2025 CO-SPONSORED BILLS
| BILL | ISSUE AREA | SUBJECT | OVERVIEW | STATUS | ||||||
| AB 753 (Garcia) | Early Care & Education | Child care: facility licensure: teacher requirements. | Addresses significant staffing shortages and lengthy facilities licensing barriers that exist within early learning and care programs. AB 753 will 1) provide a workforce pathway for Early Childhood Education (ECE) Teachers and 2) ease the licensing process for facilities to serve infants and toddlers. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 805 (Fong) | Workforce | Postsecondary education: college and career programs. | Intent bill related to college and career programs. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| SB 590 (Durazo) | Paid Family Leave | Paid family leave: eligibility: care for designated persons. | Would allow California workers to receive paid family leave wage replacement benefits when caring for a “designated person” who is a member of their chosen or extended family. The bill would define designated person to mean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The bill would authorize the employee to identify the designated person when they file a claim for benefits. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
2025 SUPPORT BILLS
| BILL | ISSUE AREA | SUBJECT | OVERVIEW | STATUS | ||||||
| AB 49 (Muratsuchi) | Early Care & Education / Immigration | School sites and day care centers: entry requirements: immigration enforcement. | Would prohibit school officials and employees from allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter a school site for any purpose without providing valid identification, a written statement of purpose, and a valid judicial warrant, and receiving approval from specified school or district leadership. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 65 (Aguiar-Curry) | Paid Family Leave | School and community college employees: paid disability and parental leave. | Would require public school employers, for an academic employee or an employee in the classified service, to provide up to 14 weeks of a leave of absence with specified pay benefits due to pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from those conditions. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| AB 313 (Ortega) | Higher Education | Student financial aid: application deadlines: extension. | This bill will authorize the Student Aid Commission to grant the postponement of an application deadline without submission of a formal request if the Commission finds that there was a delay in the opening of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 338 (Solache) | Workforce Development | Workforce development: the Counties of Los Angeles and Ventura: 2025 wildfires. | This bill requires the California Workforce Development Board to allocate funds from the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) for workforce development strategies to support underemployed and unemployed low- to moderate-income workers affected by the January 2025 Wildfires. The bill requires the DEO to reallocate $600,000 for those purposes, and to focus on employment in certain professions and industries, including construction, firefighting, health care, or other areas essential to emergency response, disaster relief, recovery, rebuilding, and regional economic development and resilience. The bill requires individuals participating in funded programs to have access to expedited licensing and certification, if feasible. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 353 (Boerner) | Digital Equity | Communications: broadband internet service providers: affordable home internet. | Intent bill related to requiring broadband internet service providers to offer affordable home internet to California residents. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| AB 402 (Patel) | Higher Education | Student financial aid: Cal Grant Program and the California Community College Expanded Entitlement Program. | Would increase the Cal Grant A and B award for private higher education institutions to $9,358 for 2024-25 and either $9,708 or 8,056 in 2025-26, with the higher amount conditioned on the achievement of the target numbers for associate degree for transfer commitments that apply for the prior award year. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| AB 667 (Solache) | Language Equity | Professions and vocations: license examinations: interpreters. | Would require that licensing boards under the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), and the Department of Public Health (DPH) allow individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) the option to utilize an interpreter for a state, written examination for a professional license. | Inactive File | ||||||
| AB 677 (Bryan) | Cradle-Through-Career | Pupil records and health: pupils experiencing homelessness: directory information and reporting. | Would authorize the disclosure of pupil directory information of children experiencing homelessness and foster youth in order to facilitate access to an eye examination or an oral health assessment. Parent or a pupil who has been accorded parental rights can provide written notice to the school that they do not consent to the physical examination. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 718 (Tangipa) | Higher Education | Public postsecondary education: admission: salary and student loan data. | Would require college admissions letters to include information about salaries in proposed program of study and loan data for careers in that area. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| AB 1123 (Muratsuchi) | Early Care and Education | Commission on Teacher Credentialing: membership. | Would authorize the Governor to appoint to the commission, as one of the six practicing teachers, a teacher with a commission-issued child development teacher permit who teaches at a licensed state-funded preschool or prekindergarten program. The bill would also require the Governor to appoint one early childhood faculty member who teaches at an early childhood or child development baccalaureate degree program at one of the California State University, the University of California campuses, or an associate degree program in one of the California Community Colleges’ early childhood education programs. