Governor Signs New Bills Impacting Immigration Activity on Campuses; CDE Publishes Immigration Toolkit

10.14.2025

On September 20, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 49, known as the “California Safe Haven Schools Act,” and Senate Bill (“SB”) 98 regarding immigration activity and enforcement in K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions. Both bills contained urgency language and therefore took effect immediately.

Please note that these newly enacted laws build on AB 699 and AB 21, both of which established policies and protocols to be followed in the event immigration activity and enforcement were to take place at California’s educational institutions with the goal of protecting all students irrespective of their immigration status, including those who are undocumented. AB 699 and AB 21, in addition to SB 54, known as the “California Values Act,” were addressed in our prior Alert.

Assembly Bill 49

Effective immediately, AB 49 amended Education Code section 234.7 of the Education Code regarding immigration enforcement officers’ access to school property. Existing law prevents local educational agencies (“LEAs”) from collecting information or documents regarding citizenship or immigration status of pupils or their family members. Existing law also requires a superintendent to inform the governing school board if immigration enforcement officials make a request for information or access to a school site for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws.

AB 49 expands section 234.7, subsection (a) to require an immigration enforcement officer or agent to present proper supporting documentation in order to enter school sites. Specifically, section 234.7 now prohibits an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement from entering a nonpublic area of a school site without the following:

Valid identification, and
A valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, or a court order.

Section 234.7, as amended by AB 49, also prohibits LEAs from disclosing any personal information about a pupil or pupil’s family to an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement, without the written consent of the pupil’s guardian(s). “Personal information” includes, but is not limited to, information about a pupil’s place of residence, education records, and travel schedule.

Lastly, AB 49 requires LEAs to maintain and update its policy limiting assistance with immigration enforcement by March 1, 2026, to align with the new requirements of AB 49 regarding immigration enforcement at public schools. LEAs are also required under AB 49 to make their policy available to the California Department of Education upon its request. AB 49 further requires the California Attorney General to update its model policies by December 1, 2025. LEAs can comply with the policy requirements by adopting the Attorney General’s model policies.

Senate Bill 98

SB 98 requires certain California postsecondary educational institutions to inform its community about any immigration-related activities expected to occur, occurring, or scheduled to occur, on campus. Specifically, effective immediately, SB 98 amends Education Code sections 32282, 47605, 47605.6, 47606.3, and 66093.3 to require postsecondary educational institutions to immediately notify all pupils, parents, faculty, staff, and other community members of certain postsecondary educational institutions of the presence of immigration officers on campus.

Additionally, SB 98 requires the following institutions of higher education to implement various precautionary measures, explained in greater detail below, when federal immigration enforcement activities take place on campus:

The California State University system
The Governing Boards of the Community College Districts
Independent Institutions of Higher Education which are Cal Grant qualified.

SB 98 also requests the Regents of the University of California to comply as well.

As part of above-referenced precautionary measures, postsecondary educational institutions are required to advise all students, faculty, and staff that they should notify the office of the chancellor or the president as soon as possible if they receive information that an immigration officer is “expected to enter, will enter, or has entered the campus to execute a federal immigration order.”

This newly enacted law also requires these postsecondary educational institutions to notify all students, faculty, staff, and community members when the presence of immigration enforcement is confirmed on campus. The notice shall include the date and time the immigration enforcement was confirmed, the location of the confirmed immigration enforcement, and a hyperlink to additional resources.

“Immigration enforcement” is defined as all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal civil immigration law or federal criminal immigration law that penalizes a person’s presence or employment in the United States. “Immigration officer” means any state, local, or federal law enforcement officer who is seeking to enforce immigration law.

CDE Guidance

To support the implementation of these new laws, the California Department of Education (“CDE”) published a new toolkit titled Our Schools: Resources for Including Immigrant Families. The toolkit provides informational, family-facing posters that communicate assurance of schools’ obligation under the law to provide every child with access to an education in a safe learning environment, regardless of immigration status. The toolkit also provides guidance for best practices when immigration agents are present on school sites.

The toolkit is available on the CDE website and is currently available in both English and Spanish. The CDE encourages all California school districts to make these resources visible and accessible to families.[1]

If you have questions about the contents of this Alert or need guidance or training about your obligations under these recent changes to the law, please contact the authors of this Alert or your usual AALRR counsel.

Thank you to law clerk Samantha Fidel for her extensive work on this Alert.

[1] The CDE toolkit can be found here: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/if/immigration-toolkit.asp.