Holidays

Starting in 2027–28, the law aims to improve public participation in school milestones, higher-education events, and state functions for people observing these holidays.

What the law does ​

• Requires K–12 school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to consider avoiding first days of class and high school graduations that conflict with known religious, cultural, or ancestral observances.
• Requires those K–12 bodies to seek affected-community input when deciding which dates to avoid.
• Requires community colleges and California State University to make good-faith, reasonable efforts to avoid scheduling mandatory institutional events on conflicting observance dates, and requests the University of California to do the same.
• Requires colleges and California State University to seek student and faculty organization input before calendaring those events.
• Requires state agencies to make good-faith, reasonable efforts to avoid meetings, conferences, and functions that conflict with known observances, including Eid, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Dussehra.
• Encourages local government legislative bodies to make similar scheduling efforts.
• Allows harmed people to seek a court order requiring compliance by a higher-education institution or state agency, after first requesting its written basis for not avoiding the conflict.

Who it affects ​

• Students, families, faculty, and community members who observe religious, cultural, or ancestral holidays.
• School districts, county offices of education, charter schools, community colleges, California State University, and the University of California.
• State agencies and local government legislative bodies scheduling public meetings or functions.