Senate Standing Committee on Education

Good morning. The Senate Education Committee will come to order. The Senate continues to welcome the public in person and via the Teleconference Service for individuals wishing to provide public comment. Today's participant number is 877-226-8163 again, that's 877-226-8163 and the access code is 243-4582. Again, that's 243-4582. We are holding our Committee hearings here in the O Street building. I ask all Members of the Committee to be Present in Room 2200, so we can establish our quorum and begin our hearing.

I see we have three of our Members already here. I ask that testimony of main witnesses in support or opposition be limited to two people per side with two minutes for each person. All others may add on it. Simply state your name, organization, and your position. We have 25 bills on today's agenda. 10 of those bills are on consent. Those bills, on consent, are as follows. Item number one, AB 19. Item number two, AB 889. Item number six, AB, 255.

Item number 11. AB 746. Item number 17, AB 1127. Item number 19, AB 1466. Item number 21, AB 1370. Item number 23, AB 1503. Item number 24, AB 1543. Item number 25, AB 1605. I do not see a quorum present. I do not see an author. But I do see an author. This is exciting. So we will begin this Committee as a Subcommittee until such time as we can establish a quorum and let me welcome our first author. Please Sir.

Please sir, come on up. You're getting VIP treatment here, Assembly Member. We have a special podium that we've installed for you. Right. I'm sorry. Assembly Member Rodriguez, welcome. Yeah. It's great to see you. Like old home times. Old times. You'll be presenting AB 71, and you may proceed when ready.

Thank you. Mr. Chair and Senators, thank you for allowing me to present AB 71. First, I would like to thank the chair and Committee staff for their work and accept their amendments. In response to the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a group of doctors convened a panel of national experts from law enforcement and emergency medical services to create an improved response system to control life threatening blood loss. One of their recommendations was that bystanders be trained and empowered to stop hemorrhage in order to save lives.

To achieve this goal, President Obama launched Stop the Bleed Campaign in 2015 to encourage bystanders to become trained and empowered to take life saving action while EMS personnel are in route. During these tragic events, a person suffering from severe blood loss can die within five minutes. So every second counts. That is why it's so important to ensure our immediate responders have the instruction and equipment needed to save to render emergency care at the scene of emergency.

This bill ensures our young leaders are empowered to life saving skills by requiring the Instructional Quality Commission to consider implementing the curriculum established by the consensus of emergency medical services and law enforcement experts. With me to provide testimony are Christy Woods, who is with the State Government Relations Director of American Red Cross, and Dr. Alexandra Johns, who is a General Surgery Resident at UC Davis on behalf of the Joint Chapter Emergency College Physician Surgeons.

Excellent. Your witnesses... Ms. Woods, please proceed. And welcome.

Morning. So, as he said. Good morning, Chair and Committee Members. My name is Christy Woods, and I'm the Director of Government Relations for the Red Cross here in California. Here today is a proud co sponsor of AB 71. The Red Cross has been a national sponsor of the Stop the Bleed campaign since its inception in 2015. This campaign is a grassroots effort to encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped and empowered to take life saving action while emergency medical services personnel are en route.

Traumatic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and anyone under 45 years of age in this country. Controlling bleeding increases the odds of survival. There are willing learners at all ages, but children in particular are highly willing to learn and highly susceptible to learning new lessons. We also know that by teaching young people, there tends to be a multiplier effect. They go home, they tell their parents what they learned, as well as their friends and others.

Teaching one high school student can result in more than one person learning important lessons through the sharing process. In closing, ensuring youth are prepared to step up in times of crisis is essential to community health. Whether dealing with a random act of violence or at a family camping trip, the only thing more tragic than a death from severe bleeding is if that death could have been prevented. On behalf of the American Red Cross, we respectfully request an aye vote on AB 71. Thank you for your time and consideration.

And thank you. Next witness, please. Dr. Johns.

Hello. Thank you to the Chair and the Education Committee for the privilege of addressing you. As mentioned, I'm Dr. Johns. I'm a General surgery resident at UC Davis here in Sacramento. I'm here representing the National American College of Surgeons, the three California chapters of the ACS, and myself. Surgeons like myself care for patients with life threatening bleeding on a regular basis, and some do not survive, having lost too much blood in the field.

We have about 45,000 Americans who die from bleeding every year, and it's now the most common cause of death in the US children, as mentioned. Traumatic bleeding can result from gun violence, but also car accidents, work related accidents, and other types of trauma across many settings and often in public spaces. CPR and AED use by community members has saved many lives, and a similar approach to bleeding control could have similar success.

Students are exposed to potential bleeding events not just with school shootings, but also with sports injuries and other accidents. And our goal is to equip high school students with the knowledge and skills in bleeding control while waiting for EMS to arrive, which on average takes eight minutes, but can be even further delayed in mass casualty events or in rural areas.

Stop the Bleed is a nationally recognized program, as you've heard, by the American College of Surgeons and the Department of Defense, and it teaches crucial skills in pressure, packing, and tourniquet application, and bleeding control. Staff from an urban public high school where Stop the Bleed was taught reported both high satisfaction with the training and relevance sorry to the situations they encounter.

A survey of parents of junior high and high school students reported that 95% wanted their child to be trained in Stop the Bleed and 90% felt that this was very important. Research shows that community participants can effectively control bleeding after being taught these techniques and with this knowledge are empowered to help bleeding victims after completing the training.

These life saving skills can be taught in an hour course, and I personally have taught people of all different educational backgrounds, as the course is easier to learn than basic CPR. Bleeding control education not only provides knowledge and skills, but empowers our community members to act when someone is injured in bleeding. California can join other states, including Texas and Arkansas, by implementing Stop the Bleed education in high schools, and we can empower our students to save lives. I urge you to support AB 71. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is anybody else here in the hearing would like to sign support of AB 71? And if you could, your name, your organization, and your position on the bill.

Annie Chou with the California Teachers Association in support.

Thank you, Ms. Chou. Anybody else?

Good morning. Carlos Machado with California School Board Association in support as well.

Thank you. Anybody else? Seeing none. Is there anybody here would like testify in opposition to the measure? Seeing no opposition, let's go to the teleconference line. The ATT moderator, good morning. If you could query the line for anybody on the line who'd like to testify either in support of or in opposition to AB 71?

Certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support of opposition of AB 71, please press one, then zero on your telephone keypad. We already have two in queue. We'll go to line number 13. 1-3,13. Your line is open.

Good morning, Chair and Members. Sam Nasher with the Los Angeles County Office of Education in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Go to line number 20. That's 2-0. Your line is open.

Good morning. My name is John Maa, past President of the Northern California Chapter of the American College of Surgeons in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else on the teleconference line?

Chair, we have exhausted the queue.

Very good. Thank you. I see we do have a quorum present. So before we come back to the Committee, Madam Consultant, if you could please call the role.

Newman? Here. Newman, here. Ochoa Bogh? Ochoa Bogh, here. Cortese? Cortese, here. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk? Present. Wilk, present.

And we do have a quorum. So let's come back to the Committee. Committee Members, any comments or questions for the author? Senator Wilk?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Assemblyman, for bringing this forward. I know that you're an expert in this field, and I always appreciate it when people bring their real world experience to the Legislature. So obviously, I'm going to support your bill. I do have an ask of you, though.

So I've got a bill over in the Assembly, and I'm going to send it to you later today. It's SB 686, and it will require every classroom to have a trauma kit. Back on November 14 of 2019, there was a shooting at the high school that my kids went to. Last place in the world I would ever thought there'd be a shooting.

And it was in the choir classroom that my daughter had been in every single day of her high school career because she was in three choirs, and at the time, she would have been there because it was zero period. Two students died in that, the shooter took his life. Two students were wounded. One of those students who were wounded, friend of mine's daughter, they had a trauma kit there, and it saved her life because, as you said, you could bleed out as quickly as five minutes.

And in the beginning, law enforcement didn't know, so they had everything locked down. They didn't know if there was more than one shooter. And so we were locked down for about an hour. So she would have bled out, obviously. So I'm not going to ask you right now, because this is a little bit unfair, but I've been trying to find you and haven't found you.

So I would love for you to be principal co-author of that, if you're so inclined, and I'm going to have my staff send it to you over because I know you have such respect from your colleagues, and I'd love to get it on the governor's desk.

Thank you. I'll look at it. Thank you very much.

I'm glad I could get you two together this morning. And what a surprise. The Assembly Member is expressing some level of support for your very worthy bill, Senator Wilk. Anybody else?

No. I'll say for my part, you know, commend you for this effort. So I was in the Army, I remember, in basic training. This is one of the first things we learned, how to control bleeding. That's how important it is, and it's important for everybody to know it. And I think, as Dr. Johns mentioned, EMTs might get there in eight minutes. You could bleed out in five minutes. So happy to support the bill and looking for a motion. I have a motion from Senator Wilk. Aggressively. Madam Consultant, please call the role.

File item four, AB 71, Rodriguez. Motion is do pass as amended, but first amend, and rerefer to the Committee on Appropriations. Newman? Aye. Newman, aye. Ochoa Bogh? Aye. Ochoa Bogh, aye. Cortese? Cortese, aye. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye.

Excellent. So we will hold that roll open for the...

Mr. Chair, I need to leave to go to the Assembly to present a bill. Is it possible that we could do consent calendar now? So I feel like I have a sense of accomplishment before I leave.

Glad to be helpful. Let us do that. So, Madam Consultant, if you could please call the role on the consent calendar. We do need a motion. Can I take that as a motion?

Yes, sir.

Alright. We have a motion for Senator Wilk.

On the consent calendar. Newman? Aye. Newman, aye. Ochoa Bogh? Aye. Ochoa Bogh, aye. Cortese? Cortese, aye. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye.

Okay, thank you. We'll see you shortly. So, next up, I'm looking for authors in order. I saw Assemblymember Irwin. Now I see Assembly Member Arambula. I will let you two rock, paper, scissors it out. Okay, you're conceding. Assembly Member Arambula welcome. I see you have two bills on our agenda today. And your first, I believe, is AB 447. You may proceed when ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members. California has long recognized the importance of addressing the needs of individuals with disabilities in education. Extending resources to students with disabilities maximizes the opportunity to further their own learning and independence in life and in their careers. Currently, there are seven CSUs and two UCs that have officially started or are in the development of an inclusive college program. There should be programs at every campus across the state.

Across the United States. There are already hundreds of these programs. AB 447, will ensure that California continues its leadership by supporting the goals of these inclusive programs, by facilitating their expansion into more public universities that offer a four-year curriculum. This creates opportunities for students to engage in continuous learning, to cultivate their independence, and to foster meaningful relationships that will contribute to their success. One example is the UC Davis Redwood SEED program. This outstanding program has proven successful in the personal and professional development of the students involved.

Testifying in support of AB 447 is Beth Foraker, the Co-Director of the UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars Program. And we also have Maria Worster, an alumni from the Wayfinders Program at Fresno State University.

Excellent. Thank you, Ms. Foraker. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Beth Foraker. I am the Co-Director of the UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars Program. This is the first four-year inclusive college program for students with intellectual disabilities in the State of California. So our students live on campus. They take UC Davis courses in their area of interest. They participate in campus clubs like Aggie Golf or the Anime Club, or the Campus Band, and they have employment opportunities.

We have 40 million citizens in the State of California, a million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, 66,000 people with intellectual disabilities in the State of California between the ages of 18 and 26, with almost no real opportunities. People who are young adults want to build independent living skills and build employment skills. So, I encourage you to support AB 447, not just for the students with intellectual disabilities. We have a lot of data on outcomes.

So currently, in the best of times, only 17% of adults with intellectual disabilities make a living wage. 83% do not. But if you attend an inclusive college program, that number changes to between 65% to 80% of graduates. 65% to 80% of graduates make a living wage. That means they get to live their adult dreams and be participants in our communities. Currently, 17% get to do that.

I also want to speak on behalf of all the other students at UC Davis and the professors and the community members, because we have a lot of data. We're about 10 years behind in building these programs in California. So what happens when you build diverse workplaces, you do better economically. When you build inclusive classrooms, you do better academically. When you build inclusive living spaces, you do better socially, emotionally. So this is on behalf of all Californians, not just people with intellectual disabilities.

And I encourage you to come visit. We're just down the road. We'd love for you to meet the Redwood SEED Scholars, to meet the over 100 mentors who are med school students, grad students, PhD Students, and undergrads. At UC Davis who support our students. Thank you for this opportunity.

And thank you and Ms. Worster. Welcome. Hope I'm getting your name right.

Hello. My name is Maria Worster. I'm 24 years old. When I was 19, I attended Wayfinders at Fresno State for two years. I have two older sisters who went to college before me and I really wanted to have the college experience. I chose Wayfinders at Fresno State because I liked that I could live with other students and be included in a lot of the activities on campus. I could also work on areas that. I could also work on areas that will help me become more independent.

While I was there, I was able to take some courses, volunteer, and get some work experience. Not only did I learn the practical skills like budgeting, banking, and cleaning, and taking public transportation, but I learned how to be my own advocate. When I graduated, I came home and unfortunately, because of COVID, I was stuck there for almost two years. However, as soon as things began to open up again, I was able to get a job working at Topgolf.

And I've been there for almost two years now. About a year and a half ago, I was able to achieve my biggest goal, which is to live independently in my own apartment. I don't think I would be ready to do those things as quickly as I was if it had it been for Wayfinders. I am now a person who can be independent and contribute to my community.

I believe that AB 447 is vital to making programs like Wayfinders more available to people like me. There are very few programs that are set up to address all the areas that young adults with disabilities need while allowing them to be in a natural college setting. I really hope that you vote yes for AB 447.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Well done. Is there anybody else in the hearing room like to testify in support of AB 447? If so, please come to the podium. State your name, your organization, your position.

Hello, my name is Ryan Wilson. I'm the transition coordinator at Wayfinders, the program that Maria has graduated from, and I'm here in support of this Bill.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Anybody else? Seeing none. Is anybody here who'd like, to testify in opposition AB 447? I'm sorry, this is in support. Sir, welcome.

