Permanent Status: Adult Education Teachers (AB 897 — McCarty); CTA co-sponsored.

Allows adult education teachers to obtain permanent status, commencing July 1, 2024, and requires a probationary employee of an adult education program to be deemed to have served a complete school year if the employee serves for at least 75% of the hours constituting a full-time equivalent position for adult education programs in the school district.

Employment: leave for reproductive loss (SB 848 — Rubio); CTA supported.

Extends existing unpaid bereavement leave benefits (five days) to individuals who suffer from child loss events, including miscarriage or a failed adoption.

Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan (SB 553 — Cortese); CTA supported.

Authorizes a collective bargaining representative of an employee to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace; requires every employer to 1) establish, implement and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP); 2) record incident information in a violent incident log; 3) provide effective training to employees on the WVPP, when changes are made to the plan and when new/previously unrecognized workplace violence hazards are identified; 4) create and maintain records of workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation and correction; violent incident logs; and workplace incident investigation records. Requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to enforce the WVPP including proposing, by Dec. 1, 2025, plan standards.

Pupil enrollment: class size: report (SB 872 — Min); CTA supported.

Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to provide an annual public report of public school enrollment information for the public to easily determine information regarding class size for each school site in every school district, county office of education (COE) and charter school.

Instructional materials and curriculum: diversity (AB 1078 — Jackson); CTA supported.

Prohibits a governing board from refusing to use or prohibits the use of any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or other curriculum for classroom instruction or any book or other resource in a school library on the basis that includes a study of the role and contribution of any individual or group as specified as part of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act. Specifies that a complaint may be filed with the school district, COE or charter
school under the Uniform Complaint Procedures or with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction if there is a violation. Governing boards will have an opportunity to remedy the deficiency in textbooks and materials; if a board fails to purchase appropriate textbooks/materials, they will be purchased for them and deducted from future apportionments.

Pupil health: opioid overdose prevention and treatment: Melanie’s Law (SB 10 — Cortese); CTA supported.

States the Legislature’s encouragement of COEs to establish a county working group on fentanyl education in schools for outreach, building awareness and collaborating with local health agencies regarding fentanyl overdoses; requires the CDE to curate/maintain online informational materials for school staff, pupils and parents/guardians on how to prevent opioid overdoses; in collaboration with the California Health and Human Services Agency, to establish a state working group on fentanyl education in schools, to promote public education, awareness and prevention of fentanyl overdoses, with outreach to school staff and pupils. Requires a school to 1) notify pupils and parents/guardians of the informational materials; 2) develop a comprehensive safety plan with protocol in the event a pupil is suffering or believed to be suffering from an opioid overdose.

Local educational agency: Medi-Cal billing option (AB 483 — Muratsuchi); CTA co-sponsored.

Requires the LEA Billing Option Program guide to include a manual with an explanation of billing, auditing, costs reporting, time studies and federal and state compliance rules, and an explanation of the certified public expenditure processes used to report and reconcile program costs from interim reimbursement to final cost settlement; requires the Department of Health Care Services to distribute an updated program guide to participating LEAs by July 1, 2024.

School district governing boards: meetings: school district superintendents and assistant superintendents: termination (SB 494 — Newman); CTA supported.

Prohibits the governing board of a school district from taking action to terminate a superintendent or assistant superintendent of the school district, or both, without cause, at a special or emergency meeting of the governing board or within 30 days after the first convening of the governing board after a general election.