Existing law, the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act, establishes the Veterinary Medical Board for the licensure and regulation of the practice of veterinary medicine and makes a violation of those provisions a crime. Existing law creates various exemptions from the act. Among those exemptions, existing law exempts practicing veterinary medicine as a bona fide owner of one's own animal, as specified. This bill would exclude a surgical or dental operation, as defined, from this exemption. The bill would also, except as specified, exempt from the act an organization accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums or a university, college, or governmental research agency practicing veterinary medicine on an animal owned by that entity. The bill would also exempt from the act an unlicensed person who provides teleconsultation to a California-licensed veterinarian, as specified. Existing law generally prohibits a veterinarian from treating an animal unless a veterinarian-client-patient relationship exists, except when the animal patient is a wild animal or the owner of the animal patient is unknown. This bill would create an additional exception for when a rabies vaccination is prophylactically administered to the animal patient to prevent disease or loss of life. Under existing law, a veterinarian-client-patient relationship exists if certain conditions are met, including that the veterinarian possesses sufficient knowledge of the animal patient and has communicated with the client a medical, treatment, diagnostic, or therapeutic plan, as specified. Existing law places limits on the duration of a veterinarian's prescription of a drug that varies depending on how the veterinarian-client-patient relationship was established. If the veterinarian established the relationship by examining the animal patient in person or by making medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises on which the animal patient is kept, existing law prohibits the veterinarian from prescribing a drug for a duration that is longer than one year from the date that the veterinarian examined the animal patient in person or visited the premises and prescribed the drug. If the veterinarian established the relationship using synchronous audio-video communication, existing law limits the duration of the prescription to 6 months from the date that the veterinarian examined the animal patient or prescribed the drug. This bill would revise and recast provisions regulating the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. In this regard, the bill, among other revisions, would remove the requirement that the veterinarian has communicated with the client a medical, treatment, diagnostic, or therapeutic plan to establish the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Instead, the bill would make that communication a requirement for each medical condition for which the veterinarian may prescribe, dispense, or administer treatment. Additionally, the bill would delete the above-described time limitation on the duration of a veterinarian prescription of a drug, and would instead impose similar time limitations on the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Specifically, the bill would make the veterinarian-client-patient relationship expire one year after examining the animal patient in person, one year after making medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises on which the animal patient is kept, or 6 months after examining the animal patient by use of synchronous audio-video communication. Additionally, the bill would authorize a veterinarian-client-patient relationship to continue in the absence of the veterinarian if, among other things, the subsequent veterinarian has assumed responsibility for making medical judgments regarding the health of the animal patient. The bill would also authorize a subsequent veterinarian, in the absence of the originally prescribing veterinarian, to prescribe, dispense, or furnish a refill of drugs for use on the animal patient on an emergency basis for a traveling animal patient or if the subsequent veterinarian serves at the same location as the originally prescribing veterinarian, as specified. Existing law creates various exceptions under, and exemptions from, the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act related to the practice of veterinary medicine in the context of animal shelters. This bill would create a new veterinarian license category referred to as a "shelter veterinarian license" under which the holder would be allowed to practice veterinary medicine solely for an animal shelter or under certain emergency circumstances, as specified. The shelter veterinarian license would be available to the holder of a veterinarian license from any state, a United States territory, or a Canadian province if they meet certain continuing education, examination, criminal background check, and other requirements, as applicable. Among the requirements for a shelter veterinarian license, the bill would require the applicant to certify that the sole purpose of the license is to practice veterinary medicine for an animal shelter. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes a licensee, registrant, or permitholder to apply for their license, registration, or permit to be placed in inactive status, as specified. Existing law prohibits the holder of an inactive license, registration, or permit from engaging in any activity for which an active license, registration, or permit is required. Existing law subjects the holder to the normal renewal fee, but exempts the holder from any continuing education requirements for renewal. This bill would create 2 new status categories referred to as "retired status" and "retired volunteer status," respectively. The retired status would be available to a veterinarian or registered veterinary technician who meets specified requirements, including completing an application and paying a specified fee. A licensee or registrant with a retired status would be prohibited from practicing veterinary medicine, and would be exempt from renewal requirements, as specified. The 2nd status category, the retired volunteer status, would allow the holder to practice veterinary medicine only for an animal shelter or under emergency circumstances, as specified. The retired volunteer status would be available to the holder of a veterinarian license or veterinary technician registration from any state, a United States territory, or a Canadian province if they meet certain continuing education, criminal background check, examination, and other requirements, as applicable. Among the requirements for a retired volunteer status, the bill would require the applicant to certify that the sole purpose of the retired volunteer status is to provide voluntary, unpaid, veterinary medical services to an animal shelter. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law makes a license, registration, or permit expire within a specified period of time if it is not renewed, as specified. Existing law authorizes a licensee, registrant, or permitholder to renew an expired license, registration, or permit within 5 years of its expiration if certain delinquency fees are paid. If 5 years or longer have elapsed since the expiration, existing law prohibits the license, registration, or permit from being restored, reissued, or reinstated, but authorizes the person to apply for and obtain a new license, registration, or permit. This bill, instead, would allow restoration of a license, registration, or permit that has been expired or assigned retired status for 5 years or longer if the licensee, registrant, or permitholder meets the requirements for initial issuance of the license, registration, or permit. The bill would prohibit the restoration of an out-of-state veterinarian license or veterinary technician registration with retired volunteer status. Existing law requires all veterinary premises to be registered with the board. To register a veterinary premises, existing law requires the owner or operator of the veterinary premises to submit an application that includes, among other information, the name of the responsible licensee manager. Existing law authorizes substitution of the responsible licensee manager by application to the board, as specified. If the owner or operator of a veterinary premises is a corporation or other artificial legal entity, existing law requires certain changes in the owners, officers, directors, shareholders, general partners, or agent for service of process, as specified, to be reported to the board within 30 days. This bill would require the premises registration holder to satisfy the above-described requirements and confirm that the information provided to the board is current and valid to renew the premises registration. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 4858.1 and 4858.2 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 1733 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1733 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. Because this bill would create new requirements within the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. The bill would make related and conforming changes.
This bill designates September 2026 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. It directly affects state agencies and organizations by encouraging them to recognize this specific month for awareness activities. The measure does not change laws or allocate funding but serves as a formal commemorative resolution.
The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act establishes the California Workforce Development Board to assist the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce. Existing law requires the board to administer, promote, expand, and provide field assistance for high road training partnerships, defined as an initiative or project that models strategies for developing industry-based, worker-focused training partnerships, including labor-management partnerships. Existing law requires high road training partnerships to demonstrate job quality standards and employment practices that include, among other things, adoption of mechanisms to include worker voice and agency in the workplace. This bill would require the board, when awarding grants for a high road training partnership program or any successor program, to provide a scoring preference to an applicant that is either a bona fide labor-management cooperation committee, as defined, or is an entity applying on behalf of, or in cooperation with, a bona fide labor-management cooperation committee, as specified. The bill would require the board to determine the amount of the scoring preference provided and to incorporate that preference into program guidelines and grant solicitations.
Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, advise and recommend to the State Board of Education the policies and activities that are needed to implement the state's academic content standards. Existing law requires the commission, on or before July 31, 2019, to consider developing and recommending to the state board computer science content standards for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, pursuant to recommendations developed by a group of computer science experts, as specified. This bill would require the commission, when the computer science content standards are next revised after January 1, 2027, to consider incorporating cybersecurity skills, as defined, into those standards.
Existing law prohibits a school district from permitting access to pupil records to a person without written parental consent or under judicial order except as authorized by law. Existing law requires access to those particular records relevant to the legitimate educational interests of the pupil to, among other individuals, a pupil 14 years of age or older who is both a homeless child or youth, as defined, and an unaccompanied youth, as defined. This bill would additionally require access to those particular records relevant to the legitimate educational interests of the pupil to a pupil 14 years of age or older who is a foster youth, as defined. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on school districts related to pupil record requests, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 49076 of the Education Code proposed by AB 2478 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2478 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law generally authorizes local agencies to invest or reinvest public funds and prescribes rules for that investing or reinvesting. Existing law authorizes a legislative body of a local agency to delegate this authority for a one-year period to the treasurer of the local agency, as specified, and after a delegation, requires the treasurer to make a monthly report of those transactions to the legislative body. Existing law authorizes a county board of supervisors, by ordinance, to delegate this authority to the county treasurer, as specified, and, after a delegation, requires the treasurer to assume this responsibility until the board to either revokes this delegation by ordinance or decides not to renew the one-year period described above. This bill would remove the requirement that a delegation by a county board of supervisors be made by ordinance. The bill would remove the one-year limitation on those delegations, and would remove the requirement that revocation of those delegations be made by ordinance. The bill would condition a delegation on the county investment policy requiring the county treasurer to make monthly and quarterly reports, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 27000.1 and 53600.5 of the Government Code proposed by SB 1438 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1438 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
