98 to evaluate existing literacy programs for effectiveness, on or before June 30, 2028.
Reduce Ongoing Spending in 2023-24
To avoid passing a budget that creates a deficit in 2024-25, the LAO reminds the Legislature there are several options to reduce ongoing spending including:
- Funding a lower COLA
- Rejecting or delaying the implementation of the $300 million ongoing for the LCFF Equity Multiplier
- Reductions to existing programs such as the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) or State Preschool