Updated June 27th, 2025
Notable Pro-Kid Bills for Children’s Movement Members to be Aware of
Updated June 2025
In our March newsletter, we highlighted Pro-Kid bills that reflect The Children’s Movement’s goal of putting kids first in policymaking. Throughout the spring, these bills journeyed through a process in their house of origin involving committee debates, public testimonies, advances out of committee, and floor votes. During the summer, the bills that advanced out of their house of origin will repeat the same process in the opposite house. Bills that make it past the floor vote of the opposite house will land on the Governor’s desk for final signature (or veto) around September.
We’re excited to report that many of the bills we originally highlighted in March passed out of committee hearings and secured enough floor votes to advance from their house of origin. Now, these bills will start the process in the opposite chamber. Keep scrolling to read more about the advancing bills.
As a Movement member, we encourage you to stay aware of these issues and be prepared to mobilize should any of these bills require Movement support to get over the finish line this fall or later in the two-year session.
Advancing Pro-Kid Bill Summaries
AB 291 (Gipson) Teacher Credentialing: Credentialed Educator Apprenticeships
The state’s educator shortage, already at crisis levels in many schools, continues to directly impact students’ academic progress and social emotional development and stymy state initiatives to implement transitional kindergarten, community schools, and high-quality, equitable math instruction. AB 291 would set the requirements for apprenticeship pathways to becoming a credentialed teacher. Creating teacher apprenticeship programs would reduce the cost of becoming a teacher by providing compensation to teacher candidates, as well as structured mentorship, which are the hallmarks of apprenticeship. These new pathways will help address California’s long-standing teacher shortage while creating opportunities for non-traditional candidates to enter the profession.
AB 607 (Rodriguez, Celeste) CalWORKs: Home Visiting Program
California must expand voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs statewide to ensure these highly effective services reach a larger share of eligible families. AB 607 would extend the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program at least 24 months and would extend the maximum age of the child at the time of enrollment to 36 months of age. The bill would also authorize a voluntary participant whose participation would otherwise be terminated because the participant no longer meets CalWORKs income, eligibility, or need criteria to continue through the duration of the home visiting program or for up to an additional 12 months, whichever is longer.
AB 224 (Bonta) and Senate Bill (SB) 62 (Menjivar) Health Care Coverage: Essential Health Benefits
These bills would update the benchmark that determines what benefits health insurance companies in California will be required to cover beginning in 2027. We expect future amendments will add coverage of hearing aids, a critically important benefit especially for the state’s deaf and hard of hearing children. Right now, more than 20,000 children and youth in California use hearing aids, yet their health insurance does not cover them. This lack of coverage has resulted in a developmental emergency, as pediatric experts stress that early access to hearing aids is essential for language, learning, and social development.
AB 350 (Bonta) Health Care Coverage: Fluoride Treatments
Fluoride varnish is an evidence-based practice that can help to prevent and stop dental cavities from forming or worsening. This bill would expand coverage of fluoride varnish for kids in commercial health plans and allow for non-medical professionals to bill Medi-Cal. Expanding this benefit to commercial health plans will ensure more children receive this service, and establishing a reimbursement mechanism for non-medical professionals to bill Medi-Cal will allow these providers (e.g., community health workers) to better serve and reach children in public health settings (e.g., schools).
AB 1043 (Wicks) Age verification signals: software applications and online services
In an effort to create a safer online environment for youth, Children Now is sponsoring AB 1043 (Wicks). AB 1043 would require device manufacturers to verify a user’s age and then communicate that to application stores, applications, websites, and any other online services that require age verification for access.
SB 363 (Wiener) Health Care Coverage: Independent Medical Review
Unfortunately, too many families must fight health plans to get care for their children. Following up on SB 238 (Wiener, 2023) and SB 294 (Wiener, 2024), this bill would require plans to publicly report denials of surgical, medical, and behavioral health care for all Californians, including children and young people. It would also allow the State to fine health plans that erroneously deny care.
AB 898 (Bryan) The Family Urgent Response System (FURS)
The Family Urgent Response System (FURS), consisting of a 24/7 statewide hotline and county mobile response teams, was designed to provide immediate trauma-informed support to young people with lived experience in foster care and caregivers during critical moments. AB 898 would help ensure counties: 1) are permitted to utilize their FURS teams to support families who are receiving family preservation and voluntary or court-ordered family maintenance to prevent entries into foster care; 2) are clear that they have the flexibility to dispatch FURS teams based on local needs and with the approval of children, youth, and caregivers without a state-level hotline call; and 3) revisit their local implementation plan every other year.
Also note that some of the Pro-Kid bills we highlighted in March are not advancing to the opposite chamber at this time and remain in their house of origin. These include:
