Young kids, toddlers and teens are one of the most brutally honest people. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, you know this to be true. Take it from me; I am not only an older brother of a young sister, and someone who was part of student advocacy.
When I was serving on the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education as a Student Trustee for the 2024-2025 academic year, I attended a Student Advisory Board on Legislation in Education Conference (SABLE) as a delegate from the Contra Costa Area. In the beginning of this conference, there is a process where nearly 50 student delegates express their ideas, and we all narrow those ideas into evenly divided policy projects.
Coming into this, I had expressed that we should consider a project on Immigrant Student Support. The room had no questions, and nearly unanimously voted to move on with this kind of project. The truth was quiet but yet said outloud: immigrant students are in need of support.
Although anyone can say this, can all of us honestly relate to this? I remember walking to class in the third grade seeing a new kid, who hardly knew any English, and always seemed very hesitant to engage with anyone. A month later into classes, he’s gone. I asked my teacher why he was gone, and she only told me he just moved somewhere else. I would only realize the real truth behind his departure was due to immigration enforcement activities.
Having this memory in the back of my head, I worked with amazing student delegates who understood the real consequence of this issue. When I had presented this proposal, it would make it all the way through and I would be the one of three students speaking before the California State Assembly. I knew the chances of our presentation to make it all the way through would be slim. I wanted to at least make it clear to all of the assembly members the true impact of what me and my team were fighting for.
My policy proposal would soon become one of the closing advocacy arguments for the passage of California’s Assembly Bill 49, an expansion of California’s Safe Haven Schools protections. My involvement in advocating for AB 49 was not an exception; it was evidence of a broader truth. Students consistently identify gaps in policy earlier and with greater clarity than people who operate at a distance from classrooms. From mental health access, to climate sustainability, to curriculum reform, youth advocates often supply the urgency, data, and lived experience that make policy more grounded.
This can be seen in AB 49. The bill expands restrictions on immigration enforcement in schools: it bars officers from entering non-public areas without a judicial warrant, prevents schools from releasing student or family information without proper legal authority, and requires personnel to verify the identity of anyone attempting to conduct enforcement.
My good friend Muirelle Pham – one of the main authors of the legislative proposal we advocated for, wrote in EdSource, “It is we who notice the gaps, find solutions and rally our peers. Our voices are not peripheral; they are the foundation of genuine progress.”
She couldn’t be any closer to the truth. California’s education system has no shortage of experts, consultants, and policymakers. What it lacks is a simple, yet consistent truth: students; the people most directly affected by school policies, who are rarely treated as legitimate contributors to the policymaking process.
While the state benefits from student insight, it hardly builds permanent structures that give young people actual decision-making power. Students are invited, but not given authority. Their recommendations are acknowledged but not binding. Their leadership is praised, but at most not compensated or institutionalized.
If California wants better governance, it must move beyond symbolic student engagement and treat youth participation as essential infrastructure. That means paid youth policy fellowship, requiring consultation with students and student organizations for bills that affect them, and creating formalized pipelines for young people to influence legislative decisions.
AB 49 shows what happens when students are heard: policy becomes more protective, more accurate, and more humane. My experience advocating for it is a small example of what a student voice can truly accomplish, but it shouldn’t rely on individual determination or luck. It should be the norm.
California’s future depends on the people currently learning in its classrooms. It’s time for governance to reflect that reality. Students don’t need more encouragement to speak up: they need structures that guarantee their voices shape policy. Student advocacy has already proven its value, so now the state must give it the legitimacy and authority it deserves.
