AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 9, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 23, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

97

Introduced by Assembly Member Lackey

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bryan and Lowenthal)

February 11, 2026

An act to add Section 56049.2 to the Education Code, relating to special education.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

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. Existing law requires the findings and declarations of the written decision to be made available to the public after any personally identifiable information has been deleted.

This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2030, to create, or contract to create, and maintain an a publicly available online aggregate database of all complaints described above that the department receives and that the department has received consent to post beginning with the first school year in which the database is operational. The bill would require the department, before entering any documents into the database, to obtain consent from the complainant to add the report to the database and to redact any personally identifiable information, as provided. The bill would require the department to notify school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools of these requirements. 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.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 56049.2 is added to the Education Code, immediately following Section 56049.1, to read:

56049.2.

(a) (1) On or before January 1, 2030, the department shall create, or contract to create, and maintain an a publicly available online aggregate database of complaints received by the department pursuant to Section 56500.2. The database shall include both of the following: department, on and after July 1, 2027, for an alleged violation of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq.) or regulations implementing the act (Part 300 (commencing with Section 300.1) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations).