The 2025 legislative session continued the recent trend of producing several significant housing and land use measures signed into law. The following legislative update provides a brief summary of the reforms and their associated statutory changes.
On October 3, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 707, which will go into effect on January 1, 2026. SB 707 makes significant updates to the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), with the intent of reducing barriers to public participation at meetings held by legislative bodies.
A recent change to the definition of “sexual assault” has significant impacts regarding what conduct local educational agencies (LEA) must investigate under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and the 2020 Title IX Regulations.
Assembly Bills (AB) 461, 1230, and 268 were recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. These bills affect policies regarding truancy, rehabilitation plans for expelled students, and school holidays.
According to the California Department of Education’s Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services, and pursuant to Public Contract Code section 20111, subdivision (a), the bid threshold for K-12 school districts’ purchases of equipment, materials, supplies and services (except construction services) will be adjusted to $119,100, effective January 1, 2026.
On October 10, 2025, Governor Newsom approved two laws intended to facilitate workforce housing development on land owned by local educational agencies (LEAs).
Two recent bills grapple with modern technology’s pervasive presence and growing impact on local educational agencies (LEAs), both on school grounds and beyond. Assembly Bill (AB) 962 and AB 772 each address a common point of concern for LEAs: smartphones and cyberbullying, respectively.
California passed four bills aimed at strengthening policies for the health, safety, and wellbeing of its young people. The new laws involve changes to existing health and safety legislation pertaining to young athletes, the use of epinephrine auto-injectors in California schools, access to LGBTQ+ resources, and homeless youth access to care.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that charter schools can refuse to purchase religious curricular materials for their independent study programs.