Hi, my name is Griffin Hurst, I'm one of the students at the Wayfinders Program. I gained a lot of skills from cooking to gaining skills for volunteering, activities, going on classes on campus, and enjoying this time at Fresno State.

Hello, my name is Apion Smith. I came from the Wayfinders Program and what they do. I really love the program because they keep us going because they teach us a lot like who we are and what we are inside ourselves. Learn how to get a job. Learn about doing your assignments and go to classes and then transportation, how to cook, and do volunteer, too, because if it wasn't for that program. What are we going to do now after this, though?

Thank you. Well done. Anybody else?

We're going to live, our parents. We're going to be spoiled. But that's why we need to learn about the program and learn how to live outside the program. That's why I really love for everybody around here this courage for the Wayfinder, for everyone from each country to come to learn the experience of the Wayfinders. And it's really tough for me. But thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no more support. If you could briefly. Welcome.

Hi. My name is Amy, and I'm from the Wayfinders program. I think we need more of programs like this because it would really benefit from young adults with intellectual disabilities. And with my program, I like living in an apartment with roommates.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Nick Myers, and I like the program because I get to live independently, to do activities around campus for the community. Please say yes to this. We need more disabilities like this, and they need to get jobs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Myers. Anybody else? I appreciate all of you being here and testifying. Is anybody here That'd like to testify in opposition of the Bill? I'm seeing none. Mr. Moderator, if you could please query the teleconference line for anybody in support of or in opposition to AB 447.

Certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition to AB 447, please press one, then zero at this time. We'll go to line number 14. That's 14. Your line is open.

Good morning. This is David Riedle. I'm a parent of a daughter with intellectual disability who graduated from high school last week in Marin County. We have personal experience in our family with the woefully inadequate number of opportunities for children with, young adults with intellectual disability in California. I urge you to support AB 447.

Thank you, Mr. Riedle. Next, please.

One moment, Mr. Chair. We do have one latecomer that's just queued up. We'll go to line number 15. That's 15. Your line is open.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Members. Gregory Kramer, on behalf of Disability Rights California in support.

Thank you, Mr. Kramer. Mr. Moderate. Any other callers?

Mr. Chair? There is no other callers in queue at this time, please continue.

Let's bring it back to the Committee. Any comments or questions on AB 447 for Assembly Member Arambula? Senator Ochoa Bogh?

Maybe he should go first.

Okay. He doesn't have to, though. Senator Cortese, please.

I just want to commend the author for bringing this forward. I think it's hopefully the beginning of a lot more work that the Legislature can do and the state budget can do in the future.

With regard to the disability community at this level of education, we have a program which is based in a community college in Santa Clara County called the College of Adaptive Arts, which is set up as a 501 C3, but essentially is a workforce training program for all intents and purposes, to put kids right back into education, but as teachers, as instructors. So I'm all for this. I suspect a lot of other people are. And again, just wanted to thank the author for bringing it forward.

Senator Ochoa Bogh

Let's try. So, first of all, thank you so much for bringing this measure forward. I have something similar that has to do with also with inclusive education practices in the state as a whole in going forward, moving forward in the Assembly. So I truly appreciate the work within this space. There's no better advocates than those who are here. Some of the great comments that I heard today were, you're learning how to have financial literacy. I wish everyone had an opportunity to have financial literacy.

How empowering you are in order to have that so great program on that end. Cleaning, I heard somebody, you learn how to clean. I wish every college student would learn that. I wish he could leave high school with that class. I know as parents, that would be so beneficial.

Transportation, financial literacy, and one that really, really moved me along with those classes that I think are so important, to know who you are, to know who you are in sight, and the power of potential that you have. You have purpose and to learn to learn that you have purpose and to learn what that purpose is and how you belong in our communities is so empowering.

And I hope that every student has the ability to learn that and to know that deep, deep within their soul. Everyone has a worth, and everybody is born uniquely different with skills and talents, that it is our job as parents, as caregivers, as educators, as leaders to ensure that we create the best environment for you to completely flourish and develop those skills and talents.

I am so grateful for this Bill, and if the motion has not been made, I'll be happy to make the motion to move this Bill.

I appreciate that. Well said. I share your enthusiasm. Hard not to get emotional. So Assembly Member Arambula, thank you for bringing this Bill. Thank you to everybody here who testified. Not an easy thing to do, to stand in front of a scary crowd like this and speak from your heart. You did that, and it is truly helpful. So we have a motion from Senator Ochoa Bogh. Would you like to close?

Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to present and to allow the students to be able to advocate for themselves. They showed their independence. They showed their willingness to engage in higher education. And we as a state, owe it to them to make sure that we're providing as inclusive of an experience as we can. For us to truly be a California for all, it must include disability students, those from IDD backgrounds to be able to have opportunities in higher education.

I believe we should look towards those examples that are doing well and make sure we're providing them at all of our four year public institutions. I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Madam Sullivan, please call the roll.

File item seven, AB 447, Arambula. Motion is do pass, but first must be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. [Roll Call]

We will leave that Bill open for now for the EpsON Members, and we will proceed to AB 1275, also from Assembly Member Ramdula.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members. AB 1275 provides a narrowly tailored modification to the Brown Act for statewide student-run community college organizations to improve student safety, privacy, and accessibility. In an age where teleconferencing has become increasingly common, many aspects of our current laws need updating to adjust to challenges that our students face.

Current law poses major accessibility and safety concerns for students, sometimes minors who are disabled or otherwise unable to participate in student run meetings in person. With only a couple exceptions, the Brown Act currently requires members of student organizations who teleconference to publicly release their private locations when they attend meetings. These include students who are disabled, undocumented survivors of domestic violence, members of other underserved communities, or potential targets of political violence.

The Brown act has been a landmark policy that ensures open access to government participation, but it is time to update the law to reflect modern times and new challenges faced by our most vulnerable students. AB 1275 will ensure student safety and accessibility for students participating in student run community college organizations. Testifying in support of AB 1275 is Chanel Winn, a community college student, and Zachariah Wooden, Vice President of legislative affairs at the Student Senate of California Community Colleges.

Thank you, Ms. Win. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Good morning, chair and Committee Members. My name is Chanel Win, and I'm the current Legislative Affairs Director with the Student Senate of California Community Colleges and a current student at Diablo Valley College studying Business Administration. Most of my friends, colleagues, and students I meet in college come from student organizations.

With the transition back to traditional Brown Act provisions, it's harder for students to participate in leadership roles community college students don't often have on-campus housing, and most of us commute for hours to get on campus. Personally, I do not drive. I rely on public transportation, and it's incredibly unreliable, and it takes hours and it's very time-consuming to get on campus just to attend a 1-hour meeting. Even if you do drive with the gas prices in California, it's very financially irresponsible.

We need to be financially responsible when we take into consideration of the prices when we join a Committee that would benefit from our different perspectives. This conversation has been ongoing conversation among the Members of my Committee where I struggled to meet quorum. Once, I could not even take action on approving our Bill priorities just because we did not meet quorum. My committee consists of student parents, incarcerated students, minors, international students whose perspective I value individually and do not want to lose one bit.

As an immigrant, I didn't have much chance to meet much students or many people in the United States until I joined student organizations. The friends I meet in college and the diversity in perspective that I was exposed to because of the opportunity of teleconferencing during COVID gave me a community and a holistic perspective in college. Since the state of emergency was lifted, I have struggled to participate in person.

This is the case for many California community college students, particularly our unhoused students, students with disabilities, and student parents who do not have the financial means to attend meetings. The Brown Act is about transparency, and as leaders, transparency is important to us. But current laws make student leadership roles inaccessible, exclusive, and inequitable, as they are currently more exclusionary than transparent.

Ms. Win, I'm going to ask you to wrap up.

Okay. I ask you to support AB 1275 so that our California community college students can have equal access to student leadership roles at both the state level and the local level representation. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Next witness, please. You have two minutes.

Good morning, Chair, Committee Members, my name is Zachariah Wooden. I'm the Vice President of Legislative Affairs for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges. We represent 1.8 million students statewide. With a student population of that size, of course, it's pretty much a given that we have a diverse student population. We accept any who apply. It's a unique aspect of our system that we primarily are made up of students pursuing a better life.

We serve adult learners, student parents, first generation students, disabled students, dual enrolled students, formerly incarcerated students, veteran students, so many populations that are seeking to better their lives and the lives of others through the many available paths on campus. It's a reflection of the community in the college that makes our colleges so responsive as community centers, not just for education, but for work and life as well. Which brings me to why we need AB 1275.

Just last year, the Legislature passed a law that did break down an invisible barrier that prevented noncredit and disabled students from actually participating in student governments at the community college level. This Bill is in the same line of thought. We need to meet a new standard of accessibility for students to be able to participate and to be able to be represented by their student body associations at the college level. These student legislative bodies do fall under the Brown Act, made up of.

And these student body associations represent underresourced and underrepresented students already. And the Legislature should continue to champion the cause of accessibility for our community colleges. And as amended, it would not only improve the accessibility of Brown act within reasonable means for student run legislative bodies, but also addresses concerns by requiring that a single physical quorum must be at a location listed on the agenda in order to utilize the teleconferencing provisions of the Bill. We're not asking for a wild deviation from the Brown Act.

Instead, we're asking this Committee, in the name of civic engagement and empowerment of the next generation of leaders, in the name of accessibility for students facing the most invisible barriers to otherwise experiencing the opportunity to lead, to support and vote in favor of this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Is anybody else here in the hearing would like to testify on behalf of AB 1275? Seeing as is, do we have anybody here who would like testify in opposition to the measure? Welcome.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, Members of the Committee. Dr. Rambula. My name is Brittney Barsotti. I'm the General Counsel of the California News Publishers Association. We represent over 800 publications within the State of California and have been actively engaged on Brown Act issues for a few years now. We respect and appreciate Dr. Arambula's willingness to take the Quorum Amendment. However, our coalition still has remaining concerns about carving out different areas of bodies for the Brown Act.

Currently, there's the in person requirements, there's the teleconferencing requirements, and then AB 2449 last year set up exemptions for just cause. And we've encouraged the author and advocates. If there are additional areas of just cause that need to be addressed, such as disabilities, maybe falling outside the 20% requirement, or other ways that we can make the Brown act more accessible, we're absolutely willing to have those conversations.

But 2449 has only been in effect for a little over six months at this point, and we have respectfully asked the Legislature to hit pause on further amending the Brown Act and continuing to carve out different bodies so we can have an informational hearing in the fall and have a much more comprehensive conversation about what truly modernizing the Brown Act looks like. And so with that, I respectfully ask for your no vote.

Thank you. Anybody else in opposition to AB 1275? Welcome.

Hello. My name is Melissa Korber, and I teach journalism and media studies at Los Pasitas College in Livermore. I serve as advisor to the newspaper, the magazine, and also the journal there. I'm a former student journalist, and I've also served as the Academic Senate President at our college for over six years. Although I'm not currently. I'm proud to state that Ms. Barsladi is my former student.

Well done.

I know, right? I'm so proud. I'm here to voice my opposition to the Bill respectfully. The Brown act is one of the core laws that protects democracy in California. A change of this nature, allowing a student sentence to meet without full transparency, is unnecessary, overly broad, and contrary to democracy. It creates an unreasonable burden on student journalists and also on the general public. There was a lot of talk about the burden on the leaders, but what about the general public and their right to attend meetings?

And I can state that working with my own student journalists, trying to get information is often really hard from student government. They wrote several editorials about that. So I teach my student journalists how to cover meetings like professional journalists, and I think student officers need to learn that, too. It's really important for us not to carve out this exception just based on the fact that we're after the pandemic.

I also want to point out that the digital divide still exists, and this Bill will impact those in marginalized communities who want to attend meetings as well. Right? They may not have a computer. They might not even have a home. There are equity issues there as well. It's unnecessary. The pandemic is over. Meetings are held in person, and students must be held to that standard. It's overly broad. Any exceptions could be narrowly defined, as Ms. Barsati argued.

It is contrary to democracy, including the rights and protections of the First Amendment. To petition and freedom of the press. The Bill also leads to lack of accountability and transparency by student officers in the Senate. The ability of constituents to impact democracy is directly impacted by access. And this Bill impacts access for journalists and also the general public. And my final statement would be, don't throw out transparency for convenience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is anybody else here in the, here, like, testifying opposition to the measure? Seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line. Ms. Moderator, anybody on the line who'd like to testify either in support of or in opposition to AB 1275?

Certainly, Mr. Chair, if you'd like to speak in support of opposition for AB 1275, please press one, then zero at this time.

All right, thank you. Let's come back to the Committee and the dais. Senator Cortese.

Just a question for the author and a comment. It's my understanding that the way the Bill is set up in print, that not only would the students have access to the teleconference or the video availability, the online availability of the meeting, but members of the general public would be as well. Is that accurate?

That's correct. And we're maintaining that 50% a quorum has to be in one public place with a posted agenda. So there is the opportunity for media and newspapers to engage, and just as they normally do. What we're trying to do is to make sure that we're providing the accessibility for students who historically have felt barriers, whether or not it's financial, whether or not it's disability, whether or not it's fear of their immigration status or being from domestic violence.

There are so many members of our community colleges who should be allowed to participate, and that's the intent of the Bill.

Thank you. And the comment is, you know, I was a Member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, the county that was the first to go into shelter-in-place, and we couldn't stop having meetings. And it was somewhat convenient, I think, that Zoom was located in the area within the county and the area that I represented.

But the bottom line was on the issue of whether or not we need to study this some more. We were forced into a pilot program basically up and down the state, and I haven't heard from colleagues or constituents that anyone felt left out during that period.

What we hear quite often, and we could see with our own eyes, especially as local officials, a little easier to do than up here, is that folks who were stay-at-home parents who had small children, for example, instead of lugging the kids down to a late night meeting or traveling, these aren't just inconveniences, these are barriers to access. Could simply check in with our staff and say, could you notify me? Could you send me an email? Can you send me a text?

