Quick Take
As California legislators return from recess for the final stretch of the legislative session, several education bills addressing social media usage, disability funding and student achievement remain undecided.
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California legislators returned from their summer recess this week for the final stretch of the legislative season, with the fate of several education bills still undecided. Lawmakers have until Aug. 31 to pass bills and send them to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the measures.
Social media is the focus of at least two proposals. One would require schools to teach students how to use social media and artificial intelligence responsibly. Another would limit children under 16 from creating accounts on online platforms with “addictive features.”
Other proposed measures would make it easier for community colleges to create bachelor’s degree programs, improve the identification of Indigenous students and streamline the process of reclassifying English learners.
Here are 10 education bills worth watching.
AB 2071: Digital wellness instruction
Category: Student wellness.
Author: Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R-Folsom)
What it would do: AB 2071 would require California schools to include digital wellness in health classes, teaching students how to interact with social media and artificial intelligence responsibly. The bill requires the California Department of Education to develop, by January 2028, a curriculum on healthy screen habits, algorithms, artificial intelligence and online safety.
Why it’s important: The bill aims to address a growing youth mental health crisis, fueled by what many parents and school leaders describe as an “addiction” to social media. AB 2071 also follows landmark court verdicts that found social media companies Meta and Google liable for designing “addictive” features and endangering children online.
Status: AB 2071 has passed unanimously in the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Vani Sanganeria
AB 1709: Age restrictions for social media
Category: Student wellness
Author: Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach)
What it would do: AB 1709 would prohibit children under age 16 from creating or maintaining accounts on social media platforms that use “addictive features” such as algorithmic feeds. The bill also requires platforms to implement age verification and establishes an e-Safety Advisory Commission to advise the attorney general on implementation and enforcement of the law.
Why it’s important: The bill, which is similar to Australia’s blanket ban on social media use for children under age 16, intends to reduce children’s use of social media due to concerns about worsening student anxiety, depression and mental health. Digital rights and privacy advocates say the bill would threaten user privacy and online free speech.
Status: AB 1709 has passed the Assembly and is headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Vani Sanganeria
AB 2526: Expanding funding for students with significant disabilities
Category: K-12 funding
Author: Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance)
What it would do: Students with certain rare disabilities — hearing, vision or severe orthopedic impairments — receive specialized services and equipment through the state’s Local Control Funding Formula. This bill would expand the number of students eligible for this per-pupil funding by also including students with significant cognitive disabilities who take the California Alternative Assessments.
Why it’s important: The proposal would fill a “massive hole” in California’s current funding formula, according to Al Muratsuchi, the bill’s author. School districts are dipping into general funds and pulling away money from smaller class sizes, art and music in order to cover rising costs of students with disabilities, according to Muratsuchi, who said the bill would help school districts face this “silent crisis.”
Status: Passed the Assembly; currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Emma Gallegos
AB 2555: Reclassification of English learners
Category: English learners
Author: Assemblymember Darshana Patel (D-San Diego)
What it would do: AB 2555 would automatically reclassify English learners as “fluent and English proficient” when they achieve the top score of 4 on the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) or 3 on the Alternate ELPAC. It would eliminate other requirements, which currently include showing they have “basic skills” equivalent to their English-speaking peers and teachers’ evaluations.
Why it’s important: Research has shown that many students remain classified as English learners for months or years after they reach proficiency on the ELPAC, holding them back from other academic opportunities. This would streamline reclassification criteria, which vary widely among districts.
Status: In the Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Zaidee Stavely
AB 1581: Counting Indigenous students
Category: Race and demographics
Author: Assemblymembers James Ramos (D-San Bernardino), Darshana Patel (D-San Diego) and Mia Bonta (D-Oakland)
What it would do: AB 1581 would require schools and the California Department of Education to collect and report the tribal affiliation of every student who identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native, including those who also identify as another race or ethnicity. Currently the state asks schools to report all Hispanic or Latino students, no matter their race, as Hispanic or Latino. Students who identify as more than one race, such as American Indian and white, or American Indian and Black, are counted as “two or more races.”
Why it’s important: According to a 2023 report by the American Institutes for Research and the Indigenous Education State Leaders Network, Native American students are undercounted by 89.8% — with 155,855 American Indian and Alaska Native students not counted as such. That means schools may not receive federal or state funds meant specifically for Indigenous students, and the state doesn’t track how schools serve these students. Collecting tribal affiliations would also show educators the diversity of Indigenous cultures among their students.
Status: In Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Zaidee Stavely
AB 2694: Community college bachelor’s degrees
Category: Higher education
Author: Assemblymembers David Alvarez (D-Chula Vista) and Blanca Pacheco (D-Downey)
What it would do: The bill would limit when California State University campuses and other four-year universities can claim duplication and object to new community college bachelor’s degrees. Four-year colleges would not be able to claim duplication if they do not enroll students from the community college’s geographic region in a similar degree program. Four-year colleges that do enroll students from the same geographic region would also not be allowed to claim duplication if there is an unmet regional workforce need.