The California Endangered Species Act requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish a list of endangered species and a list of threatened species and to add or remove species from either list if it finds, upon the receipt of sufficient scientific information, as specified, that the action is warranted. The act prohibits the taking of an endangered or threatened species, except under certain circumstances. The violation of the act is a crime. This bill would prohibit the imposition of a civil, administrative, or criminal penalty for a violation of the take prohibition if the defendant used necessary and reasonable force to protect themselves, a member of their family, or any other individual from immediate bodily harm from a species listed pursuant to the act. The bill would require a person who committed a take, or an attempted take, of a species listed pursuant to the act under these circumstances to notify the Department of Fish and Wildlife within 24 hours after the take. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law designates the Department of Food and Agriculture as the lead department in noxious weed management and requires the department, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, to implement provisions relating to noxious weed management. Existing law prohibits a person from selling, distributing, or transporting into, or within, a weed-free area any seed of a noxious weed that the secretary has declared the area to be practically free from. This bill would prohibit an online marketplace, as defined, from facilitating the sale or shipment of a noxious weed for delivery to an address located in the state. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, if the secretary or a county agricultural commissioner identifies a shipment of a noxious weed and the secretary determines that the shipment originated from or occurred through a transaction conducted through an online marketplace in violation of this prohibition, to provide written notice, including specified information, to the online marketplace that it may be subject to an administrative penalty for violating this prohibition. The bill would authorize the secretary to levy a specified administrative penalty against an online marketplace for violating this prohibition if both the online marketplace received that written notice and, after any written notice, the secretary or a county agricultural commissioner identifies a shipment of a noxious weed and the secretary determines that the shipment originated from or occurred through a transaction conducted through an online marketplace in violation of this prohibition, unless the marketplace demonstrates to the secretary that it has implemented and maintains reasonable controls, as defined. The bill would also authorize the secretary to levy a separate administrative penalty against an online marketplace to recover all reasonable costs associated with remediating any damage caused by a violation of this prohibition in an amount equal to those reasonable costs. The bill would provide that review of the secretary's decision to impose an administrative penalty pursuant to these provisions may be sought by the online marketplace within 30 days of the date of the decision, as specified. The bill would require all moneys collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited into the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, cover costs related to the enforcement of provisions relating to plant quarantine and pest control. The bill would prohibit an online marketplace subject to an administrative penalty pursuant to these provisions from being subject to other fines or penalties for a violation of this prohibition. The bill would make its provisions operative on April 1, 2027.
Existing law authorizes a person that owns or controls brush-covered land, forest lands, woodland, grassland, and shrubland within a state responsibility area to apply to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for permission to use prescribed burning for certain public purposes. Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to enter into an agreement for prescribed burning with a person to conduct the prescribed burning operations for certain purposes. Existing law requires the department to develop a training program for prescribed fire users to certify professionals as burn bosses. Existing law requires the department to conduct an experimental program of wildland resources management through prescribed burning and other methods in 2 areas of wildlands. This bill would require the department, on an annual basis, to allocate not less than 10% of funding appropriated to the department for local assistance and other grant programs where prescribed or beneficial fire is an eligible activity, consistent with the term of the appropriation, to expand training, organizational capacity, and support for community-led beneficial fire programs, including, but not limited to, those developed by California Native American tribes, nongovernmental organizations, universities and colleges, resources conservation districts, volunteer fire districts, and other local or special districts, as provided. The bill would require at least 25% of that allocation be awarded to California Native American tribes or tribally led or indigenous-led organizations, except as specified.
Existing law establishes various boards, including advisory boards, commissions, examining committees, committees, or other similarly constituted bodies, within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations. Existing law prohibits a public member of a board from being a current or past licensee of that board or a close family member of a licensee of that board. This bill would define "close family member" for purposes of that provision to include a parent or a child. The bill would require each board within the department to adopt regulations consistent with these provisions that provide guidance on how to determine whether the existence of a relationship other than a parent-child relationship prohibits an individual from serving as a public member of a board.
