The new year begins with new laws for schools

California’s new laws will protect the privacy of LGBTQ+ students, ensure Native American history is taught accurately, and make it harder to discriminate against people of color based on their hairstyles.

These and other new pieces of education legislation will take effect when students return to campuses after winter break.

Parents cannot be notified if the child is transgender

1955 Assembly Bill, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July prohibits California school boards from passing resolutions requiring school personnel, including teachers, to notify parents if they believe a child is transgender.

Supporting future academics and educators for today’s youth, or Law of SECURITYit also protects school personnel from retaliation if they refuse to notify parents of a child’s gender preference. The legislation also provides additional resources and support for LGBTQ+ students in middle and high schools.

The legislation was created in response to more than a dozen California school boards proposing or adopting parent notification policies in just over a year. The policies require school staff to inform parents if a child requests to use a name or pronoun different from the one assigned at birth or engages in activities and uses facilities designed for the opposite sex.

“Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California,” said Rep. Chris Ward, the bill’s author, in a press release. “While some school districts have adopted policies to forcibly exclude students, the SAFE Act ensures that discussions of gender identity remain a private matter within the family.”

Opponents of the bill, including Rep. Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, indicated that the matter would be settled in court.

Accurate accounting of Native American history

Building a Spanish mission—out of popsicle sticks or sugar cubes—was once a common task for fourth graders in California. The state curriculum framework adopted in 2016 says this “offensive” assignment doesn’t help students understand this era, particularly the experiences of Native Californians subjected to forced labor and deadly disease at the hands of Spanish colonizers.

But supporters of a new law that takes effect Jan. 1 say there are still serious concerns that California’s Native American history — including enslavement, famine, disease and violence — is still being misrepresented or completely absent from the curriculum.

AB 1821written by Assemblyman James Ramos, D-San Bernardino, aims to address this. When California updates its history-social studies curriculum — on or after Jan. 1 — it asks the Commission on Instructional Quality to consult with California tribes to develop a curriculum that includes the treatment and perspectives of Native Americans during Spanish colonization and the era of the Gold Rush. .

“The mission era of Spanish occupation was one of the most devastating and sensitive periods in the history of California’s native peoples, and the lasting impact of that period is being lost in today’s curriculum,” said the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, one of the supporters. , in a statement.

The History of Desegregation in California

Another law also taking effect this year requires the state to update its history-social studies curriculum. AB 1805 demands that the emblematic case Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County to be incorporated into the updated history and social studies curriculum on or after January 1st.

The case, brought in 1945, challenged four districts in Orange County that segregated students. The plaintiffs in the case were Mexican-American parents whose children were denied admission to local public schools. The case led to California becoming the first state to outlaw segregation in public schools — and set a precedent for Brown v. Board of Education.

The case is mentioned in the history-social science curriculum that was last adopted in 2016 for students in the 4th and 11th grades, as well as in the Model Curriculum of Ethnic Studies, as an example of building inter-ethnic bridges .

The Westminster school district wrote a statement in support of the law to ensure the case is “properly recognized and properly incorporated into the state’s educational curriculum.”

Protection against hair discrimination

Assembly Bill 1815 makes it more difficult to discriminate against people of color, including students, based on their hairstyle. Although this type of discrimination is already prohibited by the CROWN Act, it has not extended to amateur and club sports.

The new legislation also clarifies the language in the California Code, removing the requirement that a trait be “historically” associated with a race, as opposed to culturally, to be protected.

“(This bill) addresses an often-overlooked form of racial discrimination that affects our youth — bias based on hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists,” said a letter of support from ACLU. “By expanding anti-discrimination protections within amateur sports organizations, this bill recognizes and seeks to dismantle deep-seated biases that affect black children and adolescents in their athletic pursuits and beyond.”

Protection for creators of children’s content

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two pieces of legislation in September that provide additional protections for children who play or create content online.

The new laws expand on state laws that were meant to protect child performers. Senate Bill 764 and Assembly Bill 1880 require that at least 15% of the money earned by children who create, post or distribute content online, including vloggers, podcasters, social media influencers and streamers, be placed in a trust that they can access when they reach adulthood.

“A lot has changed since the early days of Hollywood, but here in California, our laser focus on protecting children from exploitation remains the same,” Newsom said in a statement. “In old Hollywood, child actors were exploited. In 2024, they are now influential children. Today, that modern exploitation ends with two new laws to protect young influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms.”