Summary

Our top legislative priority is to protect all California children from corporal punishment in schools. To do this, we seek a simple but critical amendment to Education Code § 49001 that adds “private school” to the existing language that currently protects only public-school students. No child’s safety should depend on the type of school they attend.

Problem

California law bans corporal punishment in public schools, but leaves children in private schools without the same protections.

This legal gap means that hundreds of thousands of students (545,740 students in 2024-2025) are not legally protected to physical discipline at school, which research shows harms children’s physical and mental health.

Solution

Introduce and support legislation amending Education Code § 49001 to explicitly include “private” schools. This small change closes a long-standing loophole and ensures that every child in California, regardless of school type, is protected from corporal punishment.

Cost

Drafting and introducing a bill may involve routine administrative or legal fees. To support this effort, donations from individual contributors aligned with BanHittingKids.com and the U.S. Alliance Against the Hitting of Children may be offered. The anticipated fiscal impact is minimal, while the benefit to children’s safety and well-being is substantial.

Organizational support

• U.S. Alliance Against the Hitting of Children

• Legislators and individuals who supported the 2019 California Democratic Party resolution

• World Health Organization, which calls which calls for the elimination of all corporal punishment worldwide by 2030 due to the “scientific evidence that child corporal punishment carries multiple risks of harm and has no benefits for children, parents, or societies”

Organizational opposition

• Private school institutions

• Faith-based school associations

• Parental-rights or small-government advocacy groups, such as:

  • SaveCalifornia.com

  • Rescue Your Child

  • Pacific Justice Institute (PJI)

  • California Policy Center (CPC)

Arguments in opposition

Opposition may claim that private schools should retain the right to discipline students according to internal policies, that banning corporal punishment interferes with religious or parental rights, or that state oversight is government overreach.

However, decades of research show corporal punishment harms children’s mental and physical health. Every child, regardless of school type, deserves protection from hitting and physical discipline. Institutional or ideological preferences cannot outweigh the right to a safe, violence-free childhood.

Success in other states

In 2025, Massachusetts introduced Bill H.625 to ban corporal punishment in private schools, extending protections already in place for public-school students. This shows that closing the legal gap is possible and aligns with research confirming that corporal punishment harms children’s physical and mental health. California can follow this proven path to ensure all children are equally protected, regardless of school type.

Bill language

Proposed Edited Education Code § 49001
(Amendments would add “private” alongside “public” where relevant.)