March 9, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
The following bills cover education and what could be happening in our schools:
SB 760, School facilities: all-gender restrooms.
Existing law requires every restroom of every public and private school maintaining any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, to be maintained and cleaned regularly, fully operational, and stocked at all times with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels or functional hand dryers, and kept open during school hours when pupils are not in classes. Existing law requires that a sufficient number of restrooms be kept open during school hours when pupils are in classes.
This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2025, each school district, county office of education, and charter school, including charter schools operating in a school district facility, maintaining any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, to provide at least one all-gender restroom for pupil use at each of its schoolsites.
The bill would require the all-gender restroom to meet certain requirements, including that it (1) has appropriate signage identifying the bathroom facility as being open to all genders, (2) is unlocked, unobstructed, and easily accessible by any pupil without requesting access from teachers, faculty, or school staff, and (3) is stocked with menstrual products, as specified.
The bill would require the local educational agency to designate a staff member to serve as a point of contact for these purposes and to post a notice regarding these requirements in a prominent and conspicuous location outside at least one all-gender restroom
AB 446, Pupil instruction: handwriting.
Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 6, inclusive, to include certain areas of study, including, among others, English, mathematics, social sciences, science, and visual and performing arts, as specified. With respect to the study of English, existing law requires that instruction to include knowledge of and appreciation for literature and the language, as well as the skills of speaking, reading, listening, spelling, handwriting, and composition.
This bill would require handwriting instruction for grades 1 to 6, inclusive, to include instruction in cursive or joint italics in the appropriate grade levels.
AB 984, Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: personal finance.
Existing law requires a pupil to complete designated coursework while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in order to receive a diploma of graduation from high school. These graduation requirements include, among others, the completion of 3 courses in social studies, including a one-semester course in economics.
Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to consider including age-appropriate information on financial literacy when the history-social science curriculum framework is next revised after January 1, 2017.
This bill would add the completion of a one-semester course in personal finance to the graduation requirements commencing with pupils graduating in the 2028–29 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school. The bill would expressly authorize local educational agencies, including charter schools, to require a full-year course in personal finance at their discretion.
The bill would require local educational agencies, including charter schools, to offer a personal finance course commencing with the 2025–26 school year. The bill would authorize, subject to the course offerings of a local educational agency, including a charter school, a pupil to satisfy the personal finance course requirement by completing either an existing personal finance course approved as meeting the A–G requirements of the University of California and the California State University, or a locally developed personal finance course approved by the governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school.
SB 472, Pupil health: opioid overdose reversal medication.
Existing law authorizes a school district, county office of education, and charter school to provide emergency naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist to school nurses or trained personnel who have volunteered, and authorizes school nurses or trained personnel to use naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist to provide emergency medical aid to persons suffering, or reasonably believed to be suffering, from an opioid overdose, as provided.
This bill would require each individual public school operated by a school district, county office of education, or charter school to maintain at least 2 doses of naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist for purposes of those authorizations.
The bill would require any school district, county office of education, or charter school that does not exercise their authorization to distribute naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist on its campus to report to the State Department of Education and the State Department of Health Care Services on or before an unspecified date, and annually thereafter, certain information.
SET FOR HEARING MARCH 22, 2023
To contact your U.S. Representatives, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121
Legislative Portal links- Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of GSRW)– click here, or the bill’s author- click here, enter your bill # and look for tab at top of the bill page labeled “Comments to Author”
