Two bills aim to strengthen the state’s attention and support of education workforce housing (EWH) to help address the workforce shortage, helping to further the ability of the state’s public education system to meet the needs of its students. Also included in the package is legislation to address the state’s zero-emission school bus purchasing mandate, follow-up legislation to implement CSBA’s co-sponsored Senate Bill 1315 from last year to help reduce administrative workloads associated with the substantial number reports required of local educational agencies, and a bill to modernize the 40-year-old district and county board member stipend amounts.

As a reminder, the Legislature is in the first year of the two-year 2024–26 legislative session. Bills that do not progress or do not pass the Legislature in this first year could be considered again next year — thus turning into two-year bills. The Legislature departed for its summer recess in mid-July, will return to Sacramento to finish the current legislative year in mid-August and formally adjourns for the year on Sept.12, 2025.

• Co-sponsored with UCLA’s CityLAB and TRiO Plus, AB 1021 is follow-up legislation to AB 2295 (2022), which was developed to help address barriers initially identified as inhibiting the successful development and completion of education workforce housing.
• AB 1021 removes barriers limiting the benefits of AB 2295 to only urban and suburban local educational agencies to ensure that small and rural LEAs may also reap its rewards. It also takes the significant step of exempting infill education workforce housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
• EWH is fast becoming an important tool to attract, recruit and retain a qualified school workforce and AB 1021 will help to make it easier and more affordable to develop.
• Status: Passed Senate Local Government and Housing committees and is on its way to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 1381 ( Muratsuchi) – Education workforce housing predevelopment funding

• Although turned into a two-year bill, AB 1381 remains a priority for CSBA to help provide much-needed seed funding for LEAs through the provision of a revolving zero-interest loan fund to help support education workforce housing predevelopment needs. Identified as one of the biggest stumbling blocks by LEAs who have initiated their own EWH projects, predevelopment activities are critical to project completion.
• Through the establishment of a revolving loan account in the Office of the California State Treasurer, funding would be provided to school districts and county offices of education to prepare feasibility studies and conduct predevelopment work for EWH projects.

• Recognized as one of the most ambitious efforts of CSBA’s legislative package, AB 1111 (Soria, D-Fresno) was introduced to address the state’s zero-emission school bus purchasing mandate created by AB 579 (2023), which requires all school buses purchased in 2035 and beyond to be zero-emission. AB 1111 was introduced to modify AB 579’s requirements to provide needed extensions for the purchasing mandate for small and rural LEAs.
• AB 1111 ran into significant challenges when it was heard by the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee, which was opposed to codifying additional barriers as grounds for extending the purchasing mandate. As a result, the bill was amended to preserve language allowing traditional combustion engine (diesel) buses set to be scrapped under a zero-emission adoption incentive program to instead be transferred to another LEA that may use it. The intent is to create a supply of buses LEAs may use until a more permanent solution to the dwindling supply of traditional buses can be found.
• Status: AB 1111 passed the Senate Education and Environmental Quality committees and is currently under consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

• A true team effort, AB 1224 (Valencia, D-Anaheim) is co-sponsored by CSBA, the Association of California School Administrators, the California County Superintendents and the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO). This bill would help LEAs address the current education workforce shortage by doubling the time period a substitute teacher may serve in a single classroom from 30 to 60 days, a strategy that was successfully implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Although the state continues to see progress in recruiting new teachers, LEAs continue to face unprecedented staffing shortages. The intent of AB 1224 is to provide more consistency for students while LEAs find highly qualified permanent teachers.
• Status: Passed the Senate Education Committee and is currently under consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

• A follow-up measure to last year’s CSBA and CASBO co-sponsored SB 1315, SB 374 would provide the California Department of Education an additional year to provide a report to the Legislature on the number and types of reports required of LEAs that can be eliminated or truncated. It would also eliminate the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Addendum to the Local Control and Accountability Plan.
• Status: SB 374 passed the Assembly Education Committee and is currently under consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

• Suggested by school board members, AB 1390 (Solache, D-Lynwood) would modernize the 40-year-old compensation thresholds in law for district and county school board members.
• By bringing existing stipend rates into alignment with the impacts of inflation while retaining the authority of school district and county boards of education to determine the amount of the stipend within the cap, AB 1390 will address a barrier to elected public service.
• Status: Passed the Senate Education Committee and is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee.