2025 End of Session Wrap Up

DRC sponsored six bills. Three of DRC’s sponsored bills reached the Governor and the two that were signed into law – AB 246 (Bryan) and SB 634 (Pérez) – focused on addressing concerns with access to housing and services for our unhoused neighbors. We are disappointed that one of our sponsored bills, AB 1225 (Bennett), was vetoed by the Governor. Another of our sponsored bills, AB 1099 (Bryan), which aims to help ensure timely access to critical regional center services for foster youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has become a 2-year bill.

DRC championed 25 high priority support bills, six of which were signed into law. One of them – SB 418 – passed the legislature but was vetoed by the Governor and, as of October 21, is in the Senate under consideration of overriding the Governor’s veto.

DRC fought against 19 high priority oppose bills, most of which were successfully defeated. Due in part to our advocacy, we were able to stop 13 of the 19 bills that DRC strongly opposed. However, 6 of those bills were signed into law.

We are disappointed that the Legislature and Governor continue to double down on carceral approaches to disability, homelessness, and students. This year, we particularly saw this harmful approach in SB 27, SB 258, and SB 19, all of which DRC strongly opposed.

Looking ahead, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advance intersectional advocacy with and on behalf of Californians with disabilities, including expanding and protecting access to health care, ending solitary confinement, increasing wages, and ending LGBTQIA+ discrimination.  Thanks to the Investigations Unit’s great work and alarming report on the conditions in the  Adelanto ICE Processing Center, our team is working directly with congressional staff to shine a light on dangerous circumstances disabled immigrants are experiencing.

Legislative Highlights of Enacted and Vetoed Bills Affecting People with Disabilities:

DRC Sponsored Bills Signed by the Governor:

AB 246 (Bryan): Social Security Tenant Protection Act

AB 246 protects disabled people and older adults by pausing eviction proceedings if a household’s failure to pay rent is due to a pause in SSI payments.

SB 634 (Pérez): Local Government: Homelessness

SB 634 prohibits local jurisdictions from adopting or enforcing an ordinance that imposes civil or criminal penalties on individuals or organizations assisting unhoused individuals; protecting legal aid providers, medical professionals, good neighbors, and other non-profit service providers.

DRC Sponsored Bill Vetoed by the Governor:

AB 1225 (Bennett): State Parks: Accessibility Advisory Committee

AB 1225 would have created an Accessibility Advisory Committee within the Department of Parks and Recreation to identify barriers, propose solutions, and ensure state parks and beaches are truly welcoming and accessible to all.

Significant Bills Supported by DRC and Signed by the Governor:

Accessibility:

SB 470 (Laird) - Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act: Teleconferencing

SB 470 keeps public state meetings accessible by extending open meeting rules including authorizing remote attendance and public comment.

Civil Rights:

AB 247 (Bryan) - Incarcerated Individual Hand Crew Members: Wages

AB 247 requires incarcerated individuals and youth hand crew members assigned to active fire incidents to be paid an hourly wage of $7.25, in addition to receiving existing time credits.

AB 248 (Bryan) - County Jails: Wages

AB 248 allows for increased compensation for work performed by incarcerated individuals in county jails.

Education:

SB 373 (Grove) - Special Education: Nonpublic, Nonsectarian Schools or Agencies

SB 373 requires local educational agencies to provide students with disabilities – not just their parents – a copy of their rights and procedural safeguards under special education law.

SB 389 (Ochoa Bogh) - Pupil Health: Individuals with Exceptional Needs: Respiratory Services: Licensed Vocational Nurses

SB 389 authorizes licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) to provide basic respiratory care tasks to students who require specialized healthcare services during the school day.

Immigration:

SB 81 (Arreguín) - Health and Care Facilities: Information Sharing

SB 81 expands the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) to prohibit disclosing immigration status and place of birth without patient authorization.

Transportation:

SB 671 (Cervantes) - Pedestrian Crossing Signals

SB 671 strengthens requirements for accessible pedestrian crossing signals.

Voting:

AB 287 (Lackey) - Elections: Polling Places and Vote Centers

AB 287 strengthens accessibility at polling places and vote centers including accessible parking, curbside voting, adequate space for voting and storage of election equipment, including assistive technology.

Youth:

AB 749 (McKinnor) - Youth Sports for All Act

AB 749 requires the state to conduct a comprehensive study on improving access, involvement, and sustainability of youth sports.

Significant Bills Supported by DRC and Vetoed by the Governor:

Health:

SB 418 (Menjivar) - Health Care Coverage: Prescription Hormone Therapy and Nondiscrimination

SB 418 would increase coverage for prescription hormone therapy and would prohibit health coverage discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity. As of October 21, SB 418 is back in the Senate under consideration of overriding the Governor’s veto.

Significant Bills Opposed (or with concerns) by DRC and Signed by the Governor:

Education:

AB 715 (Zbur) - Educational Equity: Discrimination: Antisemitism Prevention and SB 48 (Gonzalez) - Educational Equity: Discrimination Prevention Coordinators

These companion bills address discrimination against certain groups, but do not extend disability discrimination prevention efforts to disabled students.

Homelessness:

AB 630 (González) - Abandoned Recreational Vehicles

AB 630 expands the scope of impounded recreational vehicles (RVs) subject to disposal in Alameda and Los Angeles Counties – from RVs valued at $500 or less to RVs valued at $4,000 or less.

