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California P&C Legislative Summary: 2025 End of Session

The 2025 California legislative session officially concluded on October 13, 2025. Of the approximately 2,250 bills introduced this year, only 917 made it to the Governor’s desk. Of those, 794 were signed into law and 123 were vetoed, resulting in a 15% veto rate—lower than in previous years. 2025 also marks the first year of a two-year cycle. Bills that failed to make it to the Governor’s desk may be heard and reintroduced beginning in January 2026.

In 2025, housing and immigration emerged as top legislative priorities. California continued to grapple with budgetary challenges despite passing a budget this year. The approved budget leaned heavily on short-term fixes—such as deferring payments and postponing spending cuts—without addressing deeper, long-term fiscal issues. Toward the end of the legislative session, attention shifted to Proposition 50, which gained prominence for its potential to influence policy on a national scale.

Below are the bills that have been signed into law. These bills will become law on January 1, 2026, unless otherwise noted.

Child Sexual Abuse

SB 848 – Pupil Safety: School Employee Misconduct: Child Abuse Prevention

SB 848, among other changes, creates new requirements for schools, including private schools, when hiring employees. It expands mandated reporting requirements and requires a comprehensive school safety plan (CSSP) to include supervision and protection from child abuse. Specifically:

• The definition of mandated reporters has been expanded to include volunteers, board members, and private school employees.
• No later than July 1, 2026, the CSSP is to include procedures specifically designed to address the supervision and protection of children from child abuse, neglect or sex offenses.
• Persons applying for noncertificated positions are to provide the hiring employer with a complete list of every school district and private school they have been employed with.
• The Commission on Teacher Credentialing is to develop a data system including specific information for persons working in noncertificated positions to include investigations for egregious misconduct.

Employment Practices and Discrimination

AB 374 – K-14 Classified Employees: Payment of Wages: Itemized Statements

Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, a public-school employer is to provide a classified school employee with an accurate itemized statement in writing at the time of each payment, reflecting gross wages earned, total hours worked, unless exempted, all deductions, net wages earned, among other specified items.

AB 406 – Employment: Unlawful Discrimination: Victims of Violence

AB 406 prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee when taking time off to serve in a jury or to attend a judicial proceeding related to a victim of a crime, either because they are a victim or a family member is the victim.

AB 642 – Emergencies Proclaimed by the Governor: School Employee Catastrophic Leave: Enrollment Reporting

Current law authorizes the governing board of a Local Educational Agency (LEA), if specified conditions are met, to donate eligible leave credits to an employee when that employee or a member of their family suffers from a catastrophic illness or injury. This bill extends the authorization to also permit an employee to donate eligible leave credits to an employee impacted by a state of emergency proclaimed by the governor.

AB 1028 – Community Colleges: Temporary Employees

This bill requires a Community College District governing board to comply with local collective bargaining agreements pertaining to the termination of a temporary employee.

SB 294 – The Workplace Know Your Rights Act

On or before February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, an employer is to provide a stand-alone notice to each current employee and new hires outlining their rights. This notice must include information on workers’ compensation benefits and contact information for the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC), the right to receive notice of inspection by immigration agencies, protection against unfair immigration related practices against a person exercising protected rights, the right to unionize, and constitutional fourth and fifth amendment rights. The employer is to keep records of compliance with the requirements for three years including the date each written notice is sent. The labor commissioner is to develop a notice that the employer may use.

SB 464 – Employment Pay Data

SB 464 requires public employers with 100 or more employees to submit the annual pay data report to the Civil Rights Department beginning in 2027. The employer is to collect and store any demographic information it gathers for the purpose of submitting the pay data report separately from employees’ personnel records, whose pay falls within federal pay bands and within each job category, only if voluntarily disclosed by the employee or applicant. Civil penalty would be imposed if the employer fails to file the report. “Public employer” does not include a local agency, as defined in Govt. Code section 3511.1(c) (includes county, city, school districts, etc.).

Government Transparency

AB 370 – California Public Records Act: Cyberattacks

AB 370 adds cyberattack as an unusual circumstance for reasons to extend the initial response time to a public records request to an additional 14 days.

