republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/sb-442.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "School districts and community college districts: governing board elections: charter cities."
description: "Existing law establishes in each county, except a county that is also a city and county, a county committee on school district organization, and authorizes the committee to take certain actions regarding the organization of school districts and community college districts in the territory under the committee's jurisdiction. Existing law authorizes, in any school district or community college district, a county committee on school district organization to establish trustee areas, rearrange the boundaries of trustee areas, abolish trustee areas, and increase to 7 or decrease to 5 the number of members of a governing board, or to adopt an alternative method of electing governing board members, as specified, except in a school district governed by a board of education provided for in the charter of a city or city and county."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "SB 442"
citation: "California SB 442 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["School districts and community college districts: governing board elections: charter cities."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Newman"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2021-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/be59d6cf-ce30-4a91-a300-b30624780808"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442"
source_hash: "084388845f14460082aa9fcc44a2895e41bb3d36b7bdd9f7b8403ec16b8834dc"
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 SB 442 (20212022) — School districts and community college districts: governing board elections: charter cities.

Existing law establishes in each county, except a county that is also a city and county, a county committee on school district organization, and authorizes the committee to take certain actions regarding the organization of school districts and community college districts in the territory under the committee's jurisdiction. Existing law authorizes, in any school district or community college district, a county committee on school district organization to establish trustee areas, rearrange the boundaries of trustee areas, abolish trustee areas, and increase to 7 or decrease to 5 the number of members of a governing board, or to adopt an alternative method of electing governing board members, as specified, except in a school district governed by a board of education provided for in the charter of a city or city and county.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442&version=20210SB44299INT)
2. **04/13/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442&version=20210SB44298AMD)
3. **07/23/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442&version=20210SB44296CHP)
4. **SB442** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442)
5. **07/14/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB442&version=20210SB44297ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 442 Newman Senate Third Reading By O'Donnell — **70–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Education] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Higher Education] — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Newman — primary (person)
- Cortese — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-16** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 19.
- **2021-02-22** Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
- **2021-02-22** (Ayes 32. Noes 4.)
- **2021-02-22** Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 272.)
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Coms. on E. & C.A. and ED. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-26** Set for hearing April 12.
- **2021-04-12** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on ED. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 755.) (April 12). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-13** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on ED. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-16** Set for hearing April 28.
- **2021-04-28** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 954.) (April 28). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-06** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 34. Noes 0. Page 1036.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-06** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-13** Referred to Coms. on ELECTIONS and HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-16** Coauthors revised.
- **2021-06-16** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HIGHER ED. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 16). Re-referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (June 29). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-07-12** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 70. Noes 0. Page 2312.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-07-12** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2021-07-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2021-07-23** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-23** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 139, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/be59d6cf-ce30-4a91-a300-b30624780808`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).