Education

The Debt Collection Licensing Act generally regulates the business of debt collection and prohibits a person from engaging in the business of debt collection in this state without first obtaining a license pursuant to the act. The act provides that it does not apply to certain institutions and persons. This bill would provide that the act does not apply to billing agents, except as specified.

Senate Resolution 108 formally recognizes May 5, 2026, as World Asthma Day in California. The measure highlights the disproportionate impact of asthma on vulnerable populations, including communities of color and farmworker families, who face higher risks due to poor air quality and limited healthcare access. While the resolution does not create new laws, it expresses the Senate's support for asthma education, improved air quality standards, and evidence-based management practices in schools and healthcare settings. Additionally, the bill honors the Central California Asthma Collaborative for its work in community health programs.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Education in state government, and vests the department with specified powers and duties relating to the state's public school system. Existing law declares the policy of the state to ensure that all local educational agencies work to reduce violence, improve pupil safety at schools, and improve the connections between pupils and supportive adults, schools, and communities. This bill would require the department, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to establish and administer the Violence Prevention, Pupil Wellness, and School Safety Grant Program to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, award grants to eligible school districts, county offices of education, or charter schools for evidence-based violence prevention, pupil wellness, and public safety initiatives, as specified. The bill would require the department to consult with representatives of the office, local educational agencies, county behavioral health departments, community-based organizations, and public safety agencies when it develops guidelines for the program. The bill would require each grant recipient to submit findings to the department on the effectiveness of its activities funded by the grant and would require the department to use those findings to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2029, evaluating the effectiveness of the grant program and providing recommendations regarding violence prevention, pupil wellness, school safety, and behavioral health investments.

This measure would encourage the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to create a workgroup of faculty, staff, and administrators to (1) review the use of artificial intelligence in higher education, (2) create a public report on the strategies and best practices for artificial intelligence usage agreed upon by the workgroup within one year following formation of the workgroup, and (3) submit the report to the Legislature and the relevant policy committees of the Legislature with jurisdiction over higher education and privacy and consumer protection.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education, on or before January 1, 2024, to develop a plan to expand mental health instruction in California public schools. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, to develop a plan to expand digital wellness instruction in California public schools, as provided.

Existing law authorizes school districts that maintain high schools to establish work experience programs for the purpose of providing pupils with instruction in skills, attitudes, and understandings necessary for success in employment. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to coordinate the development, on a cyclical basis, of model curriculum standards for required courses of study, including a career technical education course of study for pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, as specified. This bill would, at the next revision of the California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards, require the State Department of Education to consider adding content on the role of youth caregivers within the Personal Care and Services career pathway, as provided. The bill would require, by July 1, 2028, the department to provide guidance for the implementation of the Personal Care and Services career pathway, and would explicitly authorize certain types of guidance, including (1) a focus on skills specific to Personal Care and Services occupations, including, but not limited to, in-home caregiving for youth caregivers supporting household family members, and (2) eligibility for youth caregivers caring for a family member in the family member's home for credits through work experience education programs, as provided.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based online training program that a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, can use to train school staff and pupils as part of their policy on pupil suicide prevention. Existing law requires the department, subject to an appropriation for these purposes, to provide a grant to a county office of education to acquire a training program identified by the department and disseminate that training program at no cost to specified educational entities, as specified. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by (1) deleting the requirement to provide the above-described grant, (2) deleting the requirement of the department to identify the above-described evidence-based online training program, (3) instead requiring the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to develop an online training program to train school staff, pupils who are 13 years of age or older, and parents, guardians, or caregivers of pupils as part of the policy on pupil suicide prevention adopted by county offices of education, school districts, state special schools, and charter schools that serve pupils in kindergarten or in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as specified. The bill would require those educational entities that elect to conduct suicide risk screenings to report, on or before June 30, 2027, and June 30 annually thereafter, the number of pupils screened, and which screening instruments were used, for the reporting year, to the department, as provided, and would require the department to compile and post statewide aggregate data on these screenings on its internet website, as provided. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law prescribes various requirements regarding the formation, content, and enforcement of state and local public contracts. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2027, for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2017, a claim resolution process applicable to any claim by a contractor in connection with a public works project against a public entity, as specified. For purposes of these provisions, existing law defines "public entity" to include, among others, a city, including a charter city, and county, including a charter county. Existing law imposes various requirements on a public entity in relating to the claim resolution process, including, among other things, conducting a reasonable review of the claim and, within 45 days, providing the claimant a written statement identifying the disputed and undisputed portions of the claim. This bill would repeal the above-described January 1, 2027, repeal date, thereby extending the operation of these provisions indefinitely. By indefinitely extending the duties of local agencies in relation to the above-specified claim resolution process, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law requires the commission to issue a single subject teaching credential only in specified subjects, including in world language. Existing law requires the commission to adopt examinations and assessments to verify the subject matter knowledge and competence of candidates for those specified single subject teaching credentials, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to issue authorizations for a teacher to provide specific services to limited-English-proficient pupils, if certain minimum requirements are met, including the passage of one or more examinations that the commission determines is necessary for demonstrating the knowledge, skills, and language proficiency required for effective delivery of the services included in the authorization. Existing law authorizes the commission to issue an authorization for bilingual-cross-cultural competence for specified persons who will be serving English language learners and requires candidates for that authorization to demonstrate, by oral and written examination or by completing an approved program, among other things, that the person is competent in both the oral and written skills of a language other than English. This bill would authorize a candidate for any of the above-described credentials or authorizations to fulfill the applicable subject matter examination or language requirement in a world language for which the commission does not administer a subject matter examination by successfully completing a comparable postsecondary language proficiency assessment.

Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the State Board of Education. This bill would require the commission, during the next revision of the publication "Health Framework for California Public Schools," to consider including, and recommending for adoption by the state board, specific content related to the prevention of, and recognizing and responding to the signs and symptoms of, heat illness, as described, and, for those purposes, to consider relevant guidance issued by the State Department of Public Health and policies adopted by the California Interscholastic Federation, as specified.