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 1303 (Valencia) | Digital Equity | Communications: lifeline telephone service program. | This bill would strengthen privacy protections for participants in the state's California LifeLine program and makes providing a Social Security number (SSN) optional for applicants. The federal Lifeline program, which provides a separate discount, has its own rules requiring the last four digits of an SSN for verification. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| AB 1414 (Ransom) | Digital Equity | Landlord-tenant: internet service provider subscriptions. | Would, starting Jan. 1, 2026, require a landlord or their agent to allow tenants to opt out of paying for any subscription from a third-party internet service provider, and prohibits the former from retaliating against a tenant for exercising this right. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| SB 12 (Gonzalez) | Immigration | State government: Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Agency: Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. | Would create a new state agency dedicated to immigrant and refugee integration, led by a secretary appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. This office will oversee immigrant-related programs, assist state agencies in improving service accessibility, and recommend policy and budget strategies. | Suspense File | ||||||
| SB 271 (Reyes) | Higher Education/ Student Parents | Public postsecondary education: students with dependent children: child care services, resources and programs. | Would build upon existing requirements for public institutions of higher education by expanding the definition of basic needs services and resources to include childcare services and resources to provide additional access to resources for student parents. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| SB 275 (Smallwood-Cuevas) | Workforce | Eligible training provider list. | Would prohibit an approved training provider from being removed from the eligible training provider list if the provider has submitted verification of completion of continued eligibility requirements through a local workforce development board, except as provided. Would establish processes for reviewing existing eligible providers every 2-5 years. | Vetoed by the Governor | ||||||
| SB 323 (Pérez) | Higher Education | Student Aid Commission: California Dream Act application. | Intent bill to maximize use of the California Dream Act. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
| SB 624 (Caballero) | Cradle-Through-Career | Nonminor dependents: tax guidance. | This bill, the Foster Outreach and Support for Tax Education Readiness (FOSTER) Act, would require, by no later than July 30, 2026, guidance to county welfare departments and juvenile probation departments to support best practices for nonminor dependents to file state and federal income tax returns and to access the foster youth tax credit. | Signed by the Governor | ||||||
| SB 716 (Durazo) | Digital Equity | Lifeline program: broadband internet access service. | Would require the California Public Utilities Commission to include standalone broadband internet access service as part of the California Lifeline program, and establish specified requirements for an internet service provider, including costs thirty dollars or less per month. | Inactive File | ||||||
| SB 845 (Pérez) | Workforce Development | Pupil instruction: career technical education, career education, and apprenticeships. | Would require the Superintendent to seek advice of career technical classroom teachers and representatives of labor in developing career technical education standards. It would require the Superintendent to recommend policies to the State Board of Education to ensure career technical education courses are provided with up-to-date industry standards. | Two-Year Bill | ||||||
STATE POLICY & BUDGET PRIORITIES
California is navigating state-level budget pressures, a shifting federal landscape and ongoing threats to social safety net programs. It is critical to protect and continue investments in systems that underpin California’s long-term economic vitality and shared prosperity. We respectfully encourage the governor’s administration and state legislature to elevate the following priorities in the 2026 Legislative Session.
Read Our State Policy and Budget Priorities →
Archive: 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025
JANUARY 2025 BUDGET LETTER
As an organization that advocates for cradle-through-career education and workforce development policy, UNITE-LA believes that the investments elevated in the following letter will help lift vulnerable Californians and provide them with equitable opportunities for economic mobility.
Read the January Budget Letter →
MAY 2025 BUDGET LETTER
UNITE-LA continues to advocate for sustained investments that foster regional collaboration, such as the K-16 Regional Collaboratives and California Jobs First, and access to child care, essential services and education and workforce pathways for immigrants and individuals from marginalized communities, who contribute to California’s economy.
2025 REIMBURSEMENT RATE REFORM LETTER
UNITE-LA is proud to share that 38 business organizations from across California have signed on to our annual budget letter in support of increased early care and education (ECE) reimbursement rates. This achievement marks a significant milestone and reflects the strength of a growing network of business leaders who understand that a strong, well-funded early care and education system is essential to both economic growth and workforce stability.
FEDERAL
FEDERAL POLICY GOALS
Our federal education and workforce development systems have the ability to more effectively meet the diverse needs of all students, their families and their communities. The current systems are siloed, and many key programs, services and leaders are not coordinated in a way that centers students. This creates a system without smooth transitions between services and programs, and often means students are not supported to reach their full potential. Interagency coordination efforts being developed among the Departments of Education, Labor and Commerce will more effectively uplift the success among youth and adults in the workforce. Interagency connections must be strengthened, and employers and workforce development partners must be engaged to ensure a competitive, qualified and well-compensated workforce.
Read Our Federal Policy Goals →
Archive: 2023