As the curtain fell on the first year of the 2023–24 legislative session, all eyes turned to Gov. Gavin Newsom to see which of the more than 1,000 bills sent to his desk would be vetoed and which would be signed into law.

CSBA advocacy carried the day, propelling five sponsored bills through the Legislature and securing the Governor’s signature on all five, as well as two hard-fought vetoes on some of the year’s most problematic education proposals.

Thanks to dedicated advocacy, CSBA’s package of sponsored legislation met with a 100 percent success rate in 2023. Gov. Newsom signed five CSBA measures into law that will provide immediate relief during the teacher shortage, help increase support for districts facing cyberattacks, help county boards appoint student members, extend the opportunity for boards to meet remotely during states of emergency, and expand funding for school-based health and mental health services.

Senate Bill 765 (Portantino, D-Burbank) will give school districts and county offices of education a tool to address one of the state’s most pressing and intractable problems — the school staffing crisis. The new law will provide immediate relief to schools struggling with the teacher shortage by making it easier to waive the 180-day mandatory waiting period and increasing the salary earning cap local educational agencies must observe before hiring a recently retired teacher. While a temporary solution, it is a critical measure to help ensure all students have a qualified teacher in their classrooms.

On the cybersecurity front, Assembly Bill 1023 (Papan, D-San Mateo) takes on rising concerns about ransomware attacks by ensuring that schools and districts receive direct cyberthreat information about how to keep their infrastructure and information technology systems safe and secure. Taking effect on Jan. 1, 2024, AB 1023 will require the California Cybersecurity Integration Center to include a representative from the California Department of Education and coordinate information sharing with school districts, county offices of education and charter schools.

Two additional measures will address governance issues for CSBA members. AB 417 (Bennett, D-Ventura) provides needed follow up to 2022 legislation that authorized county boards of education to select a student in a district school to fill a position on the county office board reserved for a pupil. In the absence of a petition for student representation, AB 417 will now permit a county board to appoint one of its own students from a school directly under its jurisdiction to the position. AB 557 (Hart, D-Santa Barbara) builds on lessons learned on governing during difficult times over the last several years to extend indefinitely the authority for school boards to hold meetings virtually during states of emergency.

Finally, CSBA’s student mental health legislative package comprising two bills, AB 483 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance) and SB 551 (Portantino, D-Glendale), were also adopted. AB 483 will expand access to school-based health and mental health services and increase funding for school districts by improving the Medi-Cal Local Education Agency Billing Option Program (LEA BOP). The bill modifies and imposes new requirements related to timelines, reporting, technical assistance, stakeholder engagement and guidance for LEA BOP that will make it easier for districts to draw down funds for vital services.

Although it did not reach the Governor’s desk in its original form, SB 551 was incorporated into a larger deal between the Legislature and Gov. Newsom. The bill, which proposed to enhance collaboration between county mental health agencies and school districts by requiring public education staff and youth representation on county mental health boards, was incorporated into SB 326 (Eggman, D-Stockton), the vehicle for Gov. Newsom’s proposed mental and behavioral health system overhaul that will appear on the March 2024 statewide ballot.

A major theme in the first year of the 2023–24 legislative session was legislation that would significantly erode local control over hiring, disciplinary and other human resources decisions. CSBA advocacy led the way to secure vetoes of two of the most problematic measures in this category.

AB 1699 (McCarty, D-Sacramento) would have mandated “right of first refusal” for classified staff hiring policies for all LEAs. CSBA members were critical to this victory, responding in record numbers to the call to action and generating more than 500 individual veto requests sent to the Governor. Their voices were heard loud and clear in the Newsom Administration and the bill was ultimately vetoed in the final week of the signing period. CSBA also mobilized alongside a large coalition of school districts and educational advocacy organizations, including the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), the California County Superintendents, California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) and others, first within the Legislature and then to urge the Governor’s veto.

CSBA also successfully led a coalition of statewide K-12 and community college associations in opposition to SB 433. The bill would have removed the authority of a duly elected school district or community college board to render personnel decisions concerning classified staff, contrary to the spirit of local control and removing yet another layer of locally elected governance authority and delegating it to an unelected entity. The coalition’s work was reflected in the Governor’s decision to veto the bill in early October.

The Legislature will return for the second year of the 2023–24 legislative session in January. Sacramento now enters a season of planning for the new year’s budget and legislative cycle, and many proposals that did not make the cut in 2023 will likely return in 2024. As new and returning proposals surface, CSBA will continue to keep members informed of the most important developments.