Assembly Standing Committee on Education

Good afternoon. I'm calling this hearing of the Assembly Education Committee to order. Will the secretary please call the role and establish quorum?

[roll call]

Quorum has been established. We have two bills on file to hear on concurrence. AB 302 by Assembly member Bauer Kahan, author is here ready to go, and AB 1347 by Assembly member Muratsuchi. As a reminder, for each bill, we will have up to two witnesses in support and opposition, each of whom may speak for up to two minutes. Members of the public in the hearing room will have an opportunity to share their position.

Please state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill only. Members of the public are also welcome to provide comment through the position letter portal on the committee's website. With that, we have our author. Oh, sorry. 13.

I'm gonna make a correction. It's AB 1381 by Assembly member Muratsuchi. But we will begin with, Assembly member Bauer Kahan, AB 302. Please begin when you're ready.

Thank you, madam Chair and members. It's an honor to present AB 302. My witnesses on this bill are actually not here because they are in class right now. Had high schoolers here this summer testifying on this important gutting amend, that we did do in the Senate because I became a a high school parent at a new high school, just this past week. And at that high school, the only way to receive information on sports programs and after school activities is through social media.

And so for students who choose not to be on social media whose parents are making choices for them about social media, they're isolated from these. I spoke to one teenager in our school district who herself had made choices that social media wasn't positive in her life, had gone off and was kicked off of our leadership program because she didn't have access to the information. And so this bill is really simple.

It says the school districts must provide at least one of their alternate means of getting the information. They may still put it on addictive feeds as defined under California code, but that they have to also provide it another means, which could be through a messaging app, which is not an addictive feed or email channels.

With that, I respectfully ask your aye vote.

Thank you. This time, we'll take any no witnesses in support. Witnesses in

the class.

Any witnesses in opposition? Alright. Did we have any public comments in support? Public comments in opposition? Bring it back to the committee and bill.

Thank you. It's a motion and a second. Assembly member Hoover.

Very briefly, just wanna say thanks for this bill. I think it's incredibly frustrating when the only information is provided on things like Instagram or some other platform that some kids might not even be on. So look forward to supporting

it.

Yes. Somewhere over.

Thank you for bringing this bill forward. As a mother of three teenage children and as a former school board trustee, I saw firsthand how, this could affect participation in extracurricular activities. In fact, I tried very hard in my children's own middle school systems to get them to have alternatives besides Instagram for their spirit weeks, and that was also very challenging. So it's even not just extracurricular activities, but it's daytime activities and how students communicate. We need to continue to provide alternatives to, addictive feeds.

Thank you very much for bringing this bill forward, and you may close. Respectfully ask your

I vote.

Thank you. Madam secretary, will you call the roll?

File item one, AB 302. The motion is to concur in the Senate amendments. Patel.

Aye. Patel, I Hoover. Aye.

Hoover, Aye, Alvarez. Vonta. Aye. Vonta, I Castillo. Aye.

Castillo, Aye, Garcia. Aye. Garcia, I Lowenthal. Kelloren? Aye.

Kelloren, Aye, Sabir. Aye. Sabir, aye.

Thank you all.

Seven zero is out.

The vote is seven zero. The bill is out. We will now move on to AB 1381. Assembly member Mercia Gee, you may begin when ready.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and the members of the Education Committee. I'm presenting Assembly Bill 1381, which is a gut and amend bill, with the goal of protecting students from teachers committing sexual and other egregious misconduct while all also respecting the due process rights of teachers.

A recent May 2026 ProPublica article about teacher misconduct in California highlights the serious gaps that we continue to have in our current system of screening and identifying those applying for teaching jobs with a history of sexual and other egregious misconduct.

The article focuses on a California teacher who was fired in 2019, by the Fairfield's Suisun Unified School District, after at least 11 individual students broke the unofficial code of silence and submitted written complaints of inappropriate touching and at least two warnings from school administrators to stop.

After being fired, this teacher went on to teach at a second and then a third school within three years.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued a one week suspension of his teaching license for his behavior at his first school with no public notice of the circumstances of his discipline. The State of California, through the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, has allowed him to continue to teach. AB 1381, is seeks to strengthen employee screening for school teachers with a history of egregious misconduct.

This is building on the efforts by Assembly member Flora and his bill AB 2534, which was signed into law in 2024, which requires teachers to disclose their past employment history and requires school districts to inquire whether credible complaints, investigative discipline investigations, and or discipline, have been taken place in the past for egregious misconduct.

This bill makes it unprofessional conduct for teacher applicants to fail to disclose their full history, and then also makes it unprofessional conduct for the school district, school administrators to fail to fully investigate with past districts for credible complaints, investigations, or discipline for egregious misconduct.

I have no witnesses in support of the bill. I ask for your support.

Thank you. Any public testimony in support?

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members. Tristan Brown with CFT here in support of the bill. Appreciate the work. Thank you.

Thank you. Any witnesses in opposition?

Any public comments in opposition?

We'll bring it back to the committee.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions? You may close.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Madam secretary, will you please call the roll?

File item two, AB1381. The motion is to concur in the Senate amendments.

[roll call]

The vote is 7-0. The bill is out.

We'll leave the roll open for ten minutes for add on votes. Thank you.

Madam secretary, call the roll.

File item one, AB 302. The motion is to concur in the Senate amendments. Alvarez. Aye. Alvarez, aye.

So we're eight zero.

The vote is eight zero. The bill is out.

File item two, eighty thirteen eighty one. The motion's to concur in the Senate amendments. Alvarez. Aye. Alvarez, aye.

Eight zero.

The vote is eight zero. The bill is out. And that concludes our hearing. Mister Oh. I'm sorry.

Yeah. We were still missing. Oh.

Madam secretary, please call the roll.

File item one, AB 302. The motion is to concur in the Senate amendments. Lowenthal? Aye. Lowenthal, aye.

That is nine zero.

The vote is nine zero. The measure is out.

File item two, AB 1381. The motion is to concur in the Senate amendments. Lowenthal? Aye. Lowenthal, aye.

Nine zero.

Measure is nine the vote is nine zero. The measure is out. Thank you. Thank you so much. We are adjourned.

Anyway, so I have Mister Schneer to I'm sure others

weren't well, but he was the face of it.