Bill Commons

CA AB 1861

in committee

Special education: public complaint database.

California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · lower

Follow this bill’s action updates (Atom)

Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.

Quick answers

Did CA AB 1861 pass?

Not yet. CA AB 1861 is in committee and has not come to a final vote. Latest recorded action (2026-05-14): In committee: Held under submission.

What is CA AB 1861 about?

Existing law requires that every individual with exceptional needs, as defined, who is eligible, be provided with educational instruction, services, or both, at no cost to their parent or guardian or, as appropriate, to them. Under existing law, a free appropriate public education is required to be made available to individuals with exceptional needs in accordance with specified federal regulations adopted pursuant to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to investigate a complaint alleging a violation of the act and to issue a written decision within 60 days of the complaint being filed, as provided. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2030, to create, or contract to create, and maintain a publicly available online aggregate database of all complaints that the department receives on and after July 1, 2027, that allege a violation of the federal law described above. The bill would require the database to include specified data for each complaint, including, among other things, the total number of complaints the department investigated disaggregated by school district, county office of education, or charter school. After the database has been created, the bill would require the department to ensure that the data required to be included in the database is updated and published on or before December 31 of each year.

Who sponsors CA AB 1861?

Lackey is the primary sponsor of CA AB 1861, joined by 2 cosponsors.

Description

Existing law requires that every individual with exceptional needs, as defined, who is eligible, be provided with educational instruction, services, or both, at no cost to their parent or guardian or, as appropriate, to them. Under existing law, a free appropriate public education is required to be made available to individuals with exceptional needs in accordance with specified federal regulations adopted pursuant to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to investigate a complaint alleging a violation of the act and to issue a written decision within 60 days of the complaint being filed, as provided. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2030, to create, or contract to create, and maintain a publicly available online aggregate database of all complaints that the department receives on and after July 1, 2027, that allege a violation of the federal law described above. The bill would require the database to include specified data for each complaint, including, among other things, the total number of complaints the department investigated disaggregated by school district, county office of education, or charter school. After the database has been created, the bill would require the department to ensure that the data required to be included in the database is updated and published on or before December 31 of each year.

Introduced
2026-03-19
Latest action
2026-05-14 — In committee: Held under submission.
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Subjects

Sponsors

  • Lackeyauthor
  • Bryancoauthor
  • Lowenthalcoauthor

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

Newest first

  1. 2026-05-14

    In committee: Held under submission.

  2. 2026-05-06

    In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

    referral-committee

  3. 2026-04-13

    Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

    referral-committee

  4. 2026-04-09

    Read second time and amended.

    amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-2

  5. 2026-04-08

    From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 7).

    amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,referral-committee

  6. 2026-03-24

    Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

    referral-committee

  7. 2026-03-23

    Read second time and amended.

    amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-2

  8. 2026-03-19

    From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 18).

    amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,referral-committee

  9. 2026-02-23

    Referred to Coms. on ED. and P. & C.P.

    referral-committee

  10. 2026-02-12

    From printer. May be heard in committee March 14.

  11. 2026-02-11

    Read first time. To print.

    reading-1

Versions

  • 02/11/26 - Introduced — 2026-02-11Compare
  • 03/23/26 - Amended Assembly — 2026-03-23Compare
  • 04/09/26 - Amended Assembly — 2026-04-09Compare
  • AB1861Compare
  • (document, no version)Compare

Documents

Votes

  • Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Privacy and Consumer Protection]

    2026-03-18 · pass · 8-0

    Member-level votes (8)
    • Alvarez: yes
    • Lowenthal: yes
    • Garcia: yes
    • Bonta: yes
    • Castillo: yes
    • Zbur: yes
    • Hoover: yes
    • Patel: yes

  • Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]

    2026-04-07 · pass · 15-0

    Member-level votes (15)
    • Macedo: yes
    • Hoover: yes
    • Ward: yes
    • Irwin: yes
    • McKinnor: yes
    • Patterson: yes
    • Wilson: yes
    • Lowenthal: yes
    • Petrie-Norris: yes
    • Ortega: yes
    • Wicks: yes
    • Bryan: yes
    • DeMaio: yes
    • Pellerin: yes
    • Hart: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1861

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T01:34:27.960412Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:

Bulk imports for this sessionSession dates and activity

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=CA&identifier=AB 1861. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.
  • Some documents have no extracted text yet, so version comparison may be limited.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.