California Now Mandates Ethics Training for School Officials (AB 2158)

02.10.2025

Effective January 1, 2025, Assembly Bill (“AB”) 2158 amended Government Code section 53234 et seq. to extend mandatory ethics trainings for officials at school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. Under the new law, local agency officials are required to receive at least two hours of training in general ethics principles and ethics laws relevant to the official’s public service.

The following officials at school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools must complete ethics training every two years:

All members of Brown Act covered bodies if at least one member receives any type of compensation or expense reimbursement for their work, and elected officials who receive any type of compensation or expense reimbursement for their work.
Employees designated by a local agency governing body to receive ethics training.
All school district, county board of education, and charter school governing board members, regardless of whether they receive compensation or expense reimbursement for their work.

Per AB 2158, school board officials are required to receive the ethics training before January 1, 2026 (except for officials whose term ends before then), and then at least once every two years thereafter. For more information about the specific requirements under AB 2158, please refer to our previous Alert on this topic: https://www.aalrr.com/newsroom-alerts-3950.

AALRR has developed compliant training materials and is available to provide this training. Please reach out to AALRR if your educational agency needs training to meet the new requirements implemented by AB 2158.