Asm. Mia Bonta

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health, headed by the State Public Health Officer, and sets forth its powers and duties, including the administration of provisions relating to the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Existing law authorizes the department to take necessary measures to ascertain the nature and prevent the spread of communicable diseases. Existing law prohibits the governing authority of a school or other institution from unconditionally admitting or advancing to the 7th grade level any person as a pupil of any public or private elementary or secondary school, childcare center, day nursery, nursery school, family daycare home, or development center, unless, prior to their admission or advancement to that institution, they have been fully immunized against various communicable diseases, as provided, subject to any specific age criteria. Existing law requires the governing authority of a school or other institution, on at least an annual basis, to file a written report on the immunization status of new entrants to the school or institution under their jurisdiction with the department and the local health department at times and on forms prescribed by the department. This bill, the Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act, would require the department to establish, and update as needed, levels of immunization rates needed to prevent the spread of specified communicable diseases. The bill would require the department to establish notification procedures designed to annually inform designated parties, including schools, daycare centers, and county departments of public health, when an immunization rate is determined to fall below the rate established by the department, among other things. The bill would require that the notification be translated into any language, in addition to English, that is spoken by 15% or more of enrolled children. The bill would require the department to apply existing data de-identification standards and methodologies to protect individual privacy, consistent with applicable state and federal law, in implementing these provisions. The bill would require a school or institution, as defined, to distribute the above-described notification to parents or guardians of enrolled children within 10 business days of receiving the notification from the department. The bill would authorize the school or institution to determine the manner of distribution for the notification, consistent with specified requirements. The bill would require the governing authority of the school or institution to cooperate with the department in carrying out these provisions. By requiring school districts to comply with these requirements, this 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.

Existing law requires the operator of a private detention facility, as defined, to comply with, and adhere to, the detention standards of care and confinement agreed upon in the facility's contract for operations, as specified. Existing law requires a private detention facility operator to comply with, and adhere to, all local and state public health orders and occupational safety and health regulations. This bill, the Masuma Khan Justice Act, would authorize the State Department of Public Health to inspect an involuntary residential facility, defined as a facility that houses more than 50 individuals overnight, restricts residents' ability to enter or leave, as specified, and provides specified onsite services, for the limited purpose of ensuring sanitary, hygienic, and safe conditions, using standards and inspection protocols consistent with those applied to licensed residential health facilities. The bill would authorize unnoticed inspections under specified conditions. The bill would require the department, within 30 days of completing an inspection, to submit a report to the Legislature. The bill would require the operator of a facility to provide access to the department for an inspection described above, to maintain all records necessary to demonstrate compliance with the above-described standards, and to correct any violation identified by the department, as specified. The bill would make a violation of the above-described requirements by an operator of a facility, after appropriate notice and an opportunity for a hearing, subject to an administrative penalty, as specified, per violation per day. If an operator fails to correct a violation within the time specified in the citation, the bill would authorize the department to issue a safety warning that identifies the uncorrected condition and requires prompt corrective action by the operator. The bill would authorize the department to refer violations to the Attorney General, and would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action for declaratory or injunctive relief. The bill would require the department to adopt rules and regulations to ensure that all involuntary residential facilities comply with measurable standards for sanitary, hygienic, and safe conditions and would require the department to consult with specified organizations in the development of these standards. The bill would require the department to implement the above-described provisions in a manner that avoids unnecessary duplication of existing state or local health and safety oversight, as specified. The bill would declare that its provisions are severable. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency, headed by the Secretary of California Health and Human Services. Existing law further establishes, within the agency, a number of departments and other entities, including the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, after obtaining specified information from the Employment Development Department (EDD) , to prepare a report that includes information regarding employers in California that employ 100 or more employees and have any employees who receive benefits from the Medi-Cal program, including, among other things, the estimated total annual cost of Medi-Cal services provided to employees, and the dependents of those employees, of each employer, and submit that report to the Legislature no later than September 1, 2027, and annually thereafter. The bill would provide that individually identifiable information about employees or Medi-Cal enrollees contained in the report is exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act, and would authorize the department and EDD to enter into data-sharing agreements, as provided. The bill would also repeal an obsolete reporting requirement. Under existing law, the information obtained in the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Code is for the exclusive use and information of the Director