California Governor Gavin Newsom signed California AB 715 into law on Oct. 8, 2025. The bill was labeled as a statewide effort to combat rising antisemitism in K-12 schools by tightening restrictions on discriminatory instructional material such as in curricula involving Jewish history and establishing new state-level oversight intended to protect Jewish students. The bill was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Assembly and Senate, and is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
According to Associate Superintendent and Director of Education Trudy Gross, FUHSD maintains harassment protocols for responding to discriminatory or hateful incidents that align with Title IX and Uniform Complaint Procedures. However, AB 715 marks the first time school districts will be subject to a centralized California Office of Civil Rights with a governor-appointed Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator developing resources and overseeing curriculum training in the state office. Under the legislation, the newly created state office will have the ability to review complaints, investigate districts and issue corrective action if schools fail to adequately address incidents involving Jewish students.
“I would anticipate that our practices and our instructional pedagogy would not change because our teachers are using materials that are either approved by state agencies or are part of their requirements,” Gross said. “What I think might change is that if parents are seeking support — maybe if there was a complaint or that type of thing — this would be another form of oversight.”
Despite the bill’s updates to district oversight from the state, districts still lack information about how the new state office will interact with schools. Additionally, concerns remain about whether the state will publish guidelines for distinguishing antisemitism from political criticism.
“I anticipate that more information will be forthcoming as it gets operationalized,” Gross said. “Since it’s active starting January, sometimes there’s a period of time where the state then is working on implementation and they will provide further updates.”
For Jewish students at MVHS, the new bill feels overdue, as they delineate multiple previous encounters with antisemitism. Sophomore Mia Vendrow describes her school environment as one where antisemitic comments from peers and occasionally even teachers are shrugged off as humor. Vendrow says they treat these sensitive topics lightheartedly, without hesitation or reflection.
“Teachers have made jokes about Hitler,” Vendrow said. “And students would praise those teachers. It was just hard sitting in the classroom — in a place of education — and realizing people don’t really know much. People don’t know anything about the history about myself and my people. The only reason people feel bad is when they find out that I’m Jewish.”
Sophomore Anna Sivan echoes Vendrow’s sentiment, emphasizing that antisemitism is frequently dismissed as humor, misunderstandings or “political” speech, trivializing bias. Sivan attributes this to the lack of extensive education on Jewish history in social science curricula.
Sivan and Vendrow’s experiences reflect the statewide data cited by lawmakers in support of AB 715, which documents rises in antisemitic incidents on school campuses and uncertainty among educators on how to respond. One of AB 715’s most debated provisions involves monitoring discriminatory instructional materials, but according to Gross, FUHSD’s instructional review process is already built around state-approved sources — the district does not anticipate major curriculum changes unless new mandates emerge.
However, critics of AB 715 worry that increased oversight could restrict conversations around controversial topics. Supporters argue that the bill does not limit political speech but instead draws the boundary between free speech and discriminatory content that needs to be reexamined against guidelines set by the bill. Sivan believes productive discussions are possible, but only if students are given accurate, comprehensive historical grounding, as she believes the current curriculum glosses over Jewish history.
“People should be able to voice their opinions from both sides,” Sivan said. “But right now, people argue without knowing the history, and if the history isn’t being taught comprehensively, then politics shouldn’t be involved.”
As the Jan. 1 implementation date approaches, Gross says FUHSD will continue relying on existing procedures for addressing any form of harassment as of now, while also preparing for additional updates. She encourages students to report any incidents of discrimination like those Sivan and Vendrow experienced to trusted adults on campus, after which administrators will interview witnesses, collect evidence and decide whether the situation escalates into a formal Uniform Complaint Procedure case.
“We want students to have agency in the process, because we care deeply about their comfort and safety on campus,” Gross said. “If they’re concerned about something that someone said or something that they saw, that means that there is a negative campus climate for that student, and we want to change that.”
