Overview

• Lawmakers passed AB 715 on a 35–0 vote on the session’s final day, moving the bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
• The bill creates an Office of Civil Rights within the Government Operations Agency and an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator to track incidents, train school personnel, and recommend policy, drawing on the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
• Compromise changes drop a new complaint system, statutory definitions, and curriculum mandates in favor of using Uniform Complaint Procedures and requiring instruction to be factually accurate and aligned to adopted curriculum and standards.
• New Education Code language bars instruction or activities that promote discriminatory bias even without direct harm or the presence of targeted groups, and requires corrective action when violations are found.
• Backers include the Legislature’s Black, Latino, and AAPI caucuses, while the CTA and ACLU California Action oppose the measure over academic-freedom and equity concerns after Islamophobia references were removed, and lawmakers say they plan clarifications next year, with some stakeholders suggesting the bill’s passage could influence future ethnic-studies funding.