At a time when so many parents are worried about what’s happening with federal protections, a number of the bills passed provide stronger protections and smoother transitions for students with disabilities.
In the general education world, we are celebrating a huge step forward on literacy.
California’s push for early learning continues as the TK roll out is complete; there is further support for early education.
There are also major updates in teacher preparation and credentialing that we hope will make inclusive education for students with disabilities more accessible.
There are two other systems changes worth noting.
Together, these new laws reflect a growing commitment to inclusive education, family engagement, and evidence-based instruction. Dive deeper into each of these bills below.
IEP transitions: AB 1412 (Gonzalez, Jeff R)
Signed on October 07, 2025. Provides an important update that strengthens continuity of services for students with disabilities, especially those from military families who move frequently.
For all students with disabilities:
For students with parents in the military:
Expulsion protections: AB 1230 (Bonta D)
Signed on October 3, 2025. This law changes how school districts handle expulsions and readmissions, making the process more supportive, equitable, and individualized for students. Students with disabilities can’t “lose” their FAPE (free appropriate public education) during expulsion — counties have to plan for it.
If a student is expelled, the county or district must continue providing special education services as written in the IEP or a comparable program. The County Office of Education must create a rehabilitation plan for every student and include any services required under an IEP or a Section 504 plan and show how those services (speech therapy, behavioral support, counseling, etc.) will continue during expulsion.
Residential placement safety: SB 373 (Grove R)
Signed on October 10, 2025. Starting in the 2026–27 school year, this new law strengthens oversight and safety protections for California students with disabilities who attend non-public schools located outside the state. Before approving or renewing any out-of-state school, the California Department of Education must review its restraint and seclusion policies to ensure they meet California’s standards. State and local education officials will now be required to interview each student with an IEP during monitoring visits to check on their progress, health, and safety, using a new state-developed interview tool.
Schools must also allow students to speak privately and confidentially with their local district or the state’s Constituent Services Office. In addition, districts must hold quarterly private phone check-ins with students and share key certification information with parents before any IEP team decides on an out-of-state placement. Overall, the bill aims to make sure students placed in out-of-state programs are safe, supported, and heard.
Adult-to-pupil ratios for special ed classes: AB 560 (Addis D)
Signed on October 10, 2025. Requires school districts and charter schools to take all reasonable steps to distribute initial assessments for an IEP equally across all Resource Specialists (RSPs) (unless collectively bargained). The California Department of Education is required to recommend a maximum adult-to-pupil staffing ratio for certain special classes and post those recommendations, by July 1, 2027.
The requirement to equally distribute initial assessments helps reduce bottlenecks or delays in eligibility processes, which can directly impact how quickly a child receives services. Ask your school leaders: “What is the staffing ratio in my child’s special class? How soon are initial assessments being done? Has the district distributed assessment workload fairly among RSPs?”
Deaf and hard-of-hearing services: AB 784 (Hoover)
Signed on July 14, 2025. Removes ambiguity about including specialized deaf and hard-of-hearing related services in an IEP for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Respiratory care in schools: SB 389 (Ochoa Bogh)
Signed on October 10, 2025. Authorizes a licensed vocational nurse, under the supervision of a credentialed school nurse, to provide basic respiratory services, such as suctioning, to a student with exceptional needs who requires specialized health care services during the school day.
Federal funding protections (IDEA): AJR 7 (Addis)
Calls on the President of the United States and Congress to ensure that services and funding for students with disabilities are uninterrupted, including the allocation, monitoring, and management of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) formula funding and discretionary grant-funded programs.
Teacher & aide protections/disaster attendance: AB 1170 (Dixon R)
Signed on July 28, 2025. This bill provides a hodge podge of small code changes. It provides teacher credentialing incentives, protects workers rights for classified employees like aides, and ensures that schools collect their attendance-based funding during natural disasters when no one can go to school.
Evidence-based reading: AB 1454 (Rivas, Muratsuchi, and Blanca Rubio)
Signed on October 9, 2025. Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to ensure that program standards for the professional preparation of candidates for administrative services and reading and literacy leadership specialist credentials include preparation on how to support teachers in delivering instruction through effective means for teaching literacy. (Popularly known as “the science of reading”)
Requires the state to adopt instructional materials in English language arts/English language development and helps principals support teachers in delivering effective literacy instruction by updating their preparation standards.
Cyberbullying policy (off-campus): AB 772 (Lowenthal)
Signed on October 11, 2025. By June 30, 2026, the State Department of Education must develop and share a model policy on addressing bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, sexual harassment, or intimidation happening outside of school hours and campus.
