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The 2025-26 California State Budget has officially passed the legislature!

On Sunday, Governor Newsom hit his deadline for signing – or vetoing – California bills, bringing the 2025-26 legislative cycle to a close. In this update, the CFJ Policy Team breaks down what that means for the racial justice & youth power bills on our 2025 Legislative Agenda.

We’ll be real: Despite some key wins, this past year was not easy for legislation for our communities. Between fighting back against harmful federal policies, navigating a flurry of state and national court rulings, witnessing egregious ICE raids, and facing a storm of controversial bills, many of the policies advocates championed faced steep headwinds – or fell short altogether. California’s $12B budget deficit also squashed legislation with a significant price tag, even when students, families, and communities urgently needed those policies more than ever.

But hope is far from lost. At CFJ, we know aspiring for a better California for Black & Brown youth is an act of resistance. We know it’s California’s Black & Brown families who bear the brunt when transformative policies are delayed. And we know it is our responsibility to bridge the gap between your voice and the halls of power. And we are here to stay.

Below you will find our assessment of how our 2025 priority bills fared, what we learned, and how we plan to push forward in Year 2.

Fast Facts on the Legislative Cycle

• California’s legislative cycle runs in two-year increments, which means bills that stalled in 2025 may still move forward or be reintroduced in 2026. 
• When a bill is “held,” it means it did not make it out of the committee, but it’s not dead. This is common, especially in Appropriations Committees, where bills are assessed for their costs, given the state’s budget deficit.
• It is rare for a bill to be signed into law in the first year of the legislative cycle – most major wins take sustained effort over two years or more

How Our Priority Bills Fared: Highlights & Lowlights

High Engagement Bills – These were our top priorities for 2025, which we brought to Sacramento during our annual Youth Power Capitol Day where 60 CFJ youth met with 30 legislators.

• AB 49: Limiting ICE on School Sites (Muratsuchi) – This bill prohibits ICE from entering schools and collecting student information without a judicial warrant or court order.
  •  Status: Signed into law on September 20, 2025
  • The Tea: AB 49 is a huge win for our community and was one of the most prominent education bills this year. Despite Republican opposition and language negotiations, the bill zoomed through the legislature.

• SB 531: Student Mental Health Education (Rubio) – This bill requires mental health education in the K-12 curriculum.
  
  • Status: Held in Senate Education Committee
  • The Tea: SB 531 was blocked by the committee chair, Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, on the grounds that the committee lacked jurisdiction to make decisions on curriculum. A committee chair has significant influence over how other members vote, and each brings their own unique understanding of the rules governing their committee. There were no aye votes, 2 no votes, and 5 withheld votes. The bill was granted “reconsideration,” which means the author may attempt another vote, but without significant changes, the bill would be blocked once again.
• ACA 7: Repealing Prop 209 for K-12 (Jackson) – This bill repeals Prop 209, which banned affirmative action in public education in 1996.
  • Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
  • The Tea: ACA 7 faced Republican opposition and an estimated 5-figure fiscal cost. It is the 2nd year Assemblymember Corey Jackson has attempted to run this bill as one of the CA Reparations Taskforce Recommendations. California has a democratic supermajority, which means Republican opposition does not pose a significant threat to bills. However, divisiveness in the legislature about the contentious bill and the budget deficit has made this bill a difficult win.

Medium Engagement Bills – These bills represent issues crucial to CFJ. We are actively monitoring and providing support for these initiatives.

• AB 68: Armed Resource Officers on School Sites (Essayli) – CFJ OPPOSED – This bill requires armed resource officers in every school during school hours.
  • Status: In Assembly Education Committee | No hearings or votes scheduled
    
  • The Tea: Advocates mobilized strongly against this bill. Then-Assemblymember Essayli had attempted to pass this bill in past years and is known for his pro-law enforcement stance. On April 2nd, President Trump appointed Essayli as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, thus forfeiting his role as Assemblymember. The bill continues to exist under Assemblymember James Gallagher, a fellow Republican, but has not moved forward.
• AB 860: LCAP & Equity (Sharp-Collins) – This bill requires that the county superintendent of schools submit recommendations on the LCAP for school districts identified for technical assistance.
  • Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
    
  • The Tea: Advocates like CFJ supported this bill because it would hold school districts receiving  “Differentiated Assistance” accountable for improving student performance outcomes. Districts receive this support when one or more student groups fail to meet performance standards in multiple state priority areas. This bill added oversight and public community input, which would have provided much-needed transparency and support for schools that have struggled to improve.

Low Engagement Bills – These bills represent issues crucial to CFJ. We are actively monitoring and providing support for these initiatives.

• SB 48: Educational Equity: Discrimination Prevention Coordinators (Gonzalez) – This bill requires the Office of Civil Rights to employ a Religious Discrimination Prevention Coordinator, a Race and Ethnicity Discrimination Prevention Coordinator, a Gender Discrimination Prevention Coordinator, and an LGBTQ Discrimination Prevention Coordinator.
  • Status: Signed into law on October 7, 2025
  • The Tea: This bill was added to CFJ’s 2025 Legislative Agenda at an early stage as a companion to AB 49, which prohibits schools from sharing information with ICE. However, the contents of this bill were rolled into AB 49, and the bill was amended to relate to discrimination prevention coordinators instead. 
• SB 316: Voter Registration Information by Grade 11 (Reyes) – This bill requires that all students receive voter registration information by the 11th grade.
  • Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
  • The Tea: The bill had an annual estimated cost of tens of thousands to low hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for local educational agencies. A strongly supported bill with a strong set of sponsors, including Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC), ultimately faced fiscal challenges.
• SB 334: Sexual Violence Curriculum in K-12 (Reyes) – This bill requires the inclusion of sexual violence prevention education in K-12 health curriculum.
  • Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
  • The Tea: The bill had an estimated cost of millions of dollars for creating training, resources, hiring staff, and maintaining CDE webpages. The bill ultimately faced fiscal challenges.

What’s Next: Year 2 Strategy

• In early 2026, CFJ will release our 2026 Legislative Agenda. You will see some familiar bills and some new ones – all grounded in our values of racial justice, school transformation, and youth voice.
• Some bills will move forward again in Year 2. We’ll continue monitoring our priority bills and advocating for them.
• During the second year of the legislative cycle, lawmakers may also choose to “gut and amend” bills that were previously held in committee – replacing their contents entirely with new policy ideas. We will be tracking and analyzing these new bills as they develop.

As we close out the first year of the legislative cycle, we’re reminded that transformation takes persistence—and progress is rarely linear. The setbacks this session were real, but so were the wins we fought for alongside Black & Brown youth, families, and partners across the state.

At CFJ, we remain rooted in the belief that youth are not only the future–they are the present. And we’re not backing down. Together, we’ll keep showing up, raising our voices, and reshaping what’s possible in California schools and communities.