Last night, October 13, 2023, around 8:00 p.m., Governor Gavin Newsom cleared his desk for the first year of a two-year legislative session. The Legislature introduced a total of 3,030 bills this year. Of those, Governor Newsom signed a total of 1,170 bills and vetoed 156 bills, having a veto rate of about 13.3 percent. The bills signed into law will take effect on January 1, 2024, unless the bill notes otherwise.
This report highlights key proposals that CASBO has been actively working on that were vetoed, signed, or stalled during the legislative process. Those bills that stalled have an opportunity to move forward during next year’s legislative session.
For an in-depth look at the Governor’s message, please click the links to his signed or vetoed messages.
Vetoed Legislation
AB 1699 (McCarty): K–14 classified employees: part-time or full-time vacancies: public postings. This bill would have required vacancies for part-time or full-time positions to be open only to current regular and hourly classified employees, 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 have the minimum qualifications met prior to the start date. This bill would also give priority to current classified employees to be hired for the new position based on seniorty.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Mishaal Gill
Governor’s Action: Vetoed by the Governor on October 7th. You can read the message here.
SB 433 (Cortese): Classified school and community college employees: disciplinary hearings: impartial third-party hearing officers. This bill would have allowed a school or community college classified employee, facing discipline from the employer, to appeal that disciplinary action to an impartial third-party hearing officer, which would be paid by the employer.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Vetoed by the Governor on October 7th. You can read the message here.
AB 249 (Holden) Water: schoolsites: lead testing: conservation. This bill would have required, on or before January 1, 2027, a community water system that serves a schoolsite receiving federal Title I funds to test for lead in each of the schoolsite’s potable water system outlets, and to report the results to the State Water Board and applicable schoolsite or Local Educational Agency (LEA) and requires LEAs or schoolsites, if lead levels exceed five parts per billion (ppb), to rectify and perform specified actions.
CASBO Position: Oppose unless Amended
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Vetoed by the Governor on October 8th. You can read the message here.
Signed Legislation
AB 579 (Ting) Schoolbuses: zero-emission vehicles.This bill requires, commencing January 1, 2035, all newly purchased or contracted school buses of a LEA to be zero-emission vehicles. The bill extends this requirement to frontier LEAs until January 1, 2040, and authorizes them to apply for annual extensions, through January 1, 2045.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 8th. You can read the signing message here.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis, at full implementation, the total cost to replace the entire fleet of school buses in the state (almost 16,000) would be $5.53 billion over time.
AB 721 (Valencia) School districts: budgets: public hearings: notice. This bill authorizes school districts to post information about the proposed budget online (in addition to the required posting in newspapers) and eliminates the requirement to post in newspapers on January 1, 2027, and instead requires the posting of budget information on each school district’s website.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 13th.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis, there are potential Proposition 98 General Fund savings in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
AB 897 (McCarty) Certificated school employees: probationary employees: service credit. This bill requires adult education teachers to earn permanent status after a two-year probationary period, and employees hired using “categorical” or restricted state funding to be given specified notifications related to their expected job tenure.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Mishaal Gill
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 8th.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis, to the extent that additional permanent employees seek due process related to dismissal, this bill could result in unknown, but potentially significant Proposition 98 General Fund costs to LEAs.
AB 452 (Addis) Childhood sexual assault: statute of limitations. This bill eliminates 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 Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 10th.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis, there are unknown, potentially major costs due to settlements and judgments that must be paid out by state entities, school districts, and local governments as a result of claims that are successfully brought by plaintiffs that would have otherwise been barred by the existing statute of limitations (local funds, Proposition 98 General Fund, General Fund).
AB 483 (Muratsuchi) Local educational agency: Medi-Cal billing option. This bill requires 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 Gill
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 8th.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis, the Department of Health Care Services estimates costs of about $2.5 million in 2024-25, $5.2 million in 2025-26 and $5.2 million in 2026-27 and ongoing thereafter (50 percent General Fund and 50 percent federal funds).
SB 88 (Skinner): Pupil transportation: driver qualifications. This bill imposes 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 Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 7th.
Note: As a reminder, the most recent amendments remove the prohibition on Transportation Network Companies, delayed the implementation to July 1, 2025, expand the driver exemptions, expand the LEA employer exemption, remove minimum training hours, remove the mandated reporter requirement, and soften the drug and alcohol testing as it pertains to marijuana. We appreciate our partnership with other associations and LEA’s to narrow the scope of the bill.
Fiscal Impact: The most recent appropriations analysis does not reflect the significant amendments taken thereafter.
SB 326 (Eggman): The Behavioral Health Services Act. This bill revises and recasts the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) as the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) if voters approve amendments to the MHSA at the March 5, 2024 statewide primary election. This bill clarifies that county behavioral health programs are permitted to use BHSA funds to treat primary substance use disorder conditions and makes conforming changes throughout the BHSA. This bill restructures current MHSA funding buckets. This bill enhances the current process for local planning of various services funded by the BHSA, and for oversight, accountability, and reporting of BHSA funds.
CASBO Position: Neutral
Staff: Mishaal Gill
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 13th.
Fiscal Impact: The most recent appropriations analysis does not reflect the significant amendments taken thereafter.
SB 765 (Portantino): Teachers: retired teachers: teacher preparation. This bill will, 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 Esquivel
Governor’s Action: Signed by the Governor on October 13th.
Fiscal Impact: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis, there are Proposition 98 General Fund cost savings in the short term to the extent hiring and paying retired educators is less expensive than hiring permanent educators and potential Proposition 98 General Fund costs to employers of educators to increase pension fund contributions and potential General Fund costs to the state to increases its share of CalSTRS costs.
Stalled Priority Bills
AB 938 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: local control funding formula: base grants: classified and certificated staff salaries. This bill would have established Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funding target levels for the 2030-31 fiscal year with the purpose of increasing school site employee salaries by 50 percent.
CASBO Position: Support if Amended
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Status: 2-year bill
Location: Ordered to the inactive file on the Senate Floor.
AB 247 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: school facilities: Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024. This bill would have authorized a bond measure of $14 billion for the construction and modernization of Transitional Kindergarten through community colleges public education facilities on an unspecified 2024 statewide ballot.
CASBO Position: Support
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Status: 2-year bill
Location: Senate Appropriations Committee
SB 98 (Portantino) Education finance: additional education funding. This bill would have defined “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. The bill would have also required at least 30 percent of the funds be used to address chronic absenteeism.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Status: 2-year bill
Location: Assembly Education Committee
SB 499 (Menjivar) School facilities: School Extreme Heat Action Plan Act of 2023. This bill would have required, contingent on appropriation, every school site to develop an extreme heat action plan by January 1, 2025. The plan is to include the installation or planting of (a) shade trees or mini-forests, (b) schools gardens, and (c) a green barrier between the school site and any adjacent high-polluting streets or commercial projects and for every school to begin implementation of the plan by January 1, 2027.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staff: Elizabeth Esquivel
Status: 2-year bill
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee