CA Assembly Bill 495: Granting Strangers Guardianship Over Schoolchildren

AB 495 utterly decimates parental rights to safeguard their children who attend school or childcare from harmful medical procedures, child predators, and human traffickers.

Aug 04, 2025

August 4, 2025: Authored and championed by Assemblymember Celeste Rodriquez, the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025 is positioned as compassionate legislation to protect children of immigrants, “by ensuring emergency contact information and plans for family safety are up-to-date in the event immigration enforcement impacts children at schools and licensed childcare facilities.”

Awareness is key in protecting our children. Share this FREE Kingston Report.

But as you read through the bill, AB 495 has nothing to do with ‘family preparedness’ for illegal immigrants. Quite the opposite, if passed into law, AB 495 can utterly destroy families by preempting parental rights and empowering strangers with legal guardianship rights of any child attending school or childcare facility as a ‘caregiver.’

“Granting Broad Authority Over Children to Unvetted Adults”

Per the CA State Senate Committee on Human Services July 7^th Summary, advancing AB 495 to the Appropriations Committee:

According to Women Are Real, “This bill creates a dangerous loophole in California law by granting broad authority over children to unvetted adults. It expands the Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit to include “nonrelative extended family members,” a category so loosely defined it could include almost anyone—a neighbor, a teacher, a mentor, or a casual acquaintance. Once this form is signed, that adult is legally empowered to enroll a child in school and even make medical decisions.
This is all without any court oversight, background check, or verification with the child’s parent or legal guardian. In practice, this opens the door to abuse and trafficking. The bill also makes records of joint guardianship appointments confidential, shielding them from public scrutiny and potentially hindering law enforcement and social services from identifying patterns of abuse.”

“AB 495 is a Child Trafficker’s and Kidnapper’s Dream Bill”

Per the July 7^th Committee summary:

According to Our Duty-USA, “AB 495 is a child trafficker’s and kidnapper’s dream bill. There are over 300,000 unaccounted children who have crossed the border. There are countless other children of parents who have failed to pay their debts to the criminals assisting them to get into the United States.
Sex-trafficking has replaced drugs as the most lucrative criminal enterprise. And California is once again a leader in harms to children. AB 495 permits ANYONE to claim guardianship over a child if the child’s parents cannot be found or if a person is 18 years or older claims that the parent cannot be found. It is all done legally with a one-page affidavit, and a stranger can claim a child for themselves, control the child’s schooling, medical procedures and of course, move the child into his home.”

A Stranger Can Claim Joint Legal Guardianship Over a Child Without Photo ID or Proof of Residence

While the bill claims that the ‘caregiver’ adult must live in the same home as the minor, the adult is not required to provide;

a notarized affidavit,
a photo ID (i.e. a driver’s license, state issued ID),
verification of their address (i.e. utility bill and rental agreement),
written consent from the parents, or
any evidence that they even know the parents or the child.

Below are some noteworthy items from the bill explaining how complete strangers can be ‘nonrelative extended family members’ of a child.

‘Nonrelative extended family member’ Sec 6552 -’To Caregivers’- #2

means an adult caregiver who has an established familial relationship with a relative of the child, or a familial or mentoring relationship with the child. Nonrelative extended family members may include, but are not limited to, teachers, medical professionals, clergy, neighbors, and family friends.

Legal Guardianship of a Child without Photo ID or Address Verification - Sec 6552 ‘To Caregivers’ -#5

If you do not have the information requested in item 8 (California driver’s license or I.D., or government-issued consular card), provide another form of identification such as your social security number or Medi-Cal number.

In other words, a complete stranger can sign the caregiver affidavit claiming to know a child’s 2nd cousin, fill out a false name and address without having to verify his identification and the school will need to hand the child over to the stranger.

How does any lawmaker possibly think this is in the best interest of a child and their family?

Parents Will Be Left in the Dark with No Information About Who Took Custody of Their Child and No Legal Recourse

An adult who asserts himself as an alleged caregiver can remove a child from school or authorize a medical procedure by simply checking the box “Unable to contact the parent.”

There is no required evidence of a relationship between the adult and the parent. There is no mandatory requirement for the school or the adult to document that either party attempted to reach the parent. There is just a self-declaration under penalty of perjury, in which the adult does not even need to verify their identity with a photo ID or address with a piece of mail.

ICE Immigration Enforcement Actions are an Excuse to Pass the Bill

Because AB 495 is allegedly related to CA confidentiality laws for immigrants, if a child was removed from the school by a stranger, the parents would be required to get a court order to find out who claimed legal guardianship over their child, removed their child from the school, and where they were taken.

Specifically, section 2 states, “if the custodial parent will be temporarily unavailable due to specified circumstances, including, among other things, an immigration-related administrative action, as specified. The bill would make all records, petitions, orders, and documents related to these proceedings confidential, as specified.”

Preempting Parents Rights Under the Guise of ‘Family Preparedness’

AB 495 preempts parental rights through contradictory, ambiguous, unconscionable, and unconstitutional clauses of a bill that immigrants and other residents of California never asked for. To be frank, AB 495 utterly decimates parental rights to safeguard their children who attend school or childcare from harmful medical procedures, child predators, and human traffickers.

Actions Parents and Concerned CA Residents Can Take

AB 495 is currently awaiting review by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
If you’re a California resident, you can submit a position letter to the Committee objecting to AB 495 here.

You can also contact your CA Senate representative here and inform them as to why they must vote NO on AB 495.

Mathew 23:27

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.