Senate Approves Bill: Automatic Admission for Graduates to California State Universities

On May 29, the California State Senate unanimously approved SB 640, legislation introduced by Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-Yolo). This bill aims to automatically provide CSU enrollment to all eligible high school seniors across the state.

Students meeting the criteria for California State University will no longer have to apply. Instead, they will get a celebratory letter sent via post from CSU, notifying them that they’ve been accepted into a selection of campuses based on their available spots.

Education experts say receiving an acceptance letter is a powerful psychological prompt for a student to consider a four-year college, even if they didn’t think it was possible. Cabaldon pioneered the practice of automatic admission as mayor of West Sacramento with the city’s Home Run program, the first city-run initiative in the country to automatically admit students to community college and waive their tuition.

“SB 640 aims to make the transition from 12th grade to the subsequent stage just as straightforward and smooth as moving from 10th grade to 11th grade,” Cabaldon stated in a press release.

This legislation has expanded statewide a CSU pilot initiative that offered admissions to 10 campuses for all eligible high school seniors across Riverside County this year; these campuses mostly have lower-than-needed enrollment rates. Among the approximately 17,000 students who were extended offers of admission for the fall 2025 term, around 13,200 finished the necessary documentation—an rise of about 3,000 from the prior year’s figures.

By promoting increased student enrollment at a CSU, Cabaldon aims not just to offer greater opportunities for Californians but also to counteract declining attendance rates affecting numerous campuses. Among these, two campuses within Cabaldon’s district have experienced some of the steepest drops in enrollment: the CSU Maritime Academy in Vallejo—which is currently merging operations with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo—and Sonoma State, which plans significant reductions for the upcoming academic year.

SB 640 has been jointly authored by Senate Education Committee Chair Sasha Renée Pérez along with the complete congressional representation from Sonoma County, which includes Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, Assembly Majority Leader Celia Aguiar-Curry, Assemblymember Damon Connolly, and Assemblymember Chris Rogers.


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