SB 707 – Open Meetings: Meeting and Teleconference Requirements

SB 707 makes substantial changes to the Brown Act’s teleconferencing requirements as follows:

• Removes sunset date for social media related provisions effective via AB 992, allowing public officials to communicate with members of the public on social media while prohibiting communication with other legislative body members.
• Legislative members may participate by teleconference to accommodate a disability, so long as specified requirements are met.
• The just cause provisions introduced in 2022 by AB 2449 have been extended until January 1, 2030. Emergency circumstances such as caregiving, illness, family medical emergencies, and military services are now included as a just cause.
• Where an eligible legislative body offers public remote access to an open meeting via telephonic or audiovisual platforms, those bodies must translate meeting agendas and participation instructions into languages spoken by at least 20% of the population with limited English proficiency. An eligible legislative body is defined as a city council or county board of supervisors of a county with a population of 30,000 or more, or a city council of a city located in a county with a population of 600,000 or more.
• Until January 1, 2030, teleconferencing has been extended to eligible subsidiary legislative bodies that meet in an exclusively advisory capacity, do not have primary subject matter jurisdiction over specified matters, and are not authorized to take final action.
• The legislative body will have the authority to remove or limit participation by a person who disrupts, disturbs, impedes, or renders infeasible the orderly conduct of the meeting

Immigration

AB 49 – School Sites: Immigration Enforcement

AB 49, or the California Safe Haven Schools Act, prohibits school officials and employees of a LEA, unless required by state or federal law, from allowing an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement to enter a school site without providing a valid judicial warrant, or court order. LEAs are also prohibited from providing information about students, their families, school employees, and teachers to immigration authorities, unless required by law. The LEAs are also required to provide information to parents and guardians regarding the children’s right to free public education, regardless of immigration or religious beliefs and include information relating to “know your rights” immigration enforcement established by the Attorney General (AG). This information may be provided in the annual notification to parents and guardians pursuant to Education Code 48980.

AB 419 – Educational Equity: Immigration Enforcement

AB 419 incorporates the amendments in AB 49, but specifies that LEAs are prohibited from collecting information or documents regarding the citizenship or immigration status of students or their family members, unless required by state or federal law to administer a state or federally supported program. AB 419 also requires the AG’s “Know Your Educational Rights” guide to be posted in the administrative buildings and on the LEA’s and each school’s website in every language that the AG provides and updated annually following any updates by the AG.

AB 495 – Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025

AB 495 requires LEAs to update their policies in alignment with the AG’s model policies that limit assistance with immigration enforcement at public schools. Updates must incorporate the AG’s guidance document, “Promoting a Safe and Secure Learning Environment for All: Guidance and Model Policies to Assist California’s K-12 Schools in Responding to Immigration Issues,” published on January 6, 2025. Furthermore, more LEAs are to provide parents and guardians with information related to plans for family safety, caregiver’s authorization affidavit, and the importance of providing the school with emergency contacts and keeping them regularly updated. This information can be provided through the annual notification pursuant to Education Code 48980. And lastly, AB 495 expands the definition of “relative” in the caregiver’s affidavit.

SB 98 – Elementary, Secondary, and Postsecondary Education: Immigration Enforcement: Notification

SB 98 requires the school’s CSSP, when next reviewed and updated, before March 1, 2026, to include procedures to notify parents, guardians, school personnel, and others, when it confirms the presence of immigration enforcement on the school site. Higher education campuses are also required to notify all students, faculty and those who work on campus when immigration enforcement is confirmed on campus. It requires the notification to include the date and time, location, and hyperlink to additional resources, including the model policies related to immigration enforcement.

Student Safety

AB 369 – Emergency Services: Liability

AB 369 excuses civil and criminal liability to any person who administers anti-seizure rescue medication in good faith and not for compensation, so long as the conduct is not grossly negligent, or considered willful or wanton misconduct.

AB 677 – Pupil Records and Health: Pupils Experiencing Homelessness: Directory Information and Reporting

AB 677 authorizes directory information of a student identified as homeless to be disclosed to facilitate eye examinations or an oral health assessment unless a written non-consent notice to the physical exam has been provided by the parent or a student accorded parental rights.

AB 727 – Pupil and Student Safety: Identification Cards

Beginning July 1, 2026, AB 727 requires schools serving grades 7 through 12, as well as public and private institutions of higher education that issue student identification cards, to include the telephone number and text line for a designated LGBTQ+ suicide prevention hotline on the ID cards.

AB 772 – Cyberbullying: Off-Campus Acts: Model Policy

On or before June 30, 2026, the Department of Education is to post and distribute to LEAs a model policy for addressing reported acts of cyberbullying that occur outside of school hours. The policy must specify that when such acts take place off campus, they must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to reasonably create an intimidating or hostile educational environment. It must also clarify that LEAs are authorized, but not required, to respond to these incidents and that failure to act does not impose liability. The LEA is to adopt the policy on or before July 1, 2027.

AB 962 – Pupil Safety: Comprehensive School Safety Plans: Use of Smart Phones

AB 962 amends AB 3216 (Ch. 500 Statutes of 2024) that required all schools to adopt a student smartphone policy limiting their use by July 2026. AB 962 amends the policy, to include in the school’s CSSP, the allowance of the use of a smartphone in case of emergency or in response to a perceived threat of danger.