Could you let me know when that item is likely to come up? I'll be online, but I've got things going on in my household or my business, other distractions, things that are barriers to me attending in person. I just want to make sure I know when the item I'm interested in is coming up and what the access rules are. You just can't replicate that in person.

At the same time, in a hybrid situation where you have both and the ability to go down to a main meeting room and also the ability for those that are running into barriers. I'm not sure, at least from my perspective, what's not to like? I'm certainly interested in hearing from my colleagues and the Chair, but I'll be supporting this. I think it's, again, something that we've had plenty of road testing on.

And then lastly, I do think the practical matter, and again, having served as a local official that's subject to the Brown Act, to have an expectation of privacy in someone's home is a big issue. Should it trump transparency? No, but we're not saying that individuals would not have access to a physical location for a meeting.

I think what we're generally saying here, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I guess I can frame it as a question to the author, that if somebody wants to attend a physical location, they can. If somebody wants to attend an online location, they can. It's just that they don't have a right to access somebody's living room who is domiciled there to participate in the meeting.

That's correct, Senator. The online access will be provided. The meeting space will be public.

What we're asking is that their home addresses are not made public, that those who have children, those who might be minors themselves because they're dual enrolled, those, again with immigration status, don't disclose where their home location is and believe that's a reasonable modification for us to allow them to participate. Because accessibility works both ways. We have to make sure our systems allow for people to access and participate within these student-run organizations.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Senator Cortese. Anybody else? Senator Ochoa Bogh, please.

So I'm reading the analysis here, and I'm trying to understand the concerns of the opposition with regards to what is being requested to do here specifically with this particular Bill. And I'm not sure I quite understand the concern that's being expressed, and I completely respect the Brown Act.

And as someone who came from local government and understands the importance of having the Brown Act in place and ensuring that we don't compromise the integrity of the Brown Act, but yet allow for some flexibility that were expressed here, which, quite frankly, I sympathize with. What part of the Brown Act are you concerned about being compromised with this particular Bill? Through the Chair

Please, it's fine, Ms. Parcelli.

Jen. Currently, the issue is that we would like to work within the structure of AB 2449 and for that to be given more than six months to be in effect. So, for example, if there's a specific category that we need to address and add to just cause to maintain that framework. We've had conversations about exempting folks with disabilities from the 20% cap that's within that Bill, that's fine. It sounds like there are other additional categories that are up for consideration.

We need to sort of figure out how to define that. But ultimately, I think our ideological and more strict concerns deal with creating this tiered approach and carving out different bodies from the Brown Act. And that was part of why the Governor vetoed AB 339, was that it treated different bodies separately. So currently, the beauty of the Brown Act is it applies to all bodies. There's an exemption for states of emergencies from the quorum requirement.

There's the traditional teleconferencing provisions, and then there's also 2449, which allows members to participate without disclosing the location they're taking the meeting from if they meet certain categories. And so we feel it would be best to work within that framework rather than creating another tiered approach, as some of the other Brown Act bills that aren't going to be before this Committee address. There's one for multi-jurisdictional bodies, there's another for LA neighborhood councils.

And the beauty of the Brown Act, as I said, is that it applies consistently. And I'd also like to address briefly, our coalition doesn't feel that students should have to disclose their home addresses. The disagreement is that the house is not an appropriate place to be taking the meeting. Right? That they should be in a public place when doing the public's business. And that's consistent across all of the Brown Act bills that we have concerns with, not just Dr. Arambula's, to be fair. I can get even more hyper-technical if you want, but hopefully.

I think there's no need for that. Anything else?

So I'm very sympathetic to the concerns that our students have expressed today because I think, as with anything that's new, there's things that we don't think about and then they come to light and then we try to incorporate them and codify those concerns.

I think I'm going to lay off the Bill today, not because I don't appreciate the principle and the need that needs to be addressed, but because it's my understanding, based on what the witnesses testified today, that there's going to be a conference of some sort or a meeting of some sort in the Fall, that chief folks are going to take more of a holistic analysis of the Brown Act and how this plays out into this space.

And I think I personally would like to see the results of those discussions with regards to the Brown Act and how we're incorporating these new needs and capacities that we've discovered since the pandemic came about, and to see how we can put that into policy. More of a holistic, instead of piecemealing it, because we do that quite often in the Legislature in different spaces, whether it's housing, public safety, we always just piecemeal instead of looking at it all holistically.

So I think I'm going to lay off today on that because of those reasons, but not because I don't believe that there is merit behind the concerns expressed today and the need for this Bill, but because I want to see more of a holistic approach and study a more close, holistic approach of the study of this space. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

Yeah, I just wanted to agree with the comments made by Senator from San Jose, Senator Cortese. I haven't been a journalist for a good part of my life. I understand the importance of the Brown Act, the importance of making sure that citizens get the information they need to really participate in the democracy. But we also are in a technological age. We're also in a time where we're trying to limit emissions, unnecessary travel.

We're at a time where we're trying to bring more communities into the dialogue and to remove some of the barriers, as my great colleague mentioned.

So I support this Bill, and I think it will, in many ways, improve the amount of coverage that newspapers are able to do, because those smaller outlets will be able to participate and not have to send reporters into a real brick-and-mortar meeting hall, but can actually participate and be able to communicate what comes out of those meetings in a more efficient and effective way. So, looking forward to supporting this Bill. I'm glad that you brought it forward.

Thank you. For my part, I want to align my perspective with that of my colleagues who've spoken today. But having said that, I do appreciate the concerns of not only journalists, but anybody who's interested in transparency.

And I would agree that there's a need at some point to revisit and really reconsider kind of some of the fundamental dimensions of the Brown Act as it intersects with these new kind of exciting improvements in technology that allow for digital participation, none of which existed when the Brown Act or the Bagley Keene Act were implemented.

And it's an interesting question how to do this while preserving transparency, but also access of the kind that journalists need, I should ask the hard questions of people who participate in public, in the public space. So I think, I'm hopeful that as we move forward next year, that we take a very thorough and holistic, as my colleague put it, look at these two measures as they relate to the realities of our current life, because to Senator Cortese's point, I think we're better for it. Right.

It's on balance, I think it's hard to argue that we're not better for it, especially here. We take the comment by telephone. There was a time when, if you wanted your voice heard, even for the so-called MeToo, your name, organization, your position, you had to drive from wherever you lived here, to Sacramento, for your 15 seconds of fame. We're better for it.

I think we as legislators, have a better sense of sort of the public's needs and concerns, but we really do need to consider how it affects some of the really important work that journalists and others do. So I'm going to support the Bill today, but I'm hopeful that as we move forward and we look at sort of these fundamental reforms to the Brown Act, Bagley Keene, that we take this into account, and I assume it will supersede whatever we do today. And with that, glad to support. Would you like to close?

Thank you, Senator. I want to take a moment and thank the students who brought this Bill to us, who saw improvements that happened from the Executive Order during the state of emergency and demanded that we increase accessibility as much as we could. I'm grateful that we have the Bill that's before us, and I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Madam, please call the roll. We do need a motion. Do I have a motion? Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

I move.

Thank you.

File item eight, AB 1275, Arambula. Motion is do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on Governance and Finance. [Roll Call]

Thank you. We'll leave that open. I actually have to depart, at least temporarily, to go present three bills in the Assembly. I am going to turn the gavel over to my Vice Chair, Senator Ochoa Bogh. Thank you for doing this.

So we do have quite a bit of Committees going on and Members presenting bills. So we will have some of our Committee Members having to leave to present bills. So it's nothing personal, but it's just part of the process of legislating in busy times right now. So let's see, who do we have here? Oh Banta, we have Assembly Member Bonta. And let's see, I believe it's item number three, AB 51, is that correct? Yes, AB 51 and welcome, Member Bonta. Glad to have you here in education and when you're ready.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Chair and Members, I'm pleased to present AB 51, the Childcare Stabilization Act. California's mixed delivery system offers a variety of much-needed early learning and childcare settings with the intention of allowing parents and guardians to choose the setting which will best meet the needs of their families.

Some of these settings include transitional kindergarten programs, contracted state preschools offered by school districts and community-based providers, contracted general care programs, Head Start, private center-based preschool providers, and licensed family childcare providers. You can see a very diverse set of offerings. California has begun to phase in the implementation of universal transitional kindergarten, a free option for early learning that will be available for all four-year-olds by the 2025 26 school year.

This expansion is celebrated as it represents an increase in the access to early learning and care. That being said, we must also acknowledge that providers within the mixed delivery system have expressed valid concerns that the loss of four-year-olds may undermine their already fragile and highly decentralized childcare system. As well, we must also recognize that families need the kind of flexibility that they do, to have affordable childcare in their lives so that they can go to work and that our earliest learners can be supported.

For these reasons, I introduced AB 51 to support the effective and equitable functioning of our mixed delivery childcare system in order to help stabilize early childcare opportunities for families and the providers that they support. AB 51 does three things towards ascend. I will share that I believe that AB 51, as it is constructed now, is certainly necessary, but substantially insufficient to address the mixed delivery system that we need in place. First, the Bill increases access to childcare for families.

It does this by expanding existing resource and referral services to include navigation, referral up to enrollment services to ensure families have easy access to information about available childcare slots, as well as by increasing eligibility for subsidized childcare for families in higher-cost areas. Second, the Bill directs local educational agencies to provide developmentally appropriate, expanded learning opportunities for TK students.

And finally, the Bill seeks to provide just transition for providers by requiring the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education to consider the impacts of universal TK expansion as rates are being considered. The Bill also provides meaningful resources for providers who have historically been left out of the state preschool program. Early childcare is a fundamental issue for healthy child development and foundational for early learning and positive educational outcomes.

Our early childcare system is primarily comprised of women of color doing the important and undervalued labor of caring for our children and fostering early learning and development. With me today to testify in support of this Bill is Juliet Terry, Government Relations Specialist at the Childcare Resource and Referral Center.

Wonderful. We'll now move on to our elite witnesses. Ms. Julia Terry when you're ready.

Good morning, Members of the Committee. I'm Julia Terry. I'm a Government Relations Specialist at the Childcare Resource Center. First, I would like to thank the Committee for hearing AB 51 today and also thank Assembly Member Bonta for authoring this Bill. It's Childcare Resource Center's privilege to support this Bill, along with other advocates.

This Bill addresses a number of very important issue areas in our sector, some of the most salient ones, including addressing the impact of transitional kindergarten expansion on California's mixed delivery system, consumer education for families in the universal preschool system by way of family navigation, and state departments supporting expanded learning opportunities programs that are developmentally appropriate for four-year-olds. We want consumer education for families. Families should be aware of the different childcare and early education options available to them.

This Bill makes provisions for resource and referral agencies to provide family navigation to the universal preschool system with a high-touch approach and to do so through connected community relationships. This Bill also allows families to become aware of their full options within the universal preschool system as well as the diverse offerings of California's robust mixed delivery system. This Bill would allow resource and referral agencies to specifically support families in navigation, referral, resource education, and support services.

Additionally, resource and referral agencies would provide services and linkages to health and social services. This supports a whole child and whole family system of support for our youngest students. We know that when children and families are supported in a holistic manner, they truly thrive and this helps support that. Lastly, with the expansion of transitional kindergarten, we know that many families are in need of wraparound and continued support services, possibly outside of the traditional TK hours.

We want to ensure that TK students have access to developmentally appropriate expanding learning opportunities as a part of this coordinated and comprehensive universal Pre-K system. For these reasons, I respectfully ask for your Aye vote on AB 51.

Thank you, Ms. Terry. We'll now continue with any other witnesses in support of AB 51 here in Room 2200.

Good morning. My name is Denine Colbert and I'm the CEO of the California Alternative Payment Program Association. And after a conversation with the Assembly Member today, I respectfully am switching the position of opposition, moving to support, to support, with hopeful amendments to remove any conditional support. So today I'm here representing community-based organizations that have been enrolling and supporting families for over 50 years to access to childcare.

I see AB 51 as a real opportunity to make it clear that California's subsidized families, the poorest families amongst us, have a choice, not only in the TK, but a choice, a meaningful choice, to choose childcare that supports the needs of their working parents as well as the needs of the children.

It's important to understand that this point is underscored in 2014 when President Obama signed the reauthorization of the Childcare Development Block Grant, that the states make sure that parents have both the choices, not just the childcare or TK or the needs of the child, but also supporting the work needs of the parents. Today, I just want to share with you that we still do not have clarity that the poorest families are being protected in their choices.

Our agencies continue to hear we have a family with a TK-eligible child and an infant. That single mom had to quit her job because the TK created a situation where she didn't have childcare reimbursed during TK hours. Those are things we absolutely have to address. We have a migrant mom who goes to the fields at four to work and has stable childcare. Her childcare has been put in question. We have to iron those issues out and I know Assemblymember Bonta is really committed to that.

It's also really important that we want to encourage that parents know that they have a meaningful access to TK and to participate in a fair and equitable way.

Sorry to interrupt. We're right at the two-minute mark.

Okay, let me just make two more points. It is important in the Assembly Members Bill, we do meaningful requests that CDE and DSS work together. That does not happen. We've transitioned childcare to DSS and the collaboration is not there. And then further meaningful collaboration with LEAs and the private market. So we support the full needs of families. Thank you.

Thank you very much, ma'am. And now we're just going to continue with the MeToos.

Good morning. Samara Palko, with the California Catholic Conference, in full support.

Good morning. Ada Naymack with Children Now. We're also in support.

Vice Chair Ochoa Bogh, Members of the Committee, Rafi Raybukas, President of the Board of Governors of the Young Leaders Political Action Committee on behalf of California's high school and junior high school students with which this Bill lays a foundation for. In strong support.

Tiffany Mok on behalf of CFT, in support.

Mel Assagai for the California African American Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Sacramento Urban League, in support.

Perfect. Seeing no other witnesses in support of AB 51, we'll now continue to lead witnesses in opposition to AB 51. Seeing none. Are there any other witnesses in opposition here in Room 2200? Perfect. So we will now continue to our witnesses waiting to testify via the teleconference service. Moderator, if you would, please prompt the individuals waiting to testify in support or opposition of AB 51. We will now begin.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Ladies and gentlemen on the phones, to comment in support or opposition of AB 51, please press one, then zero at this time. Madam Vice Chair. We have no callers. Queuing up.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. We'll now bring the witnesses or the discussion back to our Committee Members. Do we have any questions, comments? No. Do we have a motion? Oh, I'm sorry. Before I do that, Member Bonta, would you like to close?

