On September 1, 2023, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees concluded the suspense file hearings, where they took over 700 legislative proposals. This fiscal committee deadline determines which proposals will make it to the Assembly and Senate floors for a final vote, to determine which proposals will head to the Governor’s desk.
This report summarizes the key legislative proposals that CASBO has been actively working on during the final weeks of the session. For bills that continue to move forward with amendments, the updated version of the bill will be posted later this week. Should the Legislature seek additional changes to proposals once on the Assembly or Senate Floor, the statutory deadline to amend legislation on the Senate and Assembly Floor is Friday, September 8, 2023.
The 2023 Legislative Session will conclude on Thursday, September 14, 2023, and Governor Newsom will have until October 14, 2023, to determine the faith of the proposals that make it to his desk.
Bills that Passed Suspense without Amendments
AB 383 (Zbur) California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program: leave of absence for student teaching. This bill would modify the California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program (CSETCP) to require a local educational agency (LEA) receiving grant funds from CSETCP to provide a classified employee participating in CSETCP with a leave of absence of up to 600 hours to complete a teacher training program, wage replacement for that leave of absence, and benefits during that absence. The bill also requires a classified employee participating in CSETCP to reimburse these costs to an LEA if the employee does not complete a teacher training program or honor a commitment to teach at the LEA after completing a teacher training program.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Mishaal
AB 452 (Addis) Childhood sexual assault: statute of limitations. This bill would eliminate time limitations on when people may file civil lawsuits seeking damages for childhood sexual assault against specified defendants, including state and local agencies and public schools.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 897 (McCarty) Certificated school employees: probationary employees: service credit. This bill would require adult education teachers to earn permanent status after a two-year probationary period; requires certificated employees working at least 60% of a full time position and who have served for at least 75% of the number of days of their assignment to be considered to have served a complete school year for purposes of attaining permanent status; and, requires employees hired using “categorical” or restricted state funding to be notified of the following at the time of hire: the expected end date of employment, the source of funding, and the nature of the categorically funded program or project.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Mishaal
SB 765 (Portantino): Teachers: retired teachers: teacher preparation. This bill would, from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026, make temporary changes to the hiring of retired educators, including a temporary increase to the postretirement compensation earnings limit for a retired educator.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 579 (Ting) Schoolbuses: zero-emission vehicles. This bill would require, commencing January 1, 2035, all newly purchased or contracted school buses of a LEA to be zero-emission vehicles.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 483 (Muratsuchi) Local educational agency: Medi-Cal billing option. This bill will require the Department of Health Care Services to establish a revised audit process for claims submitted through the Local Education Agency Medi-Cal Billing Option Program (LEA BOP), a program that allows schools to claim reimbursement for a portion of the cost of delivering health services to Medi-Cal eligible students.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal
SB 433 (Cortese): Classified school and community college employees: disciplinary hearings: impartial third-party hearing officers. This bill would require an impartial third-party hearing officer to determine, on appeal, if a classified school or community college employee should be subject to disciplinary action.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth
SB 509 (Portantino) School employee and pupil training: youth mental and behavioral health: mental health education. This bill requires, by July 1, 2027, a local educational agency serving students in grades seven to 12 to certify to the California Department of Education that 40 percent of its classified employees and 100 percent of its certificated employees who have received youth behavioral health training identified by the CDE; and adds instruction in mental health to the course of study for grades one to six.
CASBO Position: Concern
Staff: Mishaal
Bills that Became Two Year Bills in Suspense
AB 247 (Muratsuchi) Education finance: school facilities: Transitional 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
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.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth
SB 868 (Wilk) Pupil safety: trauma kits.This bill would require LEAs to equip each classroom with a trauma kit and to offer training to employees on the use of such kits. Employees who render emergency care with such kits are granted qualified immunity from civil damages, as provided.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal
Bills that were Amended in Suspense
AB 938 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: local control funding formula: base grants: classified and certificated staff salaries. This bill would establish Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funding target levels for the 2030-31 fiscal year with the purpose of increasing school site employee salaries.
CASBO Position: Support if Amended
Staff: Elizabeth
Amendment: Senator Portantino was added as a coauthor.
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.
CASBO Position: Oppose unless Amended
Staff: Elizabeth
Amendment: The bill was amended to ensure lead testing and remediation are eligible uses of bond funding; allows prior lead tests as specified and conform definitions to existing code.
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.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staff: Mishaal
Amendment: The bill was amended to strike out the fentanyl workgroup notification, requiring the Department of Education to maintain certain information on the website.
AB 1699 (McCarty): K–14 classified employees: part-time or full-time vacancies: public postings. This bill would require vacancies for part-time or full-time positions of an education employer, as defined, to be open only to current regular and hourly employees, as provided, before the vacancy may be posted publicly for the general public to apply. The bill would require an interested part-time employee who does not meet the minimum qualifications for a vacancy to be offered paid on-the-job training for that vacancy. The bill would also require an education employer to accept a current part-time employee’s number of years of service with the education employer, regardless of the capacity in which they were earned when that part-time employee applies for an additional part-time assignment that requires a certain number of years of service.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Mishaal
Amendment: The bill was amended to exclude employees on performance improving plans, facing suspension, and making some clarifying changes.
SB 88 (Skinner): Pupil transportation: driver qualifications. This bill would impose new requirements on drivers who provide transportation services to students, including background checks and requiring the drivers to be mandated reporters.
CASBO Position: Neutral
Staff: Elizabeth
Amendment: The bill was amended to provide exemptions for long distance field trips, and to provide a month long exemption to drivers transporting certain foster student while the students transportation plan is being finalized.
Bills that Stalled
AB 377 (Muratsuchi) Career technical education: California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program: Strong Workforce Program. This bill combines the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant (CTEIG) Program and the K-12 Strong Workforce Program into the CTEIG program administered by the California Department of Education (CDE). This would provide $450 million in General Fund, beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year, to be made available for this purpose.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal
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..
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Mishaal
SB 499 (Menjivar): School facilities: School Extreme Heat Action Plan Act of 2023. This bill would create the School Extreme Heat Action Plan Act of 2023, which would require all school sites, the next time outdoor surfaces are resurfaced or replaced, to replace low specific heat surfaces, such as cement, asphalt, brick, pebbles, rubber amongst others, with high specific heat surfaces such as cool pavement technologies, natural grass, shrubs, and trees. This bill would require on or before January 1, 2025, all school sites, to develop an extreme heat action plan, and, by January 1, 2027, to begin implementation of their extreme heat action plan.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth
What to Expect Next?
We are expecting the next two weeks of the legislative session to be uncertain and full of eleventh-hour engagement that will generate amendments, agreements, or compromises before they head down to the Governor’s desk. We will be sharing more resources to help you engage in advocacy efforts for bills that are CASBO priorities.