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California P&C Legislative Watch List for 2025

Below are some of the bills we are currently tracking that impact K-12 schools. There has been significant focus on immigration policies. Due to the current deficit California is facing, we will be monitoring which bills survive to reach the Governor’s desk and potentially become law. It is important to note that we are in the first year of a two-year legislative cycle. This means that bills considered dead for this year can still be revisited in 2026.

Claims Administration

AB 614 – Claims Against Public Entities

AB 614 would expand the period for presenting a claim to a government entity for damages as a result of death or injury to a person or personal property from six months to one year of the claims action, unless specified by law.

Status: AB 614 was held in submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is dead for the year.

SB 29 – Civil Actions: Decedent’s Cause of Action

SB 29 extends the sunset provision that allows for recovery of damages for pain, suffering and disfigurement in survival actions to January 1, 2030.

Status: SB 29 was passed in the Senate and is now in the Assembly awaiting committee discussions.

Discrimination

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

AB 932 extends the existing prohibitions regarding gender discrimination in youth sports that currently apply to specified local governments to also apply to facilities rented from local educational agencies.

Status: AB 932 was passed in the Assembly and is now in the Senate awaiting committee discussion.

Employment

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

AB 642 allows the donation of eligible leave credits to an employee when the employee or an employee’s family member suffers from a catastrophic illness or injury to apply when an employee is impacted by a state of emergency proclaimed by the governor.

Status: AB 642 was passed in the Assembly and is currently awaiting a committee assignment in the Senate.

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

AB 1233 requires the California School Information Services (CSIS) to develop a statewide data system for tracking hiring data for non-certificated positions. This system will include records of any egregious employee misconduct that results in a substantiated report by a Local Education Agency (LEA) and requires the LEA to review that data system before hiring an individual for a non-certificated position.

Status: AB 1233 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is dead for this year.

SB 294 – The Workplace Know Your Rights Act

SB 294 requires an employer to annually provide a stand-alone written notice to each current employee and to each new hire, of workers’ rights under state and federal law, including wage and hour protection, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, etc.

Status: SB 294 was passed in the Senate and was referred to the Assembly Labor and Employment and Judiciary Committee.

SB 464 – Employer Pay Data

This bill requires public employers with 100 or more employees to submit the annual pay data report 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.

Status: SB 464 was passed in the Senate and has been referred to the Assembly where it is awaiting a committee assignment.

Immigration Policies

AB 49 – School Sites: Immigration Enforcement

This bill prohibits school officials and employees of a LEA from allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter a school site for any purpose without providing valid ID, a valid judicial warrant, a court order, or exigent circumstances necessitating immediate action. The bill limits access for ICE to facilities where students are not present. The bill would take effect immediately.

Status: AB 49 was passed in the Assembly and referred to the Senate Education Committee, where the hearing was postponed by the committee.

AB 419 – Educational Equity: Immigration Enforcement

AB 419 requires LEAs to post specified information, including the Attorney General’s (AG) Immigration-Enforcement Actions at California Schools Guide for Students and Families, also known as “Know Your Educational Rights.” This information, related to immigration enforcement, must be displayed on the administrative building and on its website in every language that the AG provides.

Status: AB 419 was passed in the Assembly and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.

AB 495 – Preparedness Plan Act of 2025

Under current law, a caregiver who is 18 years of age or older and signs a caregiver authorization affidavit under penalty of perjury for a minor who lives in their home is authorized to enroll the minor in school and consent to school-related medical care on behalf of the minor. This bill expands the type of person who is authorized to execute a caregivers authorization affidavit to include a nonrelative extended family member. The bill revises the information disclosure requirements to require the governing board or body of a LEA to provide information related to specified guidance on immigration enforcement issued by the AG. This bill would also apply to licensed child day care facilities.

Status: AB 495 was passed in the Assembly and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.

SB 48 – Immigration Enforcement: School Sites: Prohibitions on Access, Sharing Information, and Law Enforcement Collaboration

This bill prohibits LEAs and their personnel, to the extent possible, from granting ICE  permission to access nonpublic areas of a campus for immigration-related investigations or enforcement without a warrant. LEAs are prohibited from disclosing, in writing or verbally, the educational records or any information about a student, their family and household, school employee, or teacher to an ICE official.

Status: SB 48 was passed in the Senate and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Assembly.

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

SB 98 requires school districts and postsecondary educational entities to immediately notify all students, parents, faculty, staff and other school community members of the presence of immigration officers on the school site.

Status: SB 98 was passed in the Senate and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Assembly.

Mandated Reporters

AB 601 – Child Abuse: Reporting

This bill requires the Department of Social Services, to, by no later than July 1, 2027, develop a standard curriculum for mandated reporters made available on its website. The bill requires an employer having one or more mandated reporters to complete training within the first three months of the mandated reporter’s employment, or on or before March 1, 2030, whichever is later.

Status: AB 603 was passed in the Senate and has been referred to the Senate Human Services and Public Safety Committee.

Training

AB 640 – Local Educational Agencies: Governance Training

AB 640 requires all LEA officials, including any member of a governing board of a school district or county board of education, charter school, or a nonprofit public benefit corporation operating a charter school, to receive training in K-12 public education governance law, per the prescribed timelines.

Status: AB 640 was passed in the Assembly and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.

AB 857 – School Employees: Cultural Competency Training

This bill requires the State Department of Education to develop an online cultural competency training delivery platform and curriculum for school employees to support students of color, on or before July 1, 2027. Starting with the 2027-2028 school year, and ending in the 2031-2032 school year, all school employees are to complete the training, unless already completed in another school district. “Cultural competency” as defined the active engagement in an ongoing process of self-reflection that informs deeper understanding and respect of cultural differences where an increase in cultural competency can lead to behaviors, programs, policies, practices, and services that are more culturally appropriate.

Status: AB 857 was held under submission in the Assembly Education Committee and is dead for the year.

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

AB 1163 requires a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) covering LEA employees, on or before July 1, 2026, to cover additional education-related topics. These topics include physical and verbal de-escalation techniques, strategies to support students in safely returning to the learning environment after committing a violent incident, and must be in person sessions that allow for real-time questions and answers with a natural person. The required training is to occur before a new employee begins and as soon as practicable for existing employees, and annually thereafter.

Status: AB 1163 was held under submission in the Assembly Education Committee and is dead for the year.

School Safety

AB 68 – School Safety: Armed School Resource Officers

AB 68 requires school districts to hire or contract with at least one armed school resource officer who is authorized to carry a loaded firearm.

Status: This bill failed to move out of the Assembly Education Committee and has failed for the year.

AB 453 – Pupil Safety: Comprehensive School Safety Plans

This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene a stateside stakeholder workgroup to review existing comprehensive school safety plans and make recommendations on the development and approval process and the required elements of a comprehensive school safety plan on or before July 1, 2026. On or before July 1, 2027, a report is to be submitted on the recommendations. The bill also authorizes the Department of Education to enter exclusive or nonexclusive contracts with nongovernmental entities to implement said provisions.

Status: AB 453 was held under submission in the Appropriations’ suspense file and is dead for this year.

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

AB 1264 requires the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to establish definitions of particularly harmful ultra processed foods (UPFs) by July 1, 2026, and prohibits a vendor from offering those foods to schools starting on January 1, 2032.

Status: AB 1264 passed in the Assembly and is currently awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.

SB 68 – Major Food Allergens

SB 68 adds sesame to the list of major food allergens, starting on July 1, 2026. The bill further requires a food facility, unless excepted, to include on all its menus, written or digital, notification of the major food allergens contained as an ingredient in each menu item. HSC §113789 includes public and private school cafeterias in the definition of “food facility.”

Status: SB 68 was passed in the Senate and has been referred to the Assembly Health Committee.

Sexual Assault Molestation

SB 577 – State Government

SB 577 reduces the period for a person who is 40 years of age or older to file a claim for childhood sexual abuse or molestation from five years to three years and increases the standard of liability to gross negligence. The bill also allows settlements to be paid overtime through structured settlements and for districts to find alternative payment opportunities.

Status: SB 577 was passed in the Senate and is to be heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

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

SB 848 establishes new requirements to improve student safety by addressing school employee misconduct, clarifying professional boundaries, enhancing school safety plans, expanding child abuse prevention training and instruction, and creating a statewide system for tracking employee misconduct investigations. This bill also expands the definition and reporting responsibilities of mandated reporters.

Status: SB 848 was passed in the Senate and is to be heard in the Assembly Education and Public Safety Committees.

Keenan is not a law firm and no opinion, suggestion, or recommendation of the firm or its employees shall constitute legal advice. Clients are advised to consult with their own attorney for a determination of their legal rights, responsibilities, and liabilities, including the interpretation of any statute or regulation, or its application to the clients’ business activities.