Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Providing Relevant, Inclusive Support that Matters (PRISM) Modules Available

The California Department of Education (CDE) is pleased to announce that the Providing Relevant, Inclusive Support that Matters (PRISM) training is now available starting July 1, 2025. This is a cultural competency training for school employees, supporting school staff to appropriately include students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning plus (LGBTQ+) in an educational environment.

California Education Code (EC) Section 218.3(c) states that beginning with the 2025–26 school year and continuing through the 2029–30 school year, a local educational agency (LEA) shall provide and require a minimum of one hour of LGBTQ+ cultural competency training annually over the five-year period to all teachers and other certificated employees serving pupils in grades seven to twelve.

The PRISM curriculum contains six courses that address all the topics listed in EC 218.3(b)(3). These courses will be available for free and hosted in a learning management system (LMS) that will be available beginning July 1, 2025, at https://www.prismcalifornia.org.

Initially, all superintendents of schools that serve students in grades seven through twelve will be assigned as account managers in the LMS that houses PRISM courses. Beginning July 1, 2025, superintendents will be able to log into the system utilizing their email addresses and choose the option “forgot password” to set up their passwords in the system. Once in the system, superintendents can assign or create account managers that will upload all certificated staff who will be required to participate in the training. Additional instructions for uploading staff members will be available on the CDE PRISM for LGBTQ+ Students web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/prism.asp.

LEAs must provide the training during employees’ regular work hours or designated professional development hours unless otherwise negotiated and mutually agreed upon with the employees’ local bargaining unit. LEAs can choose to deliver and facilitate the training in a group setting or allow employees to complete the training independently.

An LEA is required to maintain records documenting both of the following:

• The date that each employee satisfied the requirements of this section.
• The name of the entity that provided the training (if applicable).

This data must be made available to the CDE upon request as part of the department’s annual compliance monitoring of state and federal programs.

Additional information, including frequently asked questions about the PRISM training, is available on the CDE PRISM for LGBTQ+ Students web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/prism.asp. Information about scheduled statewide training webinars, as well as recorded webinars about PRISM, will also be posted on this web page.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact the Teacher and Leader Policy Office by phone at 916-445-7331 or by email at PRISM@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction