SENATOR TIM GRAYSON
SB 959
School Wildfire Safety
Summary:
SB 959 will modernize California law to reflect the
frequency and severity of wildfires across the state
by authorizing local fire agencies to determine when
a school faces an imminent danger warranting the
cancellation of classes. The bill would also clarify
that schools would not lose average daily attendance
(ADA) funding when classes are cancelled due to the
imminence of a major safety hazard as determined by
the local fire agency.
Background:
California has experienced an unprecedented rise in
the frequency and severity of wildfires as the state
faces the new reality of a year-round fire season.
Recent tragedies like the Eaton and Palisades Fires in
Southern California along with the Dixie and LNU
Lightning Complex Fires in Northern California have
led to action on several fronts to apply lessons
learned from these tragic events.
In response to recent devastating wildfires, the
Legislature has acted to both rebuild affected
communities and bolster mitigation efforts to lower
future fire risk. However, more must be done to
ensure that communities have every tool available to
them to respond to fire danger appropriately.
One area where there remains a gap in current law is
in the Education Code section that governs the type
of emergency situations that a school may cancel
classes and not lose out on ADA funding.
Problem:
The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM)
classifies lands within State Responsibility Areas into Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ). Out of 10,591
public schools, 1,459 (13.7%) are located in or near
Fire Hazard Severity Zones, and approximately
70.7% of those fall within zones classified as High or
Very High1.
It is imperative that action is taken to protect the
students, teachers, and staff of these schools.
While fire is listed as one of the emergencies during
which school may be cancelled without affecting
ADA funding, the statute is not clear on whether
proactive action can be taken if it is determined that a
1 https://edsource.org/2025/fire-hazard-schools-
california/737663
school faces extremely high fire danger and should
be closed out of an abundance of caution.
Additionally, current law provides that a school may
cancel classes and receive ADA funds if there is
imminence of a major safety hazard as determined by
the local law enforcement agency. However,
conversations with local law enforcement, fire
officials, and school administrators have highlighted
that local fire agencies—who may be best suited to
make these determinations—do not have the
authority to do so.
If local fire agencies are not given the ability and
authority to close schools without causing financial
hardship, emergency evacuations have the
unfortunate potential to become more complicated,
costly, and inefficient.
Solution:
SB 959 will modernize Section 46392 of the
Education Code to address the reality of heightened
wildfire danger around the state and the new normal
of a year-round fire season, by adding the local fire
agency as an entity that may determine an imminent
safety hazard for the purposes of cancelling school
on days where a wildfire may endanger a campus.
This update to the law will assure that school districts will not lose ADA funding if they err on the side of
student and community safety in the face of an
imminent wildfire.
Including fire agencies in this vital decision-making
process has the potential to save the lives of students, teachers, and school personnel by keeping them out
of harm’s way when their campuses are threatened
by potential wildfires.
Support:
Staff Contact:
Aaron Moreno
(916) 651-4009
[email protected]