of Employment Development in the discharge of their duties and is not open to the public. However, existing law permits the use of the information for specified purposes, and allows the director to require reimbursement for direct costs incurred. Existing law provides that a person who knowingly accesses, uses, or discloses this confidential information without authorization is guilty of a misdemeanor. The bill would require the Director of Employment Development to permit the use of specified information in their possession by the State Department of Health Care Services to prepare and submit the above-described report. By requiring this information to be provided to the department for these purposes, this bill would expand the crime of unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of this information, and would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, also requires all types of information concerning a person, made or kept by any public officer or agency in connection with the administration of the Medi-Cal program, to be confidential, and makes knowingly releasing or possessing this confidential information punishable as a misdemeanor. The bill would make individually identifiable information about employees or Medi-Cal enrollees contained in the above-described report subject to these confidentiality requirements. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes within the Department of Industrial Relations the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, headed by the Labor Commissioner, for the purposes of enforcing labor laws. Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee for specified actions, including, among other things, taking time off to serve on a jury or because of an employee's status as a victim of crime or abuse, as specified. This bill would additionally prohibit an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee who applies for, or is enrolled in, the Medi-Cal program. The bill would also prohibit an employer from refusing to hire a person because that person is enrolled in the Medi-Cal program. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 allows a person who was arrested or convicted of a nonviolent offense while they were a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence, to petition the court, under penalty of perjury, for vacatur relief. Existing law requires, to receive that relief, that the crime for which the person was arrested or convicted was a nonviolent offense and that the person establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that the arrest or conviction was the direct result of being a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence. Existing law authorizes the court to vacate the conviction if it concludes that the petitioner was a victim of one of those crimes at the time of the alleged commission of the offense, the arrest was a direct result of being a victim of that offense, and the vacatur is in the best interest of justice. This bill would allow that relief for a person arrested or convicted of any offense, except murder, as specified. Because this bill would authorize more petitions to be filed under penalty of perjury, by expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. If a court issues an order for a person who was arrested or convicted of an offense while they were a victim of intimate partner violence or sexual violence, existing law requires the court to order the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the offense, the Department of Justice, and any law enforcement agency that arrested the petitioner or participated in the arrest of the petitioner to seal their records of the arrest and the court order to seal and destroy the records within 3 years from the date of the arrest, or within one year after the court order is granted, whichever occurs later, and thereafter to destroy their records of the arrest and the court order to seal and destroy those records. This bill would require the court to also order any law enforcement agency that has taken action or maintains records related to or because of the offense, including, but not limited to, departments of probation, rehabilitation, corrections, and parole, to seal and destroy their records. The bill would require those agencies to seal their records of arrest, conviction, or adjudication and the court order to seal and destroy the records within one year from the date of arrest, or within 90 days after the court order is granted, whichever occurs later. The bill would require the agencies to destroy these records within one year of the date of the court order. By increasing duties on local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the Department of Justice to notify the petitioner and the petitioner's counsel that the department has complied with the order to seal the arrest records by the applicable deadline. Existing law creates an affirmative defense against a charge of a crime that the person was coerced to commit the offense as a direct result of being a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence at the time of the offense and when the person had reasonable fear of harm. Existing law prohibits this defense from being used with respect to a violent felony, as defined. This bill would allow that defense to be used with respect to a violent felony, except for murder, as specified. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Under existing law, a person sentenced to imprisonment in state prison or in a county jail for a felony offense, as specified, may, during that period of confinement, be deprived only of those rights as are reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide inmates with accessible, functional voice communication services free of charge to the person initiating and the person receiving the communication. This bill would additionally require the department to provide inmates electronic messaging services as described above. The bill would prohibit staff at a department facility, if an incarcerated individual is authorized to possess and use a tablet or other device for voice communications, from disconnecting any communications conducted by the individual on the device based solely on the duration of the call.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) grants to a consumer various rights with respect to personal information that is collected by a business, including the right to delete personal information. The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, amended, added to, and reenacted the CCPA and establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency and vests the agency with full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to enforce the CCPA. The CCPA excludes from