AB 1005 – Drowning Prevention: Public Schools: Informational Materials

A Drowning or Injury Prevention (DIP) organization may provide informational materials to a public-school serving students K-12 regarding water safety education. The school is allowed to provide the informational material to parents at the start of each year.

SB 568 – Pupil Health: Epinephrine Delivery Systems: Public Schools and Programs

SB 568 makes minor terminology changes, replacing “epinephrine auto-injectors” with “epinephrine delivery systems” in reference to pharmacies providing them to LEAs. It also requires LEAs to ensure emergency epinephrine delivery systems are stored at each school site, including locations of any childcare programs operated by or contracted with the LEA. These systems must be available for use by school nurses, trained personnel, or childcare employees who have volunteered, received training, and are subject to the childcare facility’s anaphylactic policy.

School Facilities 

AB 629 – School Districts: Equipment Inventory

Current law requires a school district to maintain an inventory of each item of equipment that has a current market value exceeding $500. AB 629 increases the amount from $500 to $1,500. This amount can be adjusted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction biennially.

AB 1264 – Pupil Nutrition: Particularly Harmful Ultra Processed Food: Prohibition

AB 1264 requires schools to phase out restricted school foods and ultra processed foods by no later than July 1, 2029. The State Department of Public Health is to define what are restricted and ultra processed foods by June 1, 2028. Starting on July 1, 2032, a vendor is prohibited from offering restricted and ultra processed foods to schools.

SB 389 – Pupil Health: Individuals with Exceptional Needs: Respiratory Services: Licensed Vocational Nurses

SB 389 allows a licensed vocational nurse under the supervision of a credentialed school nurse to perform suctioning and other basic respiratory tests and specialized physical health care services to students with exceptional needs.

School Staff Training

AB 79 – Public Social Services: Higher Education

AB 79 requires The State Department of Social Services to develop a training, with specified stakeholders, to be available for basic needs directors, staff of a campus basic needs center or other designated professional staff and eligibility workers, focusing on local programs that increase employability, Department of Social Services and health care services policy updates, and other college student related training, as specified.

AB 640 – Local Educational Agencies: Governance Training

AB 640 requires each LEA official to receive annual training, no longer than four hours, in K-12 public education school finance laws, developed by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Teams (FCMAT). The curriculum is to be posted on FCMAT’s website. To comply with the training, the LEA can offer training courses using LEA employees or contracted legal counsel with demonstrable experience in the topic, or receive the training from an entity who’s primary function is supporting LEAs and whose trainers provide verified technical assistance and subject matter expertise.

Workers’ Compensation

AB 1293 – Workers Compensation: Qualified Medical Evaluators

AB 1293 requires the Administrative Director to develop and make available a template Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) report form that incorporates all statutory and regulatory requirements. However, use of the template does not serve as prima facie evidence that a report is complete, accurate, or compliant with applicable standards.

AB 1398 – Workers’ Compensation

This bill requires all interested parties to disclose, in writing, any financial interest they may have to a third-party payer or other entity from whom payment is being requested.

SB 487 – Workers’ Compensation

SB 487 limits an employer’s right to reimbursement, subrogation, or credit in a third-party liability claim involving a city or county peace officer or firefighter to one-third of the liability insurance policy limit.

Youth Athletics

AB 310 – Nevaeh Youth Sports Safety Act

By January 1, 2028, youth sports organizations must ensure that their coaches are certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), trained to operate an automated external defibrillator (AED), and capable of properly maintaining and testing the AED. Additionally, by January 1, 2027, these organizations must establish written emergency response plans that include AED locations and procedures to follow in the event of sudden cardiac arrest. “Youth sports organization” includes any local government agency that sponsors or conducts amateur sports competitions, trainings, camps, or clubs involving participants who are 17 years of age or younger.

AB 932 – Community Youth Athletics Programs: Sex or Gender Discrimination

AB 932 prohibits a LEA, city, county, or special district from discriminating against a person on the basis of sex or gender in the operation or administration of a community youth athletics program, or in the rental of parks and recreation facilities and resources that support or enable these programs.

Vetoed Bills

AB 1326 – Health Masks: Right to Wear

AB 1326 allows an individual to have the right to wear a mask in public spaces and workplaces for the purposes of protecting their health or the public’s health.

AB 1329 – Workers’ Compensation: Subsequent Injuries Payments

This bill made changes to the Subsequent Injury Benefit Trust Fund.

Failed Bills

AB 68 – School Safety: Armed School Resource Officers

AB 453 – Pupil Safety: Comprehensive School Safety Plans

AB 601 – Child Abuse Reporting

AB 614 – Claims Against Public Entities

AB 857 – School Employees: Cultural Competency Training

AB 1163 – Employees: Workplace Violence Prevention Plans: Topics and Trainings

AB 1233 – Noncertificated Employees: Applicants: Previous Employment: California School Information Services

SB 577 – State Government

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