Newsom signs bill to automatically admitting qualified graduates to the CSU

Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he has signed Senate Bill 640, a bill authored by Senator Christopher Cabaldon, which will provide automatic admission to the California State University system to high school graduates who meet CSU eligibility requirements, without an application.

SB 640 takes effect beginning with the 2026–27 academic year.

“SB 640 reimagines the path from high school to college,” said Cabaldon in a news release. “It makes higher education the natural next step, not an intimidating maze of forms and fees. Every eligible student deserves that life-changing moment of opening an acceptance letter.”

The bill is modeled after West Sacramento’s Home Run initiative, a local program launched by Cabaldon during his tenure as mayor, which guarantees tuition-free admission to Sacramento City College for every local graduate and builds off CSU’s Riverside County pilot program, which led to a 3,000-student increase in enrollment paperwork completion over the previous year.

By removing unnecessary application barriers, the policy aims to boost college enrollment, particularly among students who are academically qualified but deterred by the complexity or cost of the admissions process.

Cabaldon’s district also contains two CSU campuses that have experienced some of the sharpest enrollment declines in the CSU system: Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo and Sonoma State University, which faced severe budget shortfalls and announced significant program reductions before ultimately receiving $45 million in state funding this year.

“This is a common-sense solution to two urgent problems,” said Cabaldon. “Tens of thousands of students are qualified but never apply. At the same time, CSU campuses are seeing alarming enrollment declines. This policy bridges that gap, and it does so with a tool that’s as powerful emotionally as it is administratively: the acceptance letter.”