Career technical ed requirement extended: AB 821 (Gipson)
Signed on October 11, 2025. Existing law allows a course in Career Technical Education to fulfill a course requirement to graduate from high school. The provision included an expiration date; this law continues it.
Epinephrine at schools & childcare: SB 568 (Niello)
Signed on October 3, 2025. Clarifies that the requirement to provide emergency epinephrine delivery systems, and the associated responsibilities, applies to each public school site, including any program operated by or under contract, and expands the responsibilities to any state or federally subsidized childcare program operated by or under contract.
Truancy decriminalized for parents: AB 461 (Ahrens )
Signed on October 1, 2025. Repeals the criminal offense for parents who fail to reasonably supervise and encourage school attendance. Before this law, parents could be criminally charged if their children were chronically absent.
Childcare access & family eligibility: SB 792 (Arreguín D)
Signed on October 1, 2025. Raises the income eligibility threshold for the “Stage 3” childcare subsidy program (under California Child Care and Development Services Act) for families who are transitioning out of the CalWORKs welfare program, by changing the cap from 70% of the State Median Income (SMI) to 85% of the SMI (adjusted for family size). It clarifies “attendance” rules for childcare providers receiving subsidy reimbursement: it now explicitly includes excused absences for medical and educational appointments, and allows providers (or contractors) to claim attendance for days when they’re required to reserve a child’s spot during a family’s appeal process or alleged abandonment of care.
Advisory council: AB 563 (Jackson)
Signed on October 3, 2025. Establishes a state-level Early Childhood Policy Council for strategic planning councils to advise the Governor and Legislature on early childhood education policies.
Dual credentials: AB 1119 (Patel)
Signed on October 6, 2025. Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to develop efficient routes to dual credentialing for teacher candidates and existing credential holders. Dual Credential teachers have both a single or multi subject credential in general education and an educational specialist credential in special education.
Mental health training for teachers: AB 1034 (Ávila Farías)
Signed on July 14, 2025. Requires that a program of professional preparation for a teaching credential include a basic understanding of youth mental health.
Regional Center Ombudsperson: SB 471 (Menjivar D)
Signed on October 1, 2025. Establishes an independent “Office of the Developmental Services Ombudsperson” to monitor implementation of services for individuals served by regional centers (which serve persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities) including early intervention services for infants/toddlers.
HHS data coordination: SB 660 (Menjivar)
Signed on October 3, 2025. By January 1, 2026, California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) will be in charge of running the state’s “Data Exchange Framework.” This system lets different agencies securely share information not only health data but also social services information — which could include agencies serving children with disabilities (e.g., regional centers, Medi-Cal, early intervention, child welfare). The law also creates a CalHHS Data Exchange Board to oversee how this information sharing works, make rules, and approve agreements. Hospitals, health plans, and social service agencies will be required to participate and share data through the system.
For families of children with disabilities, this could help make care more coordinated — for example, helping doctors, therapists, schools, and social service agencies share important information more easily. For example: if a child with a disability has medical issues (therapy, medical monitoring), special education needs, and receives social services (Regional Center, Medi-Cal, etc.), a framework that facilitates interoperability of data between health + social services + educational contexts may support better continuity of care and coordination. The bill may lead to better services — but it does not explicitly carve out new rights for students with disabilities.
PDD and autism coverage continuity: AB 951 (Ta)
Signed on July 30, 2025. Prohibits a health care service plan contract or insurance policy from requiring an enrollee previously diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) or autism to receive a re-diagnosis to maintain coverage for behavioral health treatment (BHT) for their condition.
Health provider credentialing timelines: AB 1041 (Bennett D)
Signed on October 11, 2025. Extends the time that insurers and plans have to confirm health care provider credentials but excludes Medi-Cal managed care plans from these provisions. Goes into effect January 1, 2028.
Oral health for people with disabilities: AB 341 (Arambula D)
Signed on October 11, 2025. Creates a program to improve dental care for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities — but it will only start if the Legislature provides funding. The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) is required to contract with a public or private California dental school or college to administer the Oral Health for People with Disabilities Technical Assistance Center Program by July 1, 2027. The goal is to improve dental care for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities by reducing or avoiding the need for sedation or general anesthesia, while also giving oral health professionals the training and tools they need to provide compassionate, effective care for individuals with developmental disabilities.
The Dental School partnership will work with DDS to engage up to 21 regional centers to participate, provide practical experience, systems development, and expertise in relevant subject areas, to train, monitor, and support regional center and oral health personnel, and to collect and analyze program data. DDS will submit an annual report.
Qualified autism service definitions: SB 402 (Valladares R)
Signed on October 6, 2025. This legislation modifies how the state defines and regulates “qualified autism service” providers and professionals, ensuring insurance and health plan coverage for behavioral health treatment for autism or pervasive developmental disorder
Social media warning labels for youth: AB 56 (Bauer-Kahan and Wicks)
Signed on October 13, 2025. Requires social media companies to periodically display a warning label on their platforms when used by children and teens. The warning label advises that social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users. It must be clearly displayed upon the user’s initial access of the platform in a given day, again after the user has reached three hours of cumulative active use that day, and thereafter at least once per hour of active use.
Youth sports AED & CPR safety plan: AB 310 (Alanis)
Signed on October 3, 2025. Delays to January 1, 2028, a requirement that youth sports organizations ensure their athletes have access to an automated external defibrillator (AED) during any official practice or match. It also requires youth sports organizations to ensure that their coaches are certified to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and operate an AED, and have a written cardiac emergency response plan, beginning January 1, 2027.
Seizure medication in adult day programs: AB 1172 (Nguyen D)
Signed on October 7, 2025. Allows an administrator or authorized volunteer in an adult day program to administer intranasal emergency antiseizure medication to the client upon their request.
Emergency shelter access for older adults & people with disabilities: AB 1069 (Bains D)
Signed on October 07, 2025. As part of disaster planning and response, county welfare directors, in coordination with the lead local agency designated with sheltering support duties under the State Emergency Plan Emergency Support Functions, are required to partner with an area agency on aging (AAAs), an independent living center (ILCs), or an Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) program to allow access to an emergency shelter for evacuation purposes during an active event, in order to ensure that older adults and persons with disabilities receive continuous services and necessary support. Immediate.
CalABLE contribution incentives: AB 1076 (Addis D)
Signed on October 13, 2025. Creates a trust similar to the Golden State Scholarshare trust that taxpayers can contribute their refund to, and allows CalABLE to use this fund to create incentives to open an ABLE account. Immediate.
Easier paratransit application process: AB 1250 (Papan D)
Signed on October 13, 2025. Streamlines the application process for ParaTransit services provided by local governments such as Access.
Accessible rideshare programs: AB 1532 (Committee on Communications and Conveyance)
Signed on October 1, 2025. The act requires transportation network companies (such as taxis and ride shares like Uber, and Lyft) to establish programs for individuals with disabilities and to collect $0.05 per ride to create a TNC Access for All Fund, and distribute it on a competitive basis to access providers that establish on-demand transportation programs or partnerships to meet the needs of persons with disabilities in the geographic areas included in the program. Goes into effect in 2032!
School employee misconduct prevention: SB 848 (Renée Pérez)
Signed on October 7, 2025. Establishes new requirements to improve pupil safety by addressing school employee misconduct and expands the definition and reporting responsibilities of mandated reporters such as teachers, administrators, staff, etc.
ID cards with crisis hotline (Trevor Project): AB 727 (Mark González, Solache, Cervantes, Elhawary, Ward, Wiener)
Signed on October 10, 2025. Requires public schools that issue pupil identification cards to print on them the telephone number and 988 text line for The Trevor Project, a leading crisis and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth. In July, California announced a partnership with the Trevor Project to provide enhanced competency training. The identification card requirement applies to public colleges and schools that serve grades 7-12.
Threats to schools & public spaces: SB19 (Rubio)
Signed on October 11th 2025. Expands the definition of when making a threat is a crime. This new law addresses threats to commit a violent act at a daycare, school, university, workplace, house of worship, or medical facility. Threats include statements or other communications, including images posted on social media, intended to create fear of a violent act and which cause fear for one’s safety or the safety of others at these sensitive locations.
Equity & discrimination prevention coordinators: SB 48 (Gonzalez D)
Signed on October 7, 2025. This law creates new statewide coordinators to help prevent discrimination in schools. The Office of Civil Rights will now have dedicated coordinators focused on preventing discrimination based on religion, race and ethnicity, gender, and LGBTQ identity.
Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025: AB 495 (Rodriguez, Celeste D
Signed on October 12, 2025. AB 495 protects children by ensuring emergency contact information and plans for family safety are up-to-date at schools and licensed childcare facilities in situations where a family is separated due to immigration enforcement, incarceration, or military deployment.
Protection from immigration enforcement at schools: SB 98 (Pérez D)
Signed on September 20, 2025. Also known as the Sending Alerts to Families in Education (SAFE) Act, this bill requires K-12 schools and higher education institutions to issue alerts if immigration enforcement authorities are present on campus.
Privacy for families in care facilities: SB 81 (Arreguín D)
Signed on September 20, 2025. Protects personal information in healthcare and care facilities from being shared with immigration enforcement. This ensures that families can seek care and access needed services without fear their private information will be used against them.
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