-If you've had a kid, you've been a kid, or you currently are a kid, you know that homework can be, at minimum, a real drag, but for many students, it's more than just a casual strain.

In a 2023 survey of more than 10,000 California high schoolers, nearly half said homework was a major source of stress.

A bill advancing in the state legislature is hoping to change that.

The bill comes from Santa Clarita Valley Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, who is also a member of the state's newly-formed Happiness Committee.

Schiavo says she got the idea for the bill after her daughter asked her if she could write a law that would ban homework.

Sofia Schiavo joined her mother to support the bill at an Assembly Education Committee hearing.

-Homework is exhausting.

It's overwhelming, and it's depressing that my whole day, from when I wake up until when I go to bed, is nearly all taken up with schoolwork.

-The bill isn't asking for a ban on homework, but for more intention around how homework is assigned.

It would require school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to develop guidelines for homework by the start of the 2027 school year.

Those guidelines would factor in elements like how long assignments take and how effective they are, and they would be re-evaluated every five years.

Mental health is a key component behind the bill, but Assemblymember Schiavo hopes it will also help bridge equity gaps that homework can raise.

-This is one way that we could significantly reduce stress in students' lives almost overnight.

There's also issues around equity and access to support at home, and ways that school staff have to divert time away from kids experiencing mental health crisis to manage issues with homework, as well as the impact AI is having on work being done at home that makes it even less useful for some kids.

-The bill currently has no formal opposition registered.

The Senate Education Committee is expected to consider the bill later this June.

For CalMatters, I'm Lynn La.