AB-51 Early childcare and education: California state preschool program.
AB-51 was introduced in February 2024 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) and signed into law on September 26, 2024 as 2024 Cal. Stat. ch. 618. The act adds Section 8222 to the Cal. Education Code, relating to early childcare and education. You can find the bill text, bill analysis, and other documents relating to this law's legislative history on the California legislature's website.
See our
California legislative history guide for information on how these documents all work together as persuasive legal authority in determining the intent behind the law as well as clarifying significant additions or deletions as the bill moved through the legislature.
AB-51 Bill Summary (via Legislative Counsel's Digest)
The Early Education Act establishes the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program with the goal of expanding access universally to preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-old children across the state through a mixed-delivery system, as defined. The act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish rules and regulations for the staffing of all preschool programs under contract with the State Department of Education.
This bill would, notwithstanding any provision of the act to contrary, require the department to, among other things, provide prospective California state preschool program providers an equitable opportunity to establish a trained workforce and administrative systems, and technical assistance on how to meet the requirements of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, as provided. The bill would, notwithstanding any provision of the act to contrary, require the department to, among other things, develop early learning resources, as specified, and to develop and implement a proactive one-time 3-year outreach, capacity building, training, and technical assistance plan that targets prospective and new contractors, as provided. The bill would make its provisions operative only upon appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes.