Why it’s important: AB 2694 would make it much easier for community colleges to create new bachelor’s degree programs, which supporters say provide an affordable and accessible path to a four-year degree, especially for students who can’t leave their local communities to attend a CSU or University of California campus. CSU is opposed to the bill and says the state should focus on expanding transfer pathways.
Status: In Senate Appropriations Committee.
– Michael Burke
SB 1048: Seal of climate literacy
Category: New diploma seal
Author: Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park)
What it would do: SB 1048 would create the State Seal of Climate Literacy, joining seals for civic engagement and biliteracy. Attached to a student’s diploma, the seal would recognize knowledge of the Earth’s climate system, an ability to communicate climate change and the completion of a capstone project in the community. The latter could be field experience, work in a laboratory, an internship or a student-designed community project dealing with climate change. The seal would be a voluntary program administered by schools.
Why it matters: The effects of climate change are the dominant global challenge facing Generation Alpha. The seal would be a way to inspire civic involvement to counter cynicism in an era in which leaders in Washington are abandoning commitments to solving threats from climate change.
Status: The bill, now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, easily passed through legislative hoops. High school climate coalitions have testified and campaigned for its passage.
– John Fensterwald
AB 2225: Lead bill to confront California’s student achievement gap
Category: Student achievement gap
Author: Assemblymember Darshana Patel (D-San Diego)
What it would do: The bill is the centerpiece of a four-bill package, sponsored by the California School Boards Association, that would drive state policy for narrowing the achievement gap. AB 2225 would authorize a working group appointed by the governor, Legislature and school organizations to create a plan for measuring state progress on the issue. Other bills would create a commission to advise the State Board of Education on student performance (AB 2202), require the Legislative Analyst’s Office to provide guidance on the issue (AB 2149), and create a new dashboard to measure the state’s progress (AB 2514).
Why it’s important: “The SOS for [a] student achievement legislative package recognizes that the state must also be accountable for ensuring its own policies, programs and funding are aligned to support local efforts,” Patel said. CSBA contends closing the gap must be the state’s top education priority, ahead of other initiatives that distract from that goal.
Status: All four bills are now in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The package preceded Newsom’s plan, tied to the state budget, to establish a cabinet-level director of education who would run the Department of Education and also create a plan to realign agencies overseeing school improvement. Whether Newsom views the bills as complementary, as CSBA contends, or in conflict with his vision could determine their fate.
– John Fensterwald
SB 1067: Adopting a math screener for K-2 students
Category: Math education
Author: Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego)
What it would do: Advocacy groups that successfully lobbied for a law requiring that students in kindergarten through second grade be tested for potential reading challenges like dyslexia have turned their focus toward math. SB 1067, with 24 co-authors, would require the state to develop a choice of math screeners in multiple languages. It would be given annually one-on-one, or in groups, starting in 2028-29, to potentially identify dyscalculia or weak foundational math skills, such as number recognition. The estimated cost, based on the literacy screener, would be about $100 million to develop and implement initially,
Why it’s important: As the nonprofit advocacy group EdVoice, the chief sponsor, wrote, “California is facing a math achievement crisis, and it starts in early grades. Because math learning is cumulative, students who fall behind early rarely catch up without targeted support.” Identified students would receive support.”
Status: Now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the bill is supported by the California PTA, Decoding Dyslexia CA and three dozen other organizations. However, opponents, which include the California County Superintendents, California Mathematics Council and the California Teachers Association, argue that until the state adequately funds teacher training in the new math framework, and a screener risks overidentifying students in classes with insufficient instruction.
– John Fensterwald
AB 2615: A search for a compromise on anti-discrimination
Category: Anti-discrimination dispute
Authors: Assemblymembers Rick Zbur (D-Los Angeles) and Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay)
What it would do: This bill intends to resolve highly contested unfinished business. Last year, in response to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in schools, lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 715. With support from the Legislative Jewish Caucus, AB 715 enhanced anti-discrimination protections for students by race, religion, sexual orientation and nationality. It strengthened schools’ obligations to remove discriminatory textbooks and lesson plans, and strengthened the complaint process. It also created a new Office of Civil Rights with an antisemitism prevention coordinator. Last month, a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge threw out a 2025 lawsuit to stop AB 715, which is now in effect.
Why it’s important: In signing AB 715, Newsom insisted that the authors work with opponents, including the California Teachers Association, to settle disagreements. A key sticking point concerns AB 715’s language requiring that teachers teach only accurate information. Opponents argue the wording will lead to endless conflicts over what constitutes accuracy while chilling the ability of teachers to explore controversial issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Status: So far, there has been no settlement, despite numerous negotiations. The bill is stuck in the Assembly Rules Committee.
– John Fensterwald
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