Adult Education Program: immigrant integration.

Senator Cervantes, with Assembly Member Pacheco as coauthor, advances a definitional reform within the California Adult Education Program by establishing an explicit statutory definition of immigrant integration and related terms to guide the article’s interpretation and operations. The core change is the addition of formal definitions that anchor how the program understands and organizes its work with immigrant and refugee adults, rather than creating new program duties or funding.

Key provisions define several terms for purposes of the article: “Adult” as 18 years or older; “Carryover” as the amount of unspent adult education program funds from the prior fiscal year, certified by a specified date, expressed as a percentage of the prior year’s allocation; “Consortium” as an approved adult education consortium under the article; and “Executive director” as the executive director of the State Board of Education. Most substantively, the bill adds a definition of “Immigrant integration” describing a two-way process in which immigrants and the receiving society collaborate to build secure, thriving, cohesive, and inclusive communities, with emphasis on linguistically accessible and culturally relevant programs and services that facilitate linguistic, economic, civic, and social integration, upward mobility, increased civic participation, and multigenerational integration, while encouraging immigrants to maximize their contributions. The definition of “Program” ties to the existing Adult Education Program established by another section.

The measure interacts with current law by codifying these terms for the article without altering the established governance framework—regionalization into adult education regions and the designation of one consortium per region remain the structure described in existing law. While the bill is definitional in nature and does not create new enforcement mechanisms or appropriations, the explicit definition of immigrant integration may influence future program design, measurement, and reporting within the framework described in the legislative digest, which already references ongoing reporting on fund use and immigrant integration outcomes. Implementation would rely on subsequent policy guidance and interpretations by the Chancellor, the State Board of Education, and program providers, with no new statutory duties or sanctions specified in the measure itself.