Thank you. Our childcare system is definitely in need of an opportunity to ensure that we are providing a true mixed delivery system. I commit to continuing to work on that proposition, either through this Bill or future legislation. With that, I respectfully request your Aye vote.

Thank you very much. Member Bonta. And we have a motion by Senator Welk. Madam Secretary, if you would please call the roll.

File item three, AB 51, Bonta. Motion is do pass but first be re-referred to the Committee on Human Services. [Roll Call]

Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye.

Perfect. We'll place this bill on call for our absent Member. Thank you so much, Member Bonta, for being here with us today. Let's see, who else do we have? We have Assembly Member Muratsuchi here. Item five, AB 238. Welcome, Member Muratsuchi.

Thank you. I'm getting a subtle hint from Senator Wilk here. Thank you, Senators. I'm here to present the AB 238 which would establish the California Student Teacher Support Grant program. We all know that we have a critical teacher shortage, and so I won't belabor the point. We need to support and encourage more young people to want to become teachers.

This bill would create this grant program, administered by the California Teacher Credentialing Commission to support more people to become teachers by removing the financial barriers that they face to incentivize more young people to become teachers. I am here with two supporting witnesses, Lyndin King with the California Faculty Association and Ramon Castillo, also with the California Faculty Association.

We want to welcome our lead witnesses in support of AB 238.

Thank you for the time, Members. Briefly, my name is Lyndin and I just finished my teaching credential program at Sac State, and I had a great experience. Although the strain of not being able to work while taking my classes and doing student teaching did take its toll on myself as well as my cohort. I worked three jobs, roughly, part time when I could, when I wasn't studying and preparing for lesson plans and things of that nature.

And it took its toll financially from different areas of my life throughout the year because life continues to go on, even though you may or I have chosen to continue my education to become a teacher, right? So I just wanted to share that real quickly, and I support and hope you all will give your aye for AB 238.

Good morning, Ms. Chair and Members. My name is Ramon Castillo Juarez, and I'm a teacher over at Martin Luther King Jr. Tech Academy. I graduated from Sac State Credential Program in May 2022. While I was completing the program, I continued to keep working. I would start my mornings off at two in the morning. I would begin my shift as a load planner at Sacramento International. I would clock in by three, was out by seven, and then I would show to my designated school by 7:30 in the morning.

Up until 12:30, I would help students think critically about history, about world context and situations, and afterwards I would go to University to study, finish up exams, complete any missing assignments that I had, and also complete and create lesson plans for the next day.

To break that down a little bit further, I would spend 4 hours of work, 5 hours at my designated school, 3 hours of college class, and about roughly 4 hours to complete any create any lessons, and grade any assignments that I made, and about 2 hours to complete any assignments assigned to me from the college itself. In total, on a long day I would spend about 18 hours working. On average, I only got about 4 hours of sleep throughout the whole credential program.

I share this story as an example of what the alternative to this bill is, feeling burned out even before you even step into your own classroom. Not every good hearted teacher has the mental strength to commit to that kind of schedule, and it shouldn't be held to that kind of standard to avoid debt.

The only reason I was able to maintain this schedule was because the support of my family, Anthony Malachowski, who offered wisdom and guidance, and my first and fifth period kids, who were passionate about learning over in Grant Union High School. What I'm trying to get at, that it's critical to competent student teachers while they are completing the credential program because it would help alleviate some of that financial pressure felt during the early stages of becoming a teacher.

Many qualified individuals striving to become teachers are clipped and curbed by this financial pressure. To better assist these individuals for their hard work and dedication, they deserve compensation. I'm happy to testify in support of SB Two, three, eight. And respectfully request your aye vote.

Thank you very much to both our lead witnesses in support of AB 238. We'll now continue with any other witnesses in support here in Room 2200.

Good morning, Madam Chair Members. Ron Rapp from the California Faculty Association. We're proud sponsors of AB 238. And respectfully request an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Good morning. Samara Palko with the California Catholic Conference in full support.

Thank you.

Good morning, Committee. Karl Larson with Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis' office in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello. Jake Smith, Chief of Staff to the President of the Young Leaders Political Action Committee on behalf of California students in strong support.

Thank you.

Tiffany Mok, on behalf of CFT in support. Thank you.

Katie Hardeman with the California Teachers Association in support.

Thank you.

John Wenger, on behalf of the California Charter School Association, in support.

Thank you. Seeing no other witnesses here in support of AB 238, we'll now continue to with any witnesses in opposition to AB 238 here in Room 2200. See no lead opposition. No other witnesses in opposition. We'll now continue with witnesses waiting to testify via the teleconference service. Moderator, if you would, please prompt the individuals waiting to testify in support or opposition of AB 238, we will begin.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To comment in support or opposition of AB 238. If you have not already done so, press one, then zero at this time. We'll go first to line number 13. Please, go ahead.

Good morning, Chair and Members. Sam Nasher with the Los Angeles County Office of Education in support.

Next is line number 35. Go ahead, please.

Good morning, Veronica Villalobos Cruz, on behalf of Create California in support.

Line 36. Go ahead, please.

Good morning. Martha Zaragoza-Diaz, representing Delta Kappa Gamma, California and the California Music Educators Association in strong support. Thank you.

Madam Chair. There are no additional callers in queue.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. And we want to thank all of our support and our opposition, or actually, we didn't have any opposition in this one. So thank you to all our support witnesses today who came to testify both in person and via the teleconference. We'll now bring the discussion back to our Members, do you have any questions or comments by our Committee Members? Well, I guess I just want to say thank you so much for bringing this measure forward, Assembly Member Muratsuchi.

I have the privilege to sit on this Committee as well as in Budget one, which is the Educational Budget Committee. And one of the things that we've heard over and over again is the need for teachers. Just in general, anything that has to do with an education, we just don't have enough of the workforce. But I do have to commend the witnesses today that came in support as lead witnesses, that, I often share this analogy with people that with challenges, with adversity in life.

I liken it to a rock tumbler, where you put the little rock in there, and it's really harsh, and it just goes through the little tumbler. And at the end, you end up with this beautiful, bright, shiny rock. And everything that you've overcome gives you that depth of character, and you become that shiny rock. And what an example and an inspiration to all of the students that you will be impacting moving forward. So you survived it. And to that, I commend you and that spirit that you have continue to light the way for many of our future students and teachers that will be coming your way.

I'll move the bill.

Thank you, Senator Wilk. We have a motion by Senator Wilk. Senator Muratsuchi, would you like to close?

Thank you very much. Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Madam Secretary, please.

File Item five, AB 238, Muratsuchi. Motion is do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Newman? Ochoa Bogh? Aye. Ochoa Bogh, aye. Cortese? Cortese, aye. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye.

Aye.

Wilk, aye.

We'll keep that measure on call for our absent members. And let's see, we have Assembly Member Irwin. And we'll move forward with item number nine, AB 535 by Assembly Member Irwin.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and Senators. School libraries are crucial for the social and educational well being of students. It is in libraries where students are equipped with the tools needed to discern the credibility of print and digital information while also receiving support in their self selected reading journeys.

Unfortunately, the school's public education system continues to face workforce shortages affecting all K through 12 school library programs. As of 2021, the state's ratio for librarians to students was one librarian between per 9667 students, with a third of the students never having had a library teacher librarian. Without the proper academic resources to equipped educators, students risk not having the tools necessary to empower their critical thinking capabilities.

In order to address these concerns, AB 535 will create a school, a statewide school library lead to assist educators in developing school library services that accelerate K 12 students literacy and learning capabilities. With me today to testify in support is Jeff Frost on behalf of the California School Library Association and Toni Triguero with the California Teachers Association.

Thank you Ms. Irwin. Members, Jeff Frost, representing the California School Library Association here in support of the Bill. Your analysis does a very nice job of describing what pieces the school library lead would do interacting with all of the states, other leads, literacy leads, MTSS, even math and science leads.

We're in a position where we have so few school librarians now that we think that we should start at the top and create a state level group of librarians that can work regionally, can work with statewide education organizations, and also assist school districts in interacting on existing literacy programs, developing media literacy toolkits that classroom teachers can use. There are a couple of other bills on your agenda today that have been trying to address the media literacy issue.

We think creating a state level body is really the way to go about doing that. We also think that the state Library lead can interact with families and communities. We have an entire community school program that the state has developed. I think these leads can be very effective there, so we support the Bill. Thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. Frost.

Madam Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Toni Trigueiro with the California Teachers Association and one of the co-sponsors of Assembly Member Irwin's AB 535. As stated, it requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to select an Applicant County Office of Education to serve as a statewide school library lead, to work collaboratively with the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, and to establish library and literacy services that support the statewide system of support.

We fervently believe a library lead would add deep expertise in literacy, learning, and leadership to the California system of support and build the capacity of schools, districts, county offices of ED, and state policymakers to develop and maintain excellent school libraries. A statewide school library lead will assist educators in developing needed school library services to accelerate literacy and learning, ultimately reinforcing students with all the necessary tools needed to build their critical thinking capabilities.

The Committee analysis does an excellent job in spelling out our current law and our efforts to implement AB 535. We want to thank Assembly Member Irwin for her efforts and the California School Library Association for their hard work. In closing, school libraries are inclusive places of equity and access, exploration and safety. We urge you to aye vote on AB 535. Thank you.

Thank you to both our lead witnesses in support. We will now move on to hear any other witnesses in support here in Room 2200.

Good morning. Carlos Machado with California School Board Association in support.

Hi, good morning. Catherine McBride, on behalf of the California Association of School Counselors in support. Thanks.

Perfect. Do we have any other witnesses in support here in Room 2200 C? None. We'll now move on to witnesses to lead. Witnesses in opposition. Wonderful. Are there any other witnesses in opposition here in Room 2200? Seeing none, we'll now move on to witnesses via. Waiting to testify via the teleconference service. And Mr. Moderator, if you would, please prompt the individuals waiting to testify in support or opposition of AB 535. We will now begin.

Certainly, Madam Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition of AB 535. Please press one, then zero at this time. We currently have two in queue. We'll go to line number 37. That's three seven. Your line is open.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Members, this is Christina Di Caro, representing the California Library Association in strong support.

Thank you. We'll go to line number 13. That's one three, your line is open.

Sam Nasher with the Los Angeles County Office of Education and Support.

Madam Chair, there is no one else in support or opposition on the phone lines at this time. Please continue.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. We'll now bring the discussion back to our members. Do we have any questions or comments? Seeing none. Assembly Member Irwin, would you like to close?

I just respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you very much.

I'll move the Bill.

Thank you. We have a motion by Senator Wilk. Madam Secretary, would you call the roll, please?

That was good. Thank you

File item nine, AB 535, Irwin. Motion is do passed. But first be we refer to the Committee on Appropriations. Newman? Ochoa Bogh?

Aye.

Ochoa Bogh aye. Cortese?

Aye.

Cortese aye. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk?

Aye.

Wilk Aye.

Perfect. We'll put that Bill on call for our absent members. And thank you for presenting today.

Thank you very much.

So I see, Assembly Member Grayson. And we'll continue with file item number 10, AB 624. Welcome, Assembly Member Grayson.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Members. I appreciate the support and also the analysis of the Committee. And with that, AB 624 removes the cost barriers to diagnostic assessments for students with disabilities. Of course, we know that testing accommodations and disability resources are available to support students with disabilities. In order to qualify for these accommodations, they're the ones that have to pay for them, which can cost upwards of thousands of dollars, creating an unfair economic disparity for students.

So with that, this bill specifically requires the trustees of California State University and respectfully requests the regents of the University of California to cover the cost of diagnostic assessments as proof for academic accommodations for specified students, students with disabilities. So it is imperative that universities and colleges support all students, regardless of their disability, and provide them with necessary resources for them to thrive and receive the care that they need to succeed. With that, I do have a witness through the Chair, Kate Rodgers, Director of Policy with GenUp Collegiate.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Kate. I will be reading this testimony on behalf of Allyson Chan, who is the Collegiate Chief of Staff for GenUp. So good morning. Generation Up is a youth-led educational advocacy organization representing thousands of students across the state and expanding nationally. As a proud principal writer and sponsor, GenUp advocates for Assembly Bill 624 to promote accessibility for student academic accommodations on college campuses.

While training to be a new student advisor at UCLA, I became an expert in a variety of services offered by my campus, including the Center for Accessible Education. CAE facilitates resources for students, including academic accommodations and disability advocacy. In their presentation, I noticed that receiving academic accommodations requires documentation from licensed physicians, psychologists, or other qualified professionals. While this may seem straightforward, I realize that this creates a barrier for students who don't have access to professional or medical resources.

Speaking to my friends who have used these services, their ability to receive accommodations has been delayed due to the difficulties in receiving the necessary documentation, facing barriers such as costs that disincentivize them from reaching out for help. Learning disability assessments range from $500 to $2,500, a cost that is not always covered by insurance plans. For college students, this is a huge financial burden that may discourage them from reaching out to obtain needed accommodations that allow for their academic success.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, among college students that reported that they do have a disability, only 30% of students actually informed their college, revealing that the lack of access discourages students with disabilities from seeking the help that they need. By requiring universities to provide students with needed testing accommodations, we can be sure that students have the resources they need to be successful. GenUp urges the Legislature to support AB 624 to ensure that students are equipped with the resources they need to excel in higher education and beyond. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other primary witnesses in support of the measure? Seeing none. Is anybody here in opposition, like testifying opposition to the measure? Seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if there's anybody on the line to like, testify in support of or in opposition to AB 624.

Certainly, Mr. Chair, we always like to go to the phone lines. If you have support or opposition for AB 535, please press one, then zero at the...

624.

624. Pardon me. We do have one that's queuing up. One moment, please, while we provide a line number.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to line number 40. That's 4-0, please. Go ahead. Your line is open. One moment, please.