Existing law makes void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts certain land uses, including the installation or use of a solar energy system or construction or use of an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit on certain lots. Existing law authorizes a person who holds or is acquiring an ownership interest of record in property that the person believes is the subject of an unlawfully restrictive covenant, as specified, to record a restrictive covenant modification document. Before recording the document, existing law requires the county recorder to submit the modification document and the original document to the county counsel, who is required to determine whether the original document contains an unlawful restriction. This bill would make void and unenforceable against an interested party any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, lease, or other recorded or unrecorded instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts the use of that property as a grocery store or supermarket, as defined, if a grocery store or supermarket either previously operated on the property and has ceased operations or is no longer in actual operation within a commercial project or shopping center and an approved restrictive covenant modification document has been recorded in the public record. The bill would entitle an interested party, as defined, to establish that an existing restrictive covenant is unenforceable by submitting a restrictive covenant modification document to the county recorder, in accordance with certain procedures, to allow the grocery store or supermarket development to proceed. The bill would prohibit a person or entity, beginning on January 1, 2027, from creating or recording any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, lease, or other recorded or unrecorded instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts the use of that property as a grocery store or supermarket if a grocery store or supermarket either previously operated on the property and has ceased operations or is no longer in actual operation within a commercial project or shopping center, except as prescribed. By imposing additional duties on county officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings and declarations relating to these provisions. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(1) Existing law, the Public Employees' Retirement Law, permits a member of the Public Employees' Retirement System to elect from among several optional settlements for the purpose of structuring the member's retirement allowance. Existing law requires a member to make an election, revocation, or change of election within 30 calendar days after the making of the first payment on account of any retirement allowance or, in the event of a change of retirement status after retirement, within 30 calendar days after making the first payment on account of that change in retirement status. This bill would extend the timeframe for those actions to within 60 calendar days after making the first payment. (2) Existing law sets forth the Labor Commissioner's duties, including investigating employee complaints, and requires the Labor Commissioner, within 30 days of the filing of the complaint, to notify the parties as to whether a hearing will be held and whether certain actions will be taken. Existing law requires a party who has received actual notice of a claim before the Labor Commissioner to notify the Labor Commissioner in writing of any changes in that party's business or personal address within 10 days after the change in address occurs. Existing law requires a copy of the complaint to be served on all parties when a hearing is set, and specifies the copy shall be served personally, by certified mail, or pursuant to specified provisions authorizing certain service in lieu of personal delivery. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to file a decision within 15 days after the hearing is concluded and to serve a copy of that decision on the parties in the same manner as the copy of the complaint. This bill would also require a party to notify the Labor Commissioner of any changes to that party's electronic address. The bill would revise the manner in which notice is required to be given and the copy of the decision is required to be served to include first-class mail, registered mail, or any manner that the party agrees to accept service, except that any party that is represented by an attorney would be required to accept electronic service from the Labor Commissioner. The bill would require a represented party to provide their attorney's electronic mail address. (3) Existing law makes it unlawful for a person or employer to engage in certain acts relating to the willful misclassification of an individual as an independent contractor and imposes certain civil penalties for violations of that provision, as specified. Existing law entitles an employee to recover damages for a violation, as specified, and sets forth certain enforcement provisions. In this regard, existing law provides that, for each public employee subject to specified statutes, the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor may alternatively recover the above-referenced civil penalties as damages payable to the employee, as specified. This bill would, instead, provide that each employee under those statutes, the Labor Commissioner, or a public prosecutor may alternatively recover the above-referenced civil penalties as damages payable to the employee, as specified. (4) Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of employment. Existing law creates a rebuttable presumption that specified injuries, including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder, that developed or manifested during a period in which the person is serving as a first responder, as specified, arose out of and in the course of employment. Existing law makes these provisions applicable to an active firefighting members of a fire department that provides fire protection to a commercial airport regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, as specified, and that are trained and certified by the State Fire Marshal as meeting the standards of Fire Control 5 and a specified section of the Code of Federal Regulations. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the above-described active firefighters be trained and certified by the State Fire Marshal as meeting the standards of Fire Control 5 for the above-described presumptions to apply to those firefighters. (5) Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to calculate the experiences of school employers relative to usage of the Unemployment Fund and to provide this information, among other things, to the affected school employer and governing body thereof at least annually. This bill would require the report also to be made to the Legislature. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to develop experience relationships on all benefits paid to employees via the School Employees Fund and on school employers' experience related to use and exposure, and to report this each year to the Legislature before March 31. This bill would recast those provisions and require the development of experience relationships to be included in the report containing calculation of the experiences of school employers relative to usage of the Unemployment Fund described above. Existing law requires the director to prepare a biennial report to the Legislature on the department's automation plans that, among other things, provides a strategic information technology plan that describes the long-term goals and strategies that shall be undertaken by the department covering a 10-year planning horizon, as specified. This bill would instead require the report to include a plan covering a 3-year planning horizon. The bill would also make other nonsubstantive changes.
