More than 80 bills affecting schools and kids are now law; what will they do?

In the legislative session that ended this month, legislators passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, more than 80 bills that affect children and schools. In a new post, Ed100, a website that informs California parents on TK-12 education policies, lists and summarizes all of them, while focusing on the seven most far-reaching new laws.

They include prohibitions on censuring instructional materials, the adoption of protocols for responding to opioid overdoses, the purchase of zero-emission school buses, and the expansion of school safety plans to respond to threats and acts of violence and unlawful activities.

Ed100 founder Jeff Camp and writer Carol Kocivar, a past president of the California State PTA, note that the Legislature reviewed 1,927 bills in 2023, of which 891 eventually became law, and 156 were vetoed – 15%. While that’s a massive number, in 2016, lawmakers considered more than twice that number – 4,290 bills, of which 1,708 became law.