In an unorthodox end to the 2025–26 legislative session, the Legislature extended the session past midnight on Aug. 31, 2026, and conducted business Sept. 1. Considered the busiest time of the year for the Legislature, the end of the legislative session typically runs for two weeks and is composed of daily convenings of the full bodies of the Legislature, known as “floor sessions,” where the 40 members of the State Senate and 80 members of the State Assembly meet daily to consider and vote on measures that have made it this far in the legislative process.

Over the last two weeks of session, the Senate and Assembly considered nearly 900 bills, a large majority of which successfully made it to the Governor’s desk. This included four CSBA-sponsored bills.

Most notably, the first bill in CSBA’s SOS for Student Achievement: Close the State Accountability Gap package, Assembly Bill 2225 — jointly authored by Assemblymembers Darshana Patel (D-San Diego), Rhodesia Ransom (D-Tracy), Robert Garcia (D-San Bernardino) and Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) — made it to the Governor’s desk. AB 2225 was introduced to establish a state-level operations and support plan to align state public education governance with the overall goal of enabling the state to support local educational agencies close student achievement gaps.

After weeks of negotiations between the Assemblymember Patel, the lead author of AB 2225, CSBA, the Governor’s Office and the State Board of Education, amendments to the bill were agreed upon to help further implement the state’s public education governance reform measure: AB 181. In keeping with the original purpose and goals of AB 2225, it would now require the newly established education commissioner, appointed by the governor, to report on the state’s progress in aligning the public education governance system with the goal of helping to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and governor.

CSBA also saw success in its continued effort to reduce LEA administrative burdens and excessive, overlapping and duplicative reporting requirements. Passed in April, House Resolution 87 (Muratsuchi) urges the Governor, Assembly and the Senate to analyze questions of purpose, audience, value, feasibility, duplication, and duration as part of the existing committee and floor bill analysis process when analyzing, considering, developing, or implementing new LEA reporting or planning requirements. HR 87 was co-sponsored by the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA). The remaining two measures of the three-bill “reducing LEA administrative and reporting” legislative package passed the Legislature with broad bipartisan support and are currently on the Governor’s desk. The two bills are:

• AB 2008, also by Assemblymember Patel, would require state-mandated LEA reporting requirements be repealed four years after their establishment and requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to create a standardized template for LEAs when completing programmatic or expenditure reports for state grants. The bill takes effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and requires the CDE to develop and make the template available by Oct. 1, 2027. The bill does not mandate that LEAs use the template, just that the CDE makes it available for uniformity and ease of use CSBA co-sponsored AB 2008 with CASBO, ACSA and the Small School Districts Association.
• AB 2496 by Assemblymember Jose Solache, Jr. (D-Lynwood) would require the CDE to submit a report to the Legislature identifying duplication between the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) and the California School Dashboard and makes the mid-year Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) update flexible. It would also remove the no longer state-funded physical fitness test results from having to be reported in the SARC, as well as the requirement that schools report on the status of its Comprehensive School Safety Plan. CSBA co-sponsored AB 2496 with CASBO and ACSA.

CSBA’s fourth and final bill to reach the Governor’s desk is AB 2490 by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim). This measure is a re-introduction of AB 1224 from last year and was in direct response to the Governor’s veto message of AB 1224, which stated that: “The author could introduce legislation that addresses the lack of required training and support for long-term substitute teachers.”

In working with stakeholders, including the administration, AB 2490 was amended throughout the legislative process to reflect feedback and input. This includes specifically responding to the veto message, requiring long-term substitutes complete pre-service training and professional development requirements, and a statutorily recommended two hours of weekly mentorship provided by a veteran teacher. It also includes numerous safeguards requiring assurances from both the LEA’s superintendent and the involvement of the LEA’s governing board, which includes parental notification and the exhaustion of all other available forms of long-term substitutes before these provisions may be utilized.

In responding to the needs of education leaders, AB 2490 is a crucial and reasonable tool for school districts and county offices of education to increase access to long-term substitutes and provide opportunities for substitute mentoring and training, while also providing continuity for student success. CSBA also co-sponsored AB 2490 with ACSA, the California County Superintendents and CASBO.

Curious about how other education-related bills fared? See CSBA’s blog post on the end-of-session wrap-up at blog.csba.org/leg-wrapup-2026.

The Governor will have until midnight on Monday, Sept. 30 to sign or veto any measure that reached his desk.