SB 1321 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Public postsecondary education: remedial classes and supports: audit.

Summary

Existing law requires the California Postsecondary Education Commission, on or before November 15 of each year, to submit a higher education report to the Legislature and the Governor that provides information to the citizens of the state on the significant indicators of performance of the public colleges and universities, as specified. Existing law requires the commission to consider including, for community colleges, the proportion of remedial or developmental education courses taught by full-time faculty. The Budget Act of 2011 deleted funding and personnel from the California Postsecondary Education Commission. This bill would require the California State Auditor, on or before September 1, 2027, to report to the chairs of certain legislative committees the results of an audit of the California State University and the University of California regarding the use of remedial instruction and supports, as specified.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2026 Last action Apr 22, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

02/20/26 - Introduced → 03/23/26 - Amended Senate · 6 edits · Mar 23, 2026

MODERATE

The amendment adds a co-author (Senator Ochoa Bogh) and, most significantly, inserts an entirely new Section 99183 requiring the California State Auditor to audit CSU and UC on their use of remedial instruction and supports by September 1, 2027. The original nonsubstantive cleanup of Section 99182 (fixing typos and reformatting) is retained. This transforms the bill from a minor technical fix into a substantive accountability measure targeting how two major public university systems handle remedial education.

Scope change

The bill expanded from a narrow technical cleanup of an existing annual reporting provision (Section 99182) to also include a new substantive audit mandate (Section 99183) requiring the State Auditor to examine remedial instruction practices at CSU and UC, with findings delivered to legislative committees by September 2027.

SCOPE

New Section 99183 added to the Education Code, expanding the bill's scope from a technical cleanup of an existing reporting provision to include a new state audit mandate targeting CSU and UC.

Bill title changed from 'An act to amend Section 99182 of the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education' to 'An act to amend add Section 99182 of 99183 to the Education Code, relating to public postsecondary education.'

REQUIREMENT

Requires the California State Auditor to report results of an audit of CSU and UC regarding remedial instruction and supports by September 1, 2027. The audit must cover student enrollment in remedial English or math courses from 2019-20 through 2024-25, evaluate institutional efforts for students needing remedial support, and examine three high-demand campuses from each system on increases in remedial course use, admissions process improvements, fairness of admissions practices, and staff proficiency.

ENFORCEMENT

Audit findings must be reported to the chairs of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, the Senate Committee on Education, and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, with an express override of Government Code Section 10231.5 to ensure delivery.

TECHNICAL

Section 99182 underwent nonsubstantive edits: corrected 'November 15, 1994, and each November 15 thereafter' to 'November 15 of each year,' fixed the typo 'which that provides' to 'that provides,' fixed 'Prior to Before publication' to 'Before publication,' and reformatted subdivision (7) into a proper list.

FISCAL

Fiscal committee designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now has fiscal implications due to the new audit requirement.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 22, 2026

Committee

April 22 set for first hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 2. Noes 1. Page 4007.) Reconsideration granted.

upper

Apr 8, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on ED.

upper

Mar 23, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Mar 4, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 20, 2026

Introduced

Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor