Class of 2026 seniors with a minimum 2.5 GPA from 43 California school districts, including several in the Bay Area, can now automatically enroll at 16 schools in the CSU system, and in 2027, eligible seniors from all 937 districts statewide will automatically be accepted. As CalMatters reports, Cal ifornia Senate Bill 640, which went into effect January 1, aims to boost enrollment at 16 California State University campuses, including San Francisco State, Cal State East Bay, and Sonoma State, while streamlining the admissions process for qualifying graduating seniors, as part of the state’s Direct Admission Program. Beginning in 2027, students from public schools statewide will be eligible, in addition to students from county-run schools and charter schools tied to local educational agencies — but they’ll still need to enroll through CaliforniaColleges.edu and pay their tuition.San Francisco State UniversityAs Sacramento’s KPBS reports, the initiative, which began as a pilot program in Riverside County in Southern California, officially started rolling out this year, enabling graduating seniors from 43 school districts, including several in Alameda, Napa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Sonoma counties, to automatically enroll in fall classes. Per the Chronicle, six of the 22 CSU schools, including San Jose State, have nearly full enrollment and are exempt from the program.Per KPBS, Democratic State Senator Christopher Cabaldon of Yolo County authored the bill, which he modeled after the College Promise program he launched as mayor of West Sacramento, which gives high school seniors tuition-free acceptance into Sacramento City College. According to Wikipedia, Cabaldon has a long history in higher education policy, including leadership roles in the California Community Colleges system, education nonprofits, and state and national advisory boards.As the blog Abridged writes, Cabaldon hopes the new program will inspire graduating seniors to follow a path that they might not have considered before — or at least eliminate some of the bureaucracy surrounding the admissions process. Sonoma State University/Facebook“In that moment, you and your family are rethinking the possibilities,” Cabaldon said in a hearing, per Abridged. “What never seemed like the normal path becomes already done. You don’t have to do anything more.” “The core of the bill is not just to change the process and the legal entitlements,” Cabaldon said, per Abridged. “It’s mainly to change the way that the psychology of going to college is and to invite more students to go through that path.”Catalina Cifuentes, an official in Riverside County, told Abridged that the pilot program has already made an impact on graduating seniors’ lives. “We have been able to help students who previously did not even know that they had met all of the requirements to get into college enjoy a smooth transition towards higher education,” Cifuentes told Abridged. “It is really exciting to see people realize they have the potential to go to college when it wasn’t even on their radar.” Image: Cal State University East Bay/FacebookPreviously: SF State Faculty Announce Strike In December, Other State Schools Set to Join ...read more read less