ACSA members made their voices heard on two items at the December meeting of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

The first issue was the commission’s response to the State Auditor’s report on the Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools fraud case. The report recommended the CTC impose penalties on any LEA that fails to address teacher misassignments.

ACSA Region 6 Board Member Dr. Raúl Zamora, assistant superintendent of Castro Valley USD, uplifted the staffing shortage and how this strain is a contributing factor to misassignment numbers.

At first the commission proposed the penalties be passed as a consent item in early 2026, but CTC Commissioner Juan Cruz, superintendent of Franklin-McKinley School District, urged the CTC to instead bring the item back for further discussion.

“Misassignments can be for various reasons … one of them which is vacancies that sometimes are created not because the LEA did not try,” he said. “In my case we filled the position, and the teacher pulled out right before school started. So we were fully staffed, but from no fault of the district, we now have a vacancy.”

The CTC ultimately voted to impose sanctions on LEAs that consistently misassign educators. Beginning November 2027, administrators can be subject to mandated training if their LEA fails to address misassignments.

In another agenda item, the CTC responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of ACSA’s co-sponsored AB 1224 (Valencia), which sought continuity for students by allowing substitute teachers to teach for 60 days. The item proposed three possible solutions that fall within CTC’s statutory authority to improve short-term staffing options.

ACSA and fellow AB 1224 cosponsors acknowledged CTC’s diligence in meeting with members to find solutions, but insisted the proposals didn’t go far enough to address the core issues faced in the field.

The commission received 22 written comments on this item, including from ACSA State Vice President for Legislative Action Jared Hungerford, who also serves as Calaveras County Superintendent of Schools.

“An educator serving in a classroom for 60 days is likely to receive greater preparation from the LEA to serve in a single classroom assignment compared to three substitute teachers serving no more than 20 days over a 60-day window,” Hungerford wrote. “If the assignment remains vacant throughout the year, the student is served by nine substitute teachers — rather than three if substitutes were authorized to serve up to 60 days. Every time a new substitute teacher enters the classroom, the students lose valuable instructional time.”

Hope Elementary School District Superintendent Melanie Matta, representing the ACSA Council of Small School District Leaders, called in to the meeting to provide public comment.

“The strongest path forward is a blend of recommendations,” she said. “I am asking you for partnership, and I am asking you for solutions that allow small and rural districts to make structures work that weren’t built for us in mind.”

The CTC has committed to ongoing discussions with ACSA and other education partners to refine their proposal and bring it back to the commission in February 2026.