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities:

SB 258 (Wahab) - Crimes: Rape

SB 258 addresses issues regarding consent and sexual autonomy for disabled people and particularly impacts people with intellectual disabilities.

Mental Health:

SB 27 (Umberg) - Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program

SB 27 expands eligibility for and referrals to the CARE Court program to include individuals with bipolar I disorder with psychotic features.

SB 820 (Stern) - Inmates: Mental Health

SB 820 allows expanded use of involuntary psychiatric medication in county jails.

Youth:

SB 19 (Rubio) - Crimes: Threats

SB 19 makes it a crime for a person to threaten to commit a crime at schools or places of worship, even if there is no intent of actually carrying the threat out.

Significant Bills Opposed by DRC and Vetoed by the Governor:

Education:

AB 1224 (Valencia) - Teacher Credentialing: Substitute Teachers: Days of Service

AB 1224 would have tripled the amount of time that students with disabilities can be taught by an uncredentialed substitute who has no training in providing appropriate supports or services – from 20 to 60 days.

California Budget Impact on the Disability Community:

This year, the California State Legislature and Governor Newsom reached a final agreement on the 2025-26 state budget totaling nearly $228 billion in General Fund spending, with additional spending from special funds and bonds. The Legislature approved an additional $1.9 billion payment deferral to shift expenditures into FY 2026-27.

Despite the Governor proposing huge cuts to services and programs that disabled people rely on, community advocacy and pushback from the Legislature staved off the worst of the cuts.

Although the budget bill (Senate Bill 101) was passed in June, a September budget package and related trailer bills made additional adjustments just before the end of session. Approximately 18 trailer bills were adopted through September 2025, adding about $68.8 million in General Fund expenditures to implement program details and policy changes.

Health and Human Services

Medi-Cal Coverage:

Lawmakers lessened but did not eliminate the Governor’s proposed changes to Medi-Cal. The final budget reinstated the asset limit at a rate of $130,000 for an individual and $195,000 for a couple rather than the $2,000 and $3,000 rate the Governor proposed in the May Revision.

Medi-Cal enrollment freeze for individuals with unsatisfactory immigration status (UIS), ages 19 and older, beginning January 1, 2026. ​This freeze includes a three-month grace and cure period allowing for re-enrollment. Individuals already enrolled in the program cannot "age out."​

Medi-Cal premiums for those with unsatisfactory immigration status have been established at $30/month (rather than $100/month as the Governor had proposed) beginning July 1, 2027.​

Elimination of dental coverage in Medi-Cal for UIS population beginning July 1, 2026.

In Home Supportive Services:

The final budget rejected the Governor’s proposal to cap the number of hours that an IHSS provider can work at 50 hours/week.

The final budget excluded the Governor’s proposal to eliminate IHSS eligibility for Californians age 19 or older with unsatisfactory immigration status (UIS).

The Governor proposed eliminating a “grace period” that lets people keep IHSS temporarily while they fix administrative issues that caused them to lose Medi-Cal eligibility. The final budget kept the grace period of 6 months.

Developmental Services:

• Definition of “Cost Effective”
  • The Lanterman Act requires regional centers to fund services in a “cost effective” manner.  The final budget required the Department of Developmental Services to work with stakeholders to more clearly define what “cost effectiveness” means by August 1, 2026.
• Self-Determination Program
  • The final budget made a number of changes to promote consistency and manage costs in the Self-Determination Program, including clarification of how initial individual budget amounts should be calculated and new requirements for regional centers to certify spending plans.
• Provider Rate Reform
  • The final budget saved costs by moving up the expiration date of an exception that allowed some providers to maintain higher rates from June 30, 2026 to February 28, 2026.
  • It also required providers to meet certain federal regulations and fiscal and audit criteria to be eligible for the maximum rate allowed under the rate reform models.

Education

Education remained one of the largest and most protected areas of the budget.

• K-12 Education: The budget maintains per-pupil funding levels under Proposition 98 and fully funds universal transitional kindergarten (pre-K). Additionally, it continues free breakfast and lunch for all students statewide, and protects special education funding.
• Higher Education: Proposed cuts to the University of California and the California State University systems were ultimately reversed in the final deal, ensuring continued student services and the preservation of the Middle-Class Scholarship Program.
• Special Education and Disability Access: The Legislature reaffirmed their commitment to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) oversight and continued funding for the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program. One million dollars was allocated for translation of the state’s new Individualized Education Program template into the top ten languages in California, enabling districts to translate student IEPs more rapidly.
• A late session trailer bill (SB 148) allowed districts the flexibility to reallocate unused emergency aid funds, helping schools sustain services for students with disabilities.
• The budget also directs the California Department of Education to improve data reporting on special-education identification, services, and racial equity outcomes.

Other Notable Budget Adjustments:

• Transportation and Accessibility: The budget continued funding for mobility and paratransit improvements under the Low-Carbon Transit Operations Program.
• Housing and Homelessness: The Budget allocates four million in 2025-26 to create the California Housing and Homelessness Agency (CHHA) by splitting the former Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. The Budget also authorizes $500 million in additional state tax credits for affordable housing projects.