republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-261.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "School districts: governing boards: pupil members: preferential voting."
description: "(1) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district maintaining one or more high schools to appoint to its membership one or more nonvoting pupil members if pupils submit a petition to the governing board to make those appointments, as provided. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to allow for preferential voting, as defined, for the pupil member or members of the governing board upon receipt of a petition for that purpose."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 261"
citation: "California AB 261 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["School districts: governing boards: pupil members: preferential voting."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Thurmond"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 24
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2017-01-31"
last_action: "2017-09-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2277a161-b431-43d3-8a34-ac9b290ae5e9"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261"
source_hash: "149cf45f421da73c2f8f0439a8b58ae41d18b411d4ead343caeb582651565c8f"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 261 (20172018) — School districts: governing boards: pupil members: preferential voting.

(1) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district maintaining one or more high schools to appoint to its membership one or more nonvoting pupil members if pupils submit a petition to the governing board to make those appointments, as provided. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to allow for preferential voting, as defined, for the pupil member or members of the governing board upon receipt of a petition for that purpose.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **01/31/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261&version=20170AB26199INT)
2. **03/23/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261&version=20170AB26198AMD)
3. **07/17/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261&version=20170AB26197AMD)
4. **09/23/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261&version=20170AB26195CHP)
5. **AB261** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261)
6. **09/07/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB261&version=20170AB26196ENR)

## Votes

- AB 261 THURMOND Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 261 THURMOND Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB261 Thurmond By Leyva — **39–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Thurmond — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-31** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-01** From printer. May be heard in committee March 3.
- **2017-03-23** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ED. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-03-27** Re-referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-06** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 5). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-26** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 26). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-04-27** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-04** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1388.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-04** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-05-18** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 7). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-26** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2017-06-27** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-06-29** From Consent Calendar.
- **2017-06-29** Ordered to third reading.
- **2017-07-17** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2017-07-18** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-08-31** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2307.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-08-31** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 2 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2017-09-05** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 2917.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-12** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2:30 p.m.
- **2017-09-23** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-09-23** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 257, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2277a161-b431-43d3-8a34-ac9b290ae5e9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).