Let's try that again. Line 40, your line is open. Go ahead.

Good morning. My name is Sheryl Kern-Jones, and I am the Northern California Chair of the Learning Disabilities Interest Group of the California Association of Postsecondary Education and Disability. We have been in conversations with Representative Grayson's office and are hopeful that an amendment will include the California Community Colleges in this Bill. Inclusion of California Community college students is crucial for equity of access to disability-related accommodations and services for all students in higher education.

California has been a model for the nation in developing a consistent statewide system for the assessment of learning disabilities and provision of services for students with learning disabilities. However, assessments are only offered at some, but not all.

Thank you. Thank you very much. So I'm going to take that as support if amended. Thank you very much. Any other callers?

Mr. Chair, there is no one else in queue at this time. Please continue.

Thank you. Let's come back to the dais. Senator Wilk.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Great Bill. And I just see this as just a big return on investment if we do it right. So I am supporting. But two questions. One, like you to share why community colleges are not in here.

And then number two, because we can't compel the UC system. Have you had conversations with them, and are they open to this?

So that's why we selected the language in my presentation. They were respectfully asking. Of course, you know that the regents have to make that decision on their own.

But we're hoping that they also share the desire that we have in California as California values for equity and education, which I am confident they do, and would expect them to also accept that request to provide, as we would, require Cal State universities to do. When it comes to junior colleges, we have continued to have open discussions, and we see some type of resolve on that moving forward.

Just a follow up. You dated yourself because you called it Junior.

Yes. Thank you for that.

I was going to say the same thing.

Any other Members of the Committee wanting to comment? Assemblymember Grayson, glad to support the Bill. I will note that the Bill has been substantially amended so that it goes back to rules upon passage here, so that some of the issues raised may be considered by the Senate Committee on Human Services, but otherwise happy to support it with that. Madam Consultant, would you like to close? I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And very supportive of our community colleges. So with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Appreciate that. Looking for a motion.

Wilk moves the Bill.

Got a motion for Senator Wilk. And Madam Consultant, please call the roll.

File item 10, AB 624: Grayson. Motion is do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on Rules. Newman? Newman aye. Ochoa Bogh? Ochoa Bogh aye. Cortese? Cortese aye. Glazer? McGuire? Smallwood-Cuevas? Wilk? Wilk aye.

All right, you have sufficient support. We'll leave the roll open for absent Members. Thank you very much, Assembly Member, and we have a terrific day. Next up, we have my neighbor and colleague. Actually, my Assembly Member of Assembly Member Chen, you're here to present AB 1283. Welcome. You may proceed when ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate you. It's an honor to present in your amazing Committee with your Members.

All right, tone it down just a little. It's not going to work here.

And Senator Scott Wilk is particularly handsome today.

Yes, I'll agree with that. We'll stipulate to that.

Okay. I'm pleased to present AB 1283 today. I want to take a moment to thank your Committee and your Committee staff. And I'll be accepting all the amendments of the Committee that has been offered. Two years ago, the School-Based Allergy and Asthma Management Program was signed into law.

This legislation encourages all states to improve asthma care in schools by giving preferences to federal grants to states that adopt certain asthma management programs and policies. While HR 2468 does not require states to allow albuterol stocking in schools, it would encourage schools to put into place. However, without state legislation, schools will be unable to access and receive any federal funding provided for them under the School-Based Allergy and Asthma Management Program.

AB 1283 will allow access to schools to have them to access federal funds and stock albuterol in California schools, intending to treat children that have asthma attacks. At the same time, it will encourage education departments to provide emergency stock of albuterol inhalers. If necessary, single use disposable holding chambers for school nurses or trained personnel who have volunteered.

The goal is to improve asthma care, to help save the lives of children, while with little cost to the State of California. Today to testify, we have Lena Nguyen representing the school nurses in California.

Welcome, Ms. Nguyen.

Hello.

Please proceed. You have two minutes.

Yeah. Good morning, Chair and Committee Members. So, my name is Lena Nguyen, and I'm a school nurse for almost nine years now. So I work for California public school, ranging from the mountainous Mariposa county to the farming valley of Fresno County. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be here to testify on how allowing school to have emergency stop albuterol will help increase student safety on campus and potentially reduce absenteeism in asthmatic students.

So as a school nurse, I helplessly watch my students struggle to breathe while waiting for the arrival of emergency unit in several incidents. In one instance, a student of mine got transported to the emergency room twice within a month due to severe asthma attack. In another case, another student went and died in the emergency room also from an asthma attack.

80% to 90% of our children diagnosed with asthma do not have their rescue medication at school because they are often forgotten, misplaced, unaffordable, locked away, empty or expired. Further compounding the issue is supply chain interruption due to COVID-19 pandemic. Children spend one third of their days in school, at least. An unexpected asthma flare up can occur anytime. A student who cannot breathe is a major medical event on campus.

Delay in medication administration during an asthma emergency put the student at risk for prolonged recovery, extended hospitalizations or even deaths. Currently, 18 states have implemented emergency stock albuterol inhaler for the treatment of respiratory distress in their school district. Pilot program costs were about $156 per school per school year compared to emergency transport that can cost up to $2,500 each.

Arizona saw a 20% reduction in 911 call and a 40% decrease in ambulance transport after stock albuterol was implemented in school and saw increase in decrease in school absenteeism. So I urge you to vote in favor for AB 1283. Your consideration of keeping our students safe by having stock albuterol in school is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other witnesses here in the hearing like testify in support of the measure? Seeing none. Is anybody here would like to testify in opposition to AB 1283? Seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if you could query the line for anybody who'd like to testify in support of or in opposition to AB 1283?

Certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition of AB 1283, please press 1, then 0 at this time.

And, Mr. Chair, we currently have two in the queue. We'll first go to line number 38. That's 38. Your line is open.

Good morning. Isabella Argueta with the Health Officers Association of California. In support. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Go to line number 32. That's three, two. Your line is open.

Good morning. Serette Kaminski with the Association of California School Administrators and with the amendment, we're in support of the Bill. Appreciate the author's office and Committee staff helping address our concern. Thank you.

Good to hear. Thank you. Anybody else?

Mr. Chair, we do have one additional that's queued up. We'll go to line number 34. That's three, four. Your line is open.

Hi, my name is Crystal Bale, and I'm in support of the Bill.

Thank you very much. Let's come back to the hearing room. Anybody on the Committee like to ask a question, make comment to the author? Senator Cortese?

Yes, I'll be supporting the Bill, despite the lack of compliments directed my way during the opening presentation.

You might want to redress that right now. Or in your close.

Senator, you look very handsome today as well. And with that respect, I ask for your aye vote.

Appreciate that.

For my part, glad to support the Bill and thank you to the witnesses.

I have to move it.

The best looking Member of the Committee has moved the Bill. Would you like to close, Assembly Member?

I respectfully ask for a vote. Thank you.

All right, Madam please call the roll.

File item 20, AB 1283 Chen. Motion is due pass as amended. But first amend and re refer to the Committee on Health. [Roll call]

Very good. We'll keep that measure open for absent Members. Thank you, Assemblymember Chen. And moving on to our next. I see Assembly Member Weber. Welcome.

She's up. The early bird, as they say. Welcome to- Assembly Member Gabriel, you're about to learn something here from your colleague.

You'll be presenting AB 1138. You may proceed.

Yes. Well, good morning, chair and Committee Members. I'm here to present AB 1138, which would require the CSUS and UCS to contract with local rape crisis centers to provide students confidential transportation to and from a local safe, or SART exam center to administer the safe kit. In the event of a sexual assault, the first form of care a patient typically receives is medical care. Whenever possible, the patient should receive care from a licensed sexual assault examiner at a rape crisis center, hospital, or clinic. There, they can perform the forensic exam, address any physical injuries, perform any testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and provide preventative care, such as emergency contraceptive pills. However, sometimes these locations can be miles from the campus. For some schools that are located more than 6 miles to the nearest center. For victims that may not have access to safe or reliable transportation, that distance could be insurmountable. This Bill would allow for students who have been victims of sexual assault to get the support and health care they need without having to worry about transportation. AB 1138 is a continuation of California's efforts to remove barriers of reporting sexual assault and increase access to resources to help survivors achieve justice. With me today to speak in support of 1138 is Kate Rogers with GENup.

Ms. Rogers, welcome. You have two minutes.

Thank you. I'll give you guys the spiel again. So, my name is Kate Rogers. I'm currently a junior at UCLA, and I serve as a collegiate Director of policy for Generation UP. GENup is a student led advocacy organization focusing on advancing educational equity through the legislative process. As the writer and principal sponsor of AB 1138, GenUp is proud to advocate for student survivors of sexual assault and expand access to essential medical care and reporting resources. Just a few weeks into my own college experience, I was paralyzed by sexual assault. I could hardly manage to get out of bed, let alone function as a full time student. My social circle shrank while my academic performance declined like the heartbreaking reality of undergraduate life came into sharp focus in my mind. Sexual violence is everywhere on college campuses. According to Rain, the nation's largest antisexual violence organization, 26% of female students and 7% of male students will experience rape or sexual assault through force or incapacitation as an undergraduate. But only one in five of these students actually seek out support from a victim services agency, like a rape crisis center. Directly after an assault, it is crucial that survivors receive forensic care as soon as possible, but unfortunately, many college campuses do not directly connect students with resources or safe kit administrators, placing the responsibility of coordinating the care on survivors that are already in crisis. With the average distance to a safe kit exam location being 10.2 miles for UCS and CSUs, services are often not accessible through public transportation at all and many students don't have access to safe personal vehicles. Students are forced to sacrifice their own safety or limit their reporting options due to the inaccessibility of these essential services. AB 1138 will require that California universities provide their students with free, safe, and anonymous transportation to forensic exam locations. With this legislation, we can reduce the barriers to forensic exams and ensure that students have access to the medical care they need to succeed in both emotional and physical recovery. Representing students across the state, we at GENup stand with student survivors of sexual assault and urge you to vote yes on AB 1138 today. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any other witness in support of the measure? Mr. Rapp, I see you from behind the pillar. Welcome.

Good morning, Mr. Chair Members. Ron Rapp with the California Faculty Association. In support of AB 1138. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else in support of the measure here, like to speak in opposition to AB 1138 seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line as moderator, if you could query the line. Anybody who'd like to speak in support of or in opposition to AB 1138.

Thank you. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition of AB 1138, please press one then zero at this time. And, Mr. Chair, we have one in queue. We'll go to line number 42. That's 42. Your line is open.

Hi. Thank you. This is Alia Sky with the University of California Student Association representing over 230,000 UC undergraduates. And we are in strong support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Mr. Chair, there's no one else in queue at this time. Please continue.

Very good. Let's come back to the Committee. Any comments or questions for the author? Senator Ochoa Bogh.

I have the highest respect for Dr., Assemblywoman, Dr. Weber and the space and the advocacy that you've had in this area. And I continue to commend the work that you're doing. Thank you for moving this measure forward, and I look forward to supporting the Bill today, and I'll be happy to move the Bill when appropriate.

Appreciate that. Senator Wilk.

Again, great Bill. Thank you for doing. I also want to thank those that testify. That's not an easy thing to share. And having known people have gone through that, it can be very debilitating. And so to see somebody be able know, have agency over that gives me hope. So happy to support today.

Appreciate that. I would agree. Ms. Rogers, thank you for being here and testifying on behalf of the Bill. Assembly Member Weber, I know you've had conversations with the UC about suggested amended language. My understanding is you have not reached an understanding yet, but you're going to continue working on that. Is that correct?

Yes, it is.

Okay. Good to hear. So, for my part, glad to support the Bill. We have a motion from Senator Ochoa Bogh. Would you like to close?

Yes. I want to thank the Committee, and I also want to thank Kate so much for being here. Every time I hear her speak, she just gives me so much hope and courage, because that's not an easy thing to disclose. It's not an easy thing to continue to discuss in public in front of strangers. But I know that she knows that by doing it, it is going to help save lives and others that are listening and watching and coming behind her. So thank you so very much for that. As someone who performed these forensic exams when I was practicing in Dallas, I understand the importance of early intervention by healthcare professionals. And we want to make sure that our students, that, unfortunately, experience this on their campuses, get access to this kind of medical care and treatment as soon as possible, and this will allow our students here in California to get that opportunity. So I respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Consultant, please call the roll.

File item 18, AB 1138. Weber. Motion is due, pass, but first be re referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Newman. Newman, aye. Ochoa Bogh. Ochoa Bogh aye. Cortese. Cortese, aye. Glazer. McGuire. Smallwood-Cuevas. Wilk. Wilk, aye.

Thank you. We'll leave that the measure open for absent members. And next up, we have Assembly Member Gabriel. Welcome, sir. And you will be presenting AB 787. Please proceed when ready.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I had an opportunity to read Politco this morning, so it's an honor to be here with my favorite unpretentious scooter fan. And also an honor today to present AB 787, which would convene an Advisory Committee to identify best practices and recommendations for the instruction of digital citizenship and media literacy in our K-12 schools. Kids today are online now more than ever before, and this increased level of digital media consumption has brought incredible opportunities, but also significant challenges.

Concerns have included cyberbullying, protecting private information, online safety, and the negative impact of digital media on young people's body image, mental health, and safety, along with increased rates of anxiety and depression. AB 787 is a modest approach to address these issues by bringing together experts and educators to identify the best practices and recommendations for the instruction of media literacy and digital citizenship.

This Bill will provide schools, the state and legislator, and the legislature with a roadmap for future actions to ensure that our educational system is responsive to this pressing issue at the heart of our democracy. With me today to testify in person are Kami Peer, the California Policy Manager for Common Sense Media, and Lia Nitake, the Deputy Executive Director for TechNet. With that would respectfully request an aye vote.

Thank you. Ms. Peer, welcome. You have two minutes. Please proceed.

Good morning. Thank you. My name is Kami Peer, California Policy Manager with Common Sense Media. We are proud to sponsor AB 787, authored by Assembly Member Gabriel, because healthy digital habits and skills give young people agency over their digital lives and help them succeed online and in life. Digital media and technology play a significant role in how our children learn, communicate, share, and create on a daily basis. Yes, access to reliable tech and media is incredibly important for the future of a kid's learning.

But we also know that from our research that our kids are being exposed to more hurtful and sensitive situations online that we must address. Young people struggle to recognize the impacts of their interactions online and are exposed to inappropriate and harmful content that unfortunately misinforms, financially exploits, and contributes to serious privacy and mental health issues. As schools leverage technology in and out of the classroom, they are dealing with the ramifications of issues like online safety, cyberbullying, privacy, hate speech, misinformation, technology addiction, and digital distraction.

Digital literacy instruction equips students and families and school staff with the knowledge to thoughtfully navigate and safely engage with digital content. It also empowers young people to analyze and assess the influence of content on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

AB 787 establishes the foundation for digital citizenship and media literacy instruction, so that our students live in a world where they think before they post, a world where school administrators know how to talk to their students about social media challenges, a world where parents feel comfortable flagging distressing instances online and role modeling how they should be navigating these spaces together. That's why AB 787's Advisory Committee is so invaluable because it develops meaningful best practices for instruction of digital citizenship and media literacy in California schools. Thank you for consideration.

Thank you. Next witness. Welcome. You also have two minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Sharon. Members Lea Nitake with TechNet and we're proud to co-sponsor AB 787. This Bill acknowledges the growing presence of technology in all of our day-to-day lives, and for young people in particular, it's shaping how they learn at school and access educational content. And they're also increasingly using technology to interact online, creating art, making music, accessing new information, and connecting with others around shared interests. I think Assembly Member Gabriel has put it well.

The online world presents a lot of opportunities, but it also presents new challenges. Our industry works tirelessly to protect users in online spaces. Equipping students with the tools and resources they need in order to gain digital and media literacy is of critical importance. That includes knowledge of how to navigate these spaces, how to protect themselves and their data, how to critically analyze and evaluate the information they're accessing, and how to interact safely with others.

By bringing together an Advisory Committee to make recommendations and identify best practices on digital citizenship and media literacy, this Bill recognizes the changing landscape for young people, and in doing so, it takes a vital step toward ensuring that all students have this type of high quality training and education. We're immensely grateful for the author's continued leadership in this space, and we respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you very much. Does anybody here in the hearing would like testify in opposition to AB? zero, I'm sorry? More support. Let's have some support. Your name, your organization and your position, please.

Good morning. Jamie Miner. On behalf of Salesforce and HP Inc., both headquartered here in California. Pleased to support. Thank You.

Thanks. Ms. Minor.

Good morning. Chair and Members. Naomi Pedrone, on behalf of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, in support.

Thank you.

Good morning. Delilah Clay with AT&T in support.

Thank you.

Annie Chou with the California Teachers Association, in support.

Thank you. And now, is there anybody here in opposition other than Assembly Member Berman, who'd like to testify in opposition to the Bill? Seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if you could please create a line. If there's anybody on the line who'd like to testify in support of or in opposition to AB 787.

Certainly, Mr. Chair. We'd like to see if you'd like to have support or opposition for AB 787. If so, please press one, then zero at this time. We do have one currently in queue. We'll go to line number 21. That's two, one. Your line is open.

Hi. Mary Christie, on behalf of the Children's Partnership in support.

Thank you.

Mr. Chair. There's no one else in queue at this time.

Very good. Let's come back to the Committee hearing. Anybody? Any Members of the Committee would like to speak to the Bill? Questions for the author? Comments? Senator Wilk?

I'll move the Bill.

All right. That's the least I can ask of you. So. Good enough. Assembly Member Gabriel, I commend you for the Bill. Not just that, but for the work you've been doing in this space for multiple years. It is, sadly, very necessary. I think this Bill represents progress in this space. I'm glad to support it. Have a motion from Senator Wilk. And if you'd like to close, please proceed. Yeah.

Thank you very much. Appreciate your leadership on this issue as well. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, madam. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Thank you very much. And I'm glad to see you're reading Politico. Next up, we have Assembly Member Berwin--Berman. Welcome. Berman. Berman. Assembly Member Berman, I see you have two bills, the first of which is AB 789. You may proceed when ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Senators, I would like to begin by thanking Committee staff for their work on this Bill. I will be accepting the Committee's amendment to require institutions to request that the information be included in the course syllabi.

Despite the critical role played by financial aid in college achievement, data shows that sizable numbers of underrepresented students lose access to financial aid due to satisfactory academic progress standards. It is these already marginalized students who are unlikely to return and achieve their higher education dreams. Some higher education institutions don't take full advantage of federal flexibility, unnecessarily limiting students ability to keep their financial aid through the existing appeals process.

AB 789 would remove these barriers by establishing a common set of standards for satisfactory academic progress, including appeals to ensure that all California students, regardless of the higher education institution they attend, are provided with the flexibility allowed under federal law. I respectfully ask for your I vote, and with me today are a couple. Are one of those for me, Mr. Chair?

I'm joined today by two witnesses, Elizabeth Clues, a UC Santa Cruz student who will share her experiences with financial aid, and Dr. Christina Tangalakis, Associate Dean of Student Financial Aid at Glendale Community College. Welcome, Ms. Clues, you have two minutes.

Good morning, my name is Elizabeth Clues, and I'm an undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz, majoring in history and education. Shortly after exiting foster care at 18, I enrolled in community college. That first year was really hard. As I navigated adulthood, becoming a parent, and managed a full time job to support us, I crumbled under the pressure and I lost my job.

Soon after, I lost my housing, and by the middle of my first semester, my baby and I were living out of our car, and I just couldn't keep up with my coursework. Failing these classes resulted in the loss of financial aid due to satisfactory academic progress. I made the decision to drop out because I knew I couldn't afford the cost, and I didn't know that I had the option to appeal. Two years later, I decided to try again.

As I started to navigate the process of filing an appeal, I realized that to be eligible for reinstatement, I needed to have a verifiable injury or illness, or I needed to have experienced the death of a loved one. Not seeing my own circumstances made me feel like returning to college was not an option. Five years after this experience, I decided to try again and found that the criteria to prove a special circumstance still had not changed. However, I was determined to be successful.

I had to attend school for two years while paying tuition and fees out of pocket, and eventually I was able to transfer. I can't help but imagine that had it not been for SAP related barriers, I might have already graduated by now. AB 789 would remove barriers that limited my ability to keep financial aid, such as informing students about the appeals process and including a broader range of special circumstances, like homelessness. Students should not have to go through what I went through.

Though I'm at the most stable place in my life that I've ever been, not meeting SAP standards is still an ever-looming threat. This is my five year old, Elliot. He's dependent on my success, and he's dependent on your support. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Tangalakis, welcome.

Good morning, and thank you for this opportunity. Chair Newman and Members of the Senate Education Committee. My name is Dr. Christina Tangalakis, and I'm here today in my role as Associate Dean of Financial Aid at Glendale Community College. I've been there since 2018, and I've been a financial aid administrator since 2002. In my professional life, I have witnessed the disproportionate impact that SAP policies can inadvertently impose on our minoritized student populations.

To address these inequities, when arriving at GCC in 2018, I reviewed and modified the SAP policy I inherited upon arriving to align with federal minimum requirements as proposed in AB 789. These modifications were adopted without additional cost or staffing and also resulted in a 30% decline in the number of students not meeting SAP minimum requirements. From my internal research, we know that SAP dismissal status has a devastating effect on student persistence.

By eliminating the barrier of an SAP dismissal and the subsequent need to appeal for reinstatement, we have eased an unnecessary burden to student success by simply leveraging the federal flexibilities granted to us in current regulation. Alternatively, I believe that a strategic SAP policy set to federal minimum standards supports student success when developed from an equity lens.

AB 789 will reframe SAP policy and the appeal process from punitive to supportive, from excessively restrictive to least restrictive, and create pathways for students to keep or regain access to the financial aid they rely on to achieve their educational goals. And for these reasons, I urge you to vote yes on AB 789. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is anybody else in the hearing room, like, testify on behalf of the measure, please come forward.

Hello. Debbie Raucher with John Burton Advocates for youth. Very proud to be a co sponsor and urge your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rousher. Next, please.

Raquel Morales on behalf of the Education Trust West in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Ada Nay Mack. On behalf of children Now also in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Bill Oscar, on behalf of the California African American Chamber of Commerce. Also in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Kimberly Sanchez with Nextgen California. Proud co sponsors and in support.

Thank you. Next.

Anna Ioakimedes with Los Angeles Unified School District in support.

Thank you.

Zachariah Wooden with the Student Center for California Community Colleges. Proud co sponsor and also in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good morning. Valerie Rodriguez with the campaign for college Opportunity and Support.

Thank you. Is anybody here in the hearing who would like testify in opposition to AB 79? Seeing none, let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if you could, please clear the line. Anybody like to testify in support of or in opposition to Assembly Bill 79?

Certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition to AB 789, please press one, then zero at this time. Mr. Chair. We currently have eight in queue. We'll start with line number 42. That's 42. Your line is open.

I think that's mine. I think I spelled the same line. My name is Alia Sky. I'm with the UC Student Association representing over 230,000 UC undergraduates. And we are in strong support.

Thank you.

And also co sponsors.

Thank you. Next, please.

Next, we'll go to line number 16. That's one six. Your line is open.

Good morning. Rebecca Gonzalez with the National Association of Social Workers, California chapter, in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Thank you. We'll go to line number 45. That's 45. Your line is open.

Good morning. Anna Alvarado, on behalf of the California Edge Coalition in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Next is line number 12. That's one, two. Your line is open.

Good morning. Hannah Bragstad with the Cal State Student Association, representing the nearly half a million CSU students throughout the state. Proud co sponsors of this student centered legislation. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Next we go to line number 47. That's 47. Your line is open.

Hi, Mr. Chair and Senators. Adam Keigwin with Actum calling on behalf of the Television Academy foundation in support. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, please.

Next we go to line number 30. That's 30. Your line is open.

Hi, my name is Anna Mathews with the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges in Support. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Yes, Mr. Chair, we have four remaining in queue at this time. We'll go to line number 17. 17, your line is open.

Good morning. This is Ana Fung with the Institute for College Access and Success. And I'm also calling on behalf of Osroby with us fire both proud co sponsors of AB 789 and in strong support of the Bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Next is line number 41. That's 41, your line is open.

Good morning. Adam Gottlieb. On behalf of Unite LA, a proud co sponsor of AB 789.

Thank you.

Next is line number 46. 46, your line is open.

Hello, my name is Kylie Francisco and I'm calling on behalf of the Southern California College Attainment Network. We would like to voice our support for this Bill as a co sponsor. Thank you.

Thank you.

And Mr. Chair, the last one removed themselves from the queue. Oh, they're back. Let's go to line number 34. 34, your line is open.

Hi, my name is Crystal Pale and I'm an undergrad parenting student at UCSC. Having faced this barrier as well, I'm in strong support of AB 789.

Thank you very much. Anybody else on the teleconference line?

No one else ace at this time, Mr. Chair. Please continue.

Very good. Let's come back to the Committee. Any questions or comments for the author? I will say, for my part, you have blitzed the record for co sponsors on a Bill. Is anybody here who is not a co sponsor of this Bill but it's representative of an appropriate level of support. So glad to support the Bill today. Looking for a motion, when appropriate, if you'd like to close.

Just appreciate all the support from everybody who's engaged with us on this Bill and respectfully ask for an aye vote. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Do I have a motion? I have a motion for Senator Ochoa Bogh. Let us call the role Madam Consultant, please.

File item 13, AB 789. Berman motion is do pass as amended. But first Amend and re refer to the Committee on Appropriations. Newman?

Aye.

Newman aye. Ochoa Bogh.

Ochoa Bogh aye. Cortese.

Aye.

Aye.

Cortese aye. Glazer. McGuire. Smallwood-Cuevas. Wilk.

Very good. We'll leave that measure open for absent Members. Let us now go to your second Bill, AB 873.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. AB 873 would ensure that all K-12 students in California have the media literacy skills necessary to safely, responsibly, and critically consume and evaluate online information. As we spend more and more time online, students growing up in today's digital world need to be better equipped than any generation before to confront the fast spreading media that appears on digital platforms. This Bill would direct the Instructional Quality Commission to incorporate media literacy content into the English language arts, mathematics, science, and history social science curriculum frameworks.

When those frameworks are next revised, incorporating media literacy into existing frameworks will ensure that media literacy is integrated into the core curriculum instruction for kindergarten through twelveth grade. AB 873 has received strong bipartisan support, and I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. I understand you have two witnesses for us today.

I do. I have Esperanza Boer, Director of Organizing at GenUp, and Kami Peer, California Policy Manager for Common Sense Media.

Very good, Ms. Boer. Welcome.

I cannot see well, so I'm going to hold this up. Chairman and Members of the Committee. Helllo, my name is Esperanza Booher and I'm a Director of Organizing for Generation Up. I am honored to have the opportunity to speak before you testifying in favor of AB 873, a proposed Bill that would increase instruction and media literacy in youth education. We're growing up in a digital age where we're surrounded with an overwhelming amount of information and media. The internet can be a powerful tool, but it can also be dangerous Without proper guidance,

media literacy could give us the ability to critically analyze and evaluate information we encounter online, letting us distinguish between reliable sources and misleading content. Additionally, it would address the importance of online safety and privacy. We'd gain essential knowledge about protecting our personal information, understanding the consequences of sharing it, and recognizing online threats. By arming us with these skills, we'd be better prepared to safeguard ourselves and prevent risky situations.

Once we learn to use media safely, it can empower us to create meaningful online contributions. I encourage you to think about yourself or someone you may know who have benefited from media and digital literacy. Now, think about how much more could have been accomplished had you had these skills during primary school age. This can be what defines the success of our success as students and in the future. In conclusion, I join a coalition of students urging you to support this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ms. Peer, welcome back.

Hello again, Chair and Members. Thank you for the opportunity to address you in support of AB 873. In 2020, 77% of kids aged 10 to 18 got their news and headlines from social media. 39% of teens often get news from personalities, influencers, and celebrities. Over the past few years, societal challenges related to misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories have increased. News and media literacy is seen as the solution in the misinformation crisis, especially with young people.

Many young people are aware that they are struggling with information credibility. Less than half feel that they can tell fake news stories from Real News. 31% have shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate. Teachers are justifiably concerned, with 35% of teachers reporting that their students frequently or very frequently lack skills to critically evaluate information.

When it comes to addressing information credibility, research shows that media literacy education makes a difference and in some cases, matters even more than political knowledge. Since 2010, common sense, media and education has worked on the ground with schools and districts to support them with digital citizenship and media literacy implementation. We've learned that there is not a onesize fits all approach to implementation.

It's taught in many different areas at all grade levels, and AB 873 ensures that media literacy content is considered across grades and subjects at the next time that curriculum is set to be revised. At a time when local news sources struggle to maintain their audiences and influencers are the main news source for so many Californians, it is critical that our younger generations are equipped with the skills to evaluate the media that they consume. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is anybody in the hearing room would also like to testify on behalf of AB 873? If so, please. Your name, your organization, and your position.

Good morning. Delilah Clay with AT&T in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good morning. Naomi Padron with the Computer & Communications Industry Association, in support. And then my colleague at TechNet also asked that I convey their support. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, please.

Annie Chou at the California Teachers Association in support.

Thank you. Is anybody here in the hearing who would like to testify in opposition to AB 873? Seeing none, let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if you could please queue the line for anybody who would like to testify in support of or in opposition to AB 873?

You certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition of AB 873, please press one, then zero at this time. Mr. Chair, we have two in queue at this time. We'll go to line number 13. 13, your line is open.

Hello, Sam Nasher, with the Los Angeles County Office of Education in support.

Thank you, next please.

Go to line number 48. 48, your line is open.

Good morning. Richard Nguyen, Governing Board Member of the Campbell Union School District, and I support. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other callers, Mr. Moderator?

We have one more that queued up. Mr. Chair, we'll go to line number 33. Three, your line is open.

Hi, this is Abby Moffat, on behalf of [inaudible] a teen organization that was started on media literacy. We also support, thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Chair. With that, we've exhausted the queue. Please continue.

Thank you. Let's come back to the Committee. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I will say thank you to Mr. Berman for your work in this area. Thank you for all of the supporters. This does present a challenge with respect to not only curriculum, but I think just the broader question about how we make people smarter about the information they receive online. No simple thing, but I think this, to my mind, is a good start. Glad it's for the Bill today. Would you like to close?

Yeah. I appreciate your comments, Mr. Chair. I've been saying I think this is something that every California could benefit from. We can't force adults to go back to school, but at least we can give the next generation stronger skills in media literacy, and hopefully they teach up to the adults in their life. So, respectfully, ask for your aye vote.

Appreciate that. I'm looking for a motion. Beat you to it. I got a motion. Mr. Cortese. Madam, please call the roll.

File item 14, AB 873 Berman. Motion is due pass but first be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. [Roll Call]

Thank you, Assemblymember, and have a good day. Looking for our next author, my understanding. Assembly Member McCarty, making a dramatic entrance as usual. Welcome, sir. I understand you're going to be presenting not only your own Bill, but Assembly Member Maienschein's as well. Your Bill is AB 897. You may proceed whenever you're ready.

My Bill first, Mr. Chair?

It's up to you.

Okay, yeah, I'll do that.

Thank you.

Yeah. So this is related to adult education in California. We all know the value of adult education, helping people with basic English skills, literacy, focusing on getting job training, ESL, as well as getting credit recovery to get a high school diploma, which literally I did 30 years ago here in Sacramento. We know that the key of these classrooms is always the teachers, like all classrooms, are the teachers. Unfortunately, we have a kind of a two-pronged approach here in California for teachers and their rights.

Teachers who are adult education don't have the same opportunities to get permanent status as regular teachers, and they're always on the list and concerned as far as being able to go back to that school. And really, it doesn't necessarily have a fairness kind of element to it for our adult educators. So this Bill would align adult educators with regular credentialed teachers as far as their permanent status and their two-year probationary period process.

Before the Bill was CTE and adult ed, we did take that out because there was a compelling argument that sometimes with CTE, some of the teachers have specific industries they're working with, and some of those may not be ripe. And you may want to kind of change over to an evolving industry with CTE. But adult ed, we don't think we have that same issue. This is about fairness and making sure we have the same process for all of credentialed teachers throughout California. Respectfully ask for your Aye vote. With me today are two teacher representatives from UTLA and the California Teachers Association.

Welcome, Ms. Hardeman. Nice to See you.

Thank you. This is nice.

I do want to point out I'm the person who got that podium.

I appreciate it very much. Well, Good morning, Mr. Chair and Committee Members. Katie Hardeman with the California Teachers Association. CT is a proud co-sponsor of this Bill along with CFT. As you know, most teachers are provided permanent status after they complete their probationary period, which means they have certain job protections and due process if disagreements arise. However, as we've heard from many teachers across the state, adult education teachers are not provided these job protections and are often treated as temporary employees being laid off and rehired sort of year after year.

This Bill will change that to provide adult education teachers with the same opportunity to obtain permanent status. We believe adult education teachers should be treated as professionals and afforded due process. The Bill does not prevent school districts from laying off staff or eliminating programs due to changing needs. There's a process in place for issuing layoffs or making changes. This Bill simply ensures that teachers are treated fairly in that process.

Many of our school districts are experiencing teacher and staffing shortages, as you know, and this Bill will provide more stability for our teacher workforce, which we know is better for students. I just wanted to highlight the opposition to this Bill argues that permanent status for adult education teachers should be left to a collective bargaining.

Well, this has largely not happened at the local level because adult education teachers make up a very small percentage of those bargaining units, and CTA believes treating teachers fairly and as professionals should not be left to be bargained. We believe the state should step up and elevate the teaching profession and provide these teachers with the respect that they deserve. So ask your Aye vote.

Thank you very much. Next witness, please.

Good morning. I'm Jamie Franklin, and I have taught ESL in Los Angeles for 21 years. I work for LA Unified, and I work currently at Evans Community Adult School. And I love this work so much. But I have had to fight to keep teaching English to adults solely because I didn't have permanent status. We lift people out of poverty. We give people new language skills, computer skills, career skills, and they take those tools and they make better lives.

For me, I have found where I am most effective and happiest. But keeping this job has been a sacrifice in many ways. A time in Los Angeles, our district stopped letting permanent. I'm sorry. Non-permanent teachers teach more than 10 hours per week, and all doors to permanent status were closed. So I applied again. I interviewed again. I went from school to school to maintain one class per trimester. But you can't plan your life, much less survive and thrive with inconsistent hours.

And because of that, I lost my health insurance. The stress wears you down. I have worried about keeping my health insurance and if I will even have a job in the next six months for years now. Because of that also, we were not able to buy a home because of the instability of the inconsistent hours. I have contributed to this program. I deserve a stable place in it. I feel I've earned that.

We have a teacher shortage, and we're going to have to attract and keep the best and brightest. And the way we do that is with job stability. It is unnecessary to put this anxiety and insecurity on teachers because of no permanent status. It degrades our whole program. I ask you, please support this Bill. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Anybody else here in the hearing would like to testify in support of ABA 97.

Tiffany Mok on behalf of the CFT in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Jessica Hay with the California School Employees Association, in support.

Thank you.

Good morning. Dawn Keopke, on behalf of the California Council for Adult Education and California Adult Education Administrators Association, both K-12 adult education providers representing classified staff, teachers, and administrators in adult education. Pleased to be in support.

Thank you, Ms. Keopke.

Good morning, Chair and Members. James Michael Paul with ASME California, in support.

Thank you. Anybody else who'd like to testify in support? Is there anybody here who'd like to testify in opposition to the measure, please come forward. Ms. Johnson you have two minutes.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members. Dorothy Johnson on behalf of the California Association of School Administrators, respectfully opposed to AB 897. In general, we have concerns about a reduced probationary period because it can be detrimental to new teachers as well as the districts. The probation periods serve as an important time for teachers to be supported and receive guidance on how to face challenges that may come with their position.

Additionally, a shortened probationary period, teachers may not gain the necessary preparation and be less equipped to serve their students and their classrooms. Alternatively, districts may be also hesitant to pass a probationary employee without having sufficient data to support that evaluation. And now, specific to adult education, we believe the probation period shortening is problematic because we do know there are swings in course demands and enrollments. And over longer periods, there can be changes in trends and career field demands.

This may involve changes in technology, required expertise, and this may actually make some courses obsolete altogether. And as the proponents of the Bill said, yes, this can be collectively bargained at the local level. We do believe the local approach is the right one, and therefore, we do oppose this Bill at this time.

Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Anybody else would like to speak in opposition to the measure AB 897? Pease.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Committee Members. Carlos Rojas, representing the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, in opposition to the Bill.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman. Jeff Frost, representing the California Association of Suburban School Districts, the Orange County Department of Ed, and the Central Valley Education Coalition, in opposition. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Frost. Next, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members. Jeff Baca, representing the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools and the 23 school district superintendents in Riverside County.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Committee Members. Michele Gale, on behalf of California Association Of School Business Officials, in opposition.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Members. Chris Reefe, on behalf of the California School Boards Association, also in opposition.

Thank you. Next, please. Seeing no more opposition here. Let's go to the teleconference room for either support of or opposition to AB 897.

Certainly, Mr. Chair. If you'd like to speak in support or opposition to AB 897, please press one, then zero at this time. Mr. Chair, there are no Members of the public queuing up at this time. Please continue.

Okay, let's come back to the hearing room. Any Members of the Committee who'd like to speak to the Bill? Senator Ochoa Bogh.

Okay, I guess I'll lead the discussion. So, with concerns to the time frame to achieve tenure, how would you respond to the concerns that were expressed today with regards to shortening that period instead of lengthening? Because I think it's very difficult to assess the competency of a teacher in that short of a period. How did you come up with that period of time for tenure?

Well, first of all, I think this is deja vu, because we had the same conversation last year with me and you right here. So my memory is coming back. As our witness said, she did 21 years and she's still on this, and it's a fairness issue. So it's the same rules would be for non-adult ed credentialed teachers. And so if there's a concerning issue with how it is for adult educators and their status, it's the same for other teachers as well.

I'm not sure how else I could expand upon that. So it's just about fairness with these two sets of teachers throughout California.

I think it's more of the time requirement for the tenure. I think if I'm reading correctly here, it says achieve permanent status tenure after working at least 75% of the hours of a full-time employee for two years. I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding, but that doesn't sound as parity.

Well, let me ask, maybe a witness can opine, but our understanding is that is parity with the non adult educators who are credentialed teachers.

The current law requires for any K-12 teacher to serve at least 75% of the number of days of the school year in order for that to count towards their probationary period. This Bill would say that an adult education teacher would have to serve 75% of the number of hours of their assignment. Because sometimes the adult education programs don't align perfectly with the number of school days, so they sometimes have maybe a four-day schedule versus a five or something like that. So we wanted to make that distinction.

So technically it would be less than what the traditional school teachers would have to attend hour-wise because it would be.

Matching the number of hours. So if it's 4 hours versus, say, a teacher is working, a full time teacher at K-12 is working 7 hours.

It's the number of hours for the adult ed assignment and a number of days of the school year for other teachers. So we're trying to kind of mirror it. But the assignments are different and they're structured differently. Sometimes they have block schedules and different types of schedules than the full school year.

So we have less time. Okay. And then there was another concern with regards to the career pathways. Some of the concerns that were expressed were that sometimes the demand for the type of coursework varies and changes. And so that would create a problem with keeping on or hiring new teachers that are specific to that particular coursework. Would be happy to hear through the chair, of course, if he may hear your response to those concerns with regards to the flexibility that they may need to meet the demands of the current coursework that is needed in the--

Maybe I can address that. I think that's what we had in our Bill last year, and we heard the opposition, it was Adult-Ed and kind of CTE type in specific careers. And so, we took that out. And so we thought that was a compelling argument, that there are maybe autoshop 20 years ago, and now it's animation. Having a person in that, locked in forever, may not make sense because the world changes.

And that's why I wanted to bring it up, because I know that that was no longer.

This is just focused on adult education.

Let's hear from Ms. Hartman.

I'll also add that current law allows for what's called PKS layoffs, which is particular kinds of service layoffs. So if you're eliminating a program or a course, you're allowed to kind of bypass the first in, first out layoff procedures. So you can also do particular kind of service layoffs, if that's the case.

So one final question, Mr. Chair, if you would. So, for the opposition, with regards to these amendments and modifications to the Bill this particular year, does the opposition still have concerns with regards to moving this specific Bill with just that narrowed parameters that they've provided?

Well, we appreciate the narrowing of this Bill over the last two or three years, the different iterations. We do have remaining concerns. There's also fiscal concerns, which we're not putting in a lot of emphasis at this Committee. We'll share that with appropriations, should it be referred to that Committee. And also, because adult ed does include some career-based work, it's not purely just educating adults to further their personal growth. It's still some career coursework base there. So yes, we do remain opposed as the Bill is currently in print.

Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

Thank you, I want to thank the author for bringing this Bill, and I want to just lift up how many conversations we've had on this dais and budget sub one around vacancies and the challenges of really attracting and retaining teachers that understand the kinds of students, their diversity, their needs, and to provide an educational -- an instruction that helps to help them grow and to progress as students and to go on and join the workforce. I know for sure the adult education teacher space is a very difficult position to fill. The types of barriers and challenges and overlapping systems that collide in the lives of those students is dramatic. And the level of skill and expertise of teachers to step in and to be committed and to make a career in that space.

And certainly we need folks to make commitment to that part of our educational system. I think removing two tier systems by making their work on par and at the same level of other educators in the system is important. It's important to helping us as the State of California deal with these vacancies. It's important for us to also deal with the disparities that exist within our educational system and making sure that those students have access to stable and quality and consistent education. And so I want to move the vote forward when there's an opportunity, Mr. Chair, and I want to again thank the author for, for bringing this forward.

I appreciate that. Actually, I'd like to come back to this question about the probationary period. And so, as I understand it from the author, from Ms. Hartman, what you've endeavored to do is to render basically the probationary periods equivalent, right? Commensurate to what you'd find for other educators. My understanding from Ms. Johnson is you don't necessarily agree with that, if you wouldn't mind speaking to that. So what is the issue as you view it around probation as it relates to the measure?

So, yes, generally we have a concern with reducing the probationary period, with teaching positions, for the reasons I shared during my testimony.

I appreciate that. But would you disagree that this is essentially the same, that the sort of framework?

I think there's unique differences, and we'd be happy to engage in a conversation that tries to provide other solutions to create consistency or perhaps better, the retention, the recruitment of the critical adult education teachers. We also strongly believe that this should remain at the local level and be an agreement between the district and their adult education teachers rather than a one size fits all, top down approach because we do have districts that have reached those agreements to provide permanent status to their adult ed teachers.

Okay. And we've heard from a number of administrators, you're speaking on behalf of the association, and you mentioned earlier there's a fiscal component to this, I assume an administrative or qualitative component. Would you mind if you would weight those two things? I know this is going to move on to appropriations if it passes here. What's the more important of the two? How do we think about that?

I think they, not to skirt the question. I think they have to be taken into equal consideration given the fiscal outlook we have with our schools, given the additional challenges we have in all areas. Adult education has its unique funding source. It is not the same as our other teaching positions. We have no concerns with the other provisions in the Bill where we need to make notice for categorical funded positions. We understand that they need to understand the length and duration of their assignment.

But we are looking at a major change in California's economic outlook and we are very sensitive to additional cost pressures. While there are alternatives for dismissal or layoff protocols, pardon me, we still see this incurring additional costs if we need to have teachers be removed from the district for the variety of reasons, I mean, anywhere from 10,000 to 10,0000 per hearing.

I appreciate that. For my part, I'm very sensitive to those fiscal concerns, especially given the current fiscal landscape. So thank you. I will also say for my part, as part of hopefully a broader conversation, I think adult education is not only important, but I think it's been underserved, like within the conversations around education, especially around funding. It's something that we as a legislature have looked seriously at.

So, Assemblymember McCarty, you've been working on this for some time, and my understanding is you've narrowed the scope of this Bill progressively over time to the point where at the moment all we're really talking about is the opportunity for adult ed teachers who are in permanent status and a requirement for other teachers that would still be denied permanent status because they're categorically funded to be made aware of the expected end date of their employment. Is that correct?

Absolutely, and I think, unfortunately, some of the school districts would rather not have permanent status for any teacher. And so adult educators are just a sliver of the educator. So, you know, this is a small piece of a program, as you said in California, that is often ignored. They serve the most vulnerable Californians who are coming here, literally people who are refugees and coming from war torn countries come here to go to adult ed to get basic skills to learn English, and we want to make sure they have stable teachers to help them. Their success is our success and we just want parity for this subset. And this Bill has been substantially narrowed and respectfully ask for your aye vote.

I appreciate that. Again, I think it's important that the legislature doesn't give assignments to districts without giving them the appropriate resources to fulfill those functions. But in this case, I'm willing to support the Bill today. I appreciate what you're trying to do. Can I take that as your close and so looking for. I think we have a motion for Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, and with that, let's put it to a vote. Madam, please call the roll file.

Item 15, AB 897. McCarty motion is due pass but first be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. [Roll Call]

Very good. We'll leave that open for the absent Members. We will now proceed. I understand you're going to present on behalf of Assembly Member Maienschein, AB 1473?

Yes. Maienschein. This Bill--

Maienschein. Maienschein. Thank you for correcting me.

This Bill would state that the next time the Health Education Framework is updated in California, we should augment and enhance CPR and AED training. Number one killer of student athletes is sudden cardiac arrests, and research shows that 75% of young people say that if they just did a 20 minutes training session on this, they'd be willing to perform CPR on a stranger. This should expose more students to this life saving tool and respectfully ask for your aye vote. With me today is a representative from CDE as well as the California Teachers Association.

Thank you and welcome.

Good morning, Chair and Members. Michelle Warshaw here on behalf of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, who's a proud co-sponsor of AB 1473. I'd also like to thank Assemblymember Maienschein for his leadership on this important measure. As stated, AB 1473 would require that the Health Framework for California Public Schools and Physical Education Framework are each revised, that the Instructional Quality Commission consider increasing content related to hands-only CPR and including AED training.

We lose tens of thousands of young people each year to sudden cardiac arrest, and we know that the lack of CPR training is a major factor in this sobering statistic. Immediate bystander intervention in a cardiac emergency with hands-only CPR and use of an AED prior to emergency medical arrival on average increases their survival up to 72%. However, studies continue to show that most Americans are unprepared to use either measure, including instruction related to the use of CPR and AED and Health and PE frameworks would provide more students the opportunity to receive life-saving information.

Schools play a critical role in not only promoting the health and safety of young people, but in establishing lifelong behaviors. We can and should do better to equip all youth with CPR and AED training. They have the power to not only save a life now, but to eliminate the tragedy of these preventable deaths in their lifetime. Requiring the IQC to consider this critical content in the Health and PE frameworks is the first step. For these reasons, I respectfully request an aye vote.

Thank you very much. Next witness. Ms. Chou, welcome.

Hi. Annie Chou with the California Teachers Association. To save you time, this Bill saves lives; urge your aye vote.

Best testimony we've had all day. Well done. Next, please.

Hi, Jennifer Tannehill with Aaron Reed and Associates on behalf of the California Society for Respiratory Care, in support.

Thank you. Anybody else in support? Seeing none. Is there anybody here like testify in opposition to the measure? Seeing none. Let's go to the teleconference line. Mr. Moderator, if you could, please prompt any participants in the teleconference line to testify either in support of or in opposition to the measure.

Certainly, Mr. Chair. It looks like we have two that are queuing up. We'll go to line number 50. That's 50. Your line is open.

Hello, Sam Nasher with the Los Angeles County Office, in support.

Thank you.

One moment, please. Just providing a line number to the second person queuing up. And we'll go to line number 43. That's 43. Your line is open. Line 43. Check your line for mute, please.

Good morning. Jamie Morgan, on behalf of the American Heart Association in support.

Thank you. Next, please.

And there is no one else in queue at this time, Mr. Chair. Please continue.

All right, let's come back to the dais. Colleagues, any questions or comments on the measure AB 1473? Seeing none. Glad to support it. Would you like to close?

On behalf of Assembly Member of Maienschein? Ask for your aye vote, thank you.

Thank you. Looking for a motion.

Wilk moves the Bill.

Senator Wilk moves the Bill. Madam, please call the roll.

File item 22, AB 1473. Maienschein. Motion is do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. [Roll Call]

Very good. Thank you, Assembly Member Cardi. Now, we are apparently waiting for at least one more author she is presenting, and so we will wait patiently. So we're waiting for Assembly Member Soria, AB 116. I guess we can open the roll, but we're going to have to do it again. While we're waiting, why don't we open the roll on all of the open measures? Madam Consultant, please proceed.

Okay, on the consent calendar, [Roll Call] File item three, AB 51, Bonta. Motion is do pass to Human Services. Current vote is three ayes and no no's with the Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call] File item four, AB 71, Rodriguez. Motion is do pass as amended to Appropriations. Current vote is four ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair. [Roll Call]

File item five, AB 238, Muratsuchi. Motion is due pass to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes, no no's, with the Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item seven, 447, Arambula. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item eight, AB 1275, Arambula. Motion is do pass to Governance and Finance.

Current vote is three ayes with the chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item nine, AB 535, Irwin. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes, no no's with the Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 10, AB 624, Grayson. Motion is do pass to the Committee on Rules. Current vote is four ayes, no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call].

File item 12, AB 787, Gabriel. Motion is do pass to appropriations. Current vote is four ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 13, 789, Berman. Motion is do pass as amended to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call].

File item 14, AB 873, Berman. Motion is due, pass to Appropriations. Current vote is four ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 15, AB 897, Mccarty. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes, no no's with the Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 18, AB 1138, Weber. Motion is due past to Appropriations.

Current vote is four ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 20, AB 1283, Chen. Motion is due pass as amended to Health. Current vote is four ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item 22, AB 1473, Maienschein. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is five ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]

Madam Consultant, if you wouldn't mind going back from the front for the benefit of Senator Glazer. Came in a midstream; I'd be grateful.

On the consent calendar. [Roll Call]. File item three, AB 51, Bonta. Due pass to Human Services. Current vote is five ayes and no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item four, AB 71, McGuire. Do pass as amended to Appropriations. Current vote is five ayes, no no's, with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item five, AB 238, Muratsuchi. Do pass to appropriations.

Current vote is five ayes, no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item seven, AB 447, Arambula. Motion is do pass to Appropriations, current vote is five ayes, no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item eight, AB 1275, Arambula. Motion is do pass to Governance and Finance. The current vote is three ayes and no no's with the Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. File item nine on AB 1275, Glazer, aye.

File item nine, AB 535, Irwin. Motion is due pass to Appropriations. Current vote is five ayes, no no's with the Chair and Vice Chair voting aye.[Roll Call]. File item 10, AB 624, Grayson. Motion is do pass to Rules. Current vote is six ayes no no's.

We are good. We are not good. We're about to be good.

Okay. File item 15, AB 897. McCarty do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is three ayes, no no's, with the Chair voting aye. [Roll Call]. Thank you.

Are you okay? Have you covered. We covered all your votes, yes.

We've covered all your votes, yes. Very good. Assembly Member, welcome. It's good to have you here. You are our last Bill. We're very much looking forward to your presentation. It's AB 1106. Please proceed.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Is it afternoon yet? Not quite.

Good morning, Chair and Members of the Senate Education Committee. I am here proudly to present AB 1106, which would establish a one time grant program for institutions of higher education to incentivize adoption and implementation of the new PK-3 Early Childhood Education Specialist Credential. As you all know, California has made significant investments towards the goal of expanding transitional kindergarten to all four year olds in the state by 2025-2026 school year.

Consistent with the state's master plan for early learning and care, the expansion of TK has created a demand for new teachers in public school classrooms. And to meet this demand, researchers estimate that districts will need to hire between 11,000 and 15,600 TK teachers on top of the state's existing shortage. Specifically, the stark differences between the demographics of students and educators highlights the need for early educators of color. Approximately 76% of the children aged zero to four in California are children of color.

And yet, only 39% of the current TK 12 workforce are teachers of color. The state is also facing a shortage of bilingual educators ready to meet the needs of our dual language learners. With 60% of children under the age of five being dual language learners and the demand for more dual language immersion programs, it is crucial that the state supports the development of preparation programs, which allows for earning a teaching credential and bilingual authorization at the same time.

In August of last year, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing approved the new PK-3 Early Childhood Education Specialist Credential, which is designed to advance best practices in child development and support the demand for qualified, diverse teachers that serve children in preschool through third grade. This means that institutions of higher education are now tasked with building new credential pathways towards ECE classrooms, and all three public higher education systems each have goals to increase the number of students graduating with degrees in early education by 2026-2027.

So it is essential that the state provide resources to incentivize higher education institutions to adopt this new credential and build pipelines for students into early education. This Bill would also prioritize funding for institutions that commit to working with their corresponding bilingual authorization program to meet the demand for more bilingual early learning educators. This Bill is supported by Education Trust West and Children Now, who are also here to provide expert testimony.

I want to thank Raquel Morales of the Education Trust West and Adonai Mack of Children Now for being here today.

Thank you. So, Assembly Member, just want to be clear that you have in fact accepted the Committee's suggested amendment. Is that correct?

Yes, I have.

All right, I appreciate that. Let's now go- Do you have any witnesses? Support? Oh. Hi, Ms. Morales.

Hi. Good morning, Chair, Members. My name is Raquel Morales with Education Trust West and proud co sponsors of AB 1106. AB 1106 seeks to establish a one-time grant program to device the development and implementation of the PK-3 Early Childhood Education Specialist Credential and encourage grantees to work with their corresponding bilingual authorization programs.

Our goal is to support institutions of higher education in implementing this new credential to prepare preschool through third grade teachers with specialized instruction and training to meet the developmental needs for children of that age group. The expansion of TK has created a demand for new teachers in public school classrooms on top of the state's existing shortage. Additionally, California is home to approximately 2.5 multilingual learners, more than any other state. Despite the high need, the state is facing a low supply of bilingual educators.

Planning to launch a new credential program takes time and resources to get right, and we know that teachers who leave their preparation program fully prepared are more likely to stay in the profession rather than contribute to the teacher attrition that fuels teacher shortages. With this in mind, we urge you to invest in California's capacity to prepare the teachers that our youngest learners deserve. Thank you. And we ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good afternoon, Chairman Newman. My name is Adonai Mack. I'm with Children Now. Our state has made a huge investment to support early childhood education as well as Transitional Kindergarten. This investment has coincided with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, creating the preschool to third grade Early Childhood Education Specialist Credential. However, we have too many students, especially our black and bilingual students, who reach third grade already behind in terms of their readiness for college and career.

Research has made it clear that the pre-K through third grade alignment that coordinates pre-K through third grade standards, curricula, instructional practices, assessments and professional development can be an effective means to ensuring that all students are meeting grade level standards by third grade. In order to ensure that there's a coordinated approach from preschool to third grade, we need to incentivize our institutions of higher education to provide a P-3 credentialing programs.

And AB 1106 lays the foundation to support higher education with the grant program to produce the qualified educators who have the skills and strategies necessary to support a coordinated preschool through third grade approach. Children Now believes that AB 1106 will help ensure that our children are fully literate by third grade with strong mathematics skills. Thank you. And we ask you for your aye vote on AB 1106.

Thank you, Mr. Mack. Anybody else here like to testify in support of the measure? Welcome, your name, your organization and your position?

Good afternoon. Caitlin Jung, on behalf of the Small School District Association. In support.