SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom’s AB 1713 is headed to Governor Gavin Newsom after passing both houses of the Legislature with bipartisan support. The legislation began as an idea from Stockton special education paraeducator Madellyn Hill, the inaugural winner of Ransom’s “There Oughta Be a Law” contest.
Transitioning into college can already be academically, financially and emotionally challenging. For students with disabilities, it can also mean being forced to prove a documented disability all over again before receiving the accommodations they need. Students who relied on an IEP, 504 Plan or Individual Program Plan can arrive at college only to face duplicative paperwork, inconsistent verification requirements and costly new evaluations.
AB 1713 offers a solution by requiring California’s public colleges and universities to recognize existing disability documentation as verification that a disability exists. This would allow students to seek accommodations sooner and focus on their education instead of returning to a doctor to prove a condition they may have lived with for years.
“This is what good government looks like. Through my ‘There Oughta Be a Law’ program, the lived experience of one of my constituents helped us identify a costly and unnecessary roadblock affecting students with disabilities across California. We turned that experience into AB 1713, a solution that will move us one step closer to ensuring thousands of students receive the timely support they need to succeed.”
-Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom
“Seeing an idea that comes from my own lived experience make it through the Legislature is deeply meaningful,” said Madellyn Hill, a Stockton special education paraeducator and the inaugural winner of Ransom’s “There Oughta Be a Law” contest. “I know what it feels like to navigate education without always understanding what resources are available or what your documentation means. AB 1713 can help remove some of that uncertainty so students with disabilities can spend more time focused on learning and less time trying to prove what has already been documented.”
The proportion of undergraduate students with disabilities nearly quadrupled between 1978 and 2011, but higher education policies and procedures have not kept pace. Students with disabilities continue to face significant gaps in bachelor’s degree completion, and inconsistent accommodation requirements can add unnecessary financial and administrative barriers. AB 1713 establishes a statewide standard for verifying a disability, and it would create no new costs for California’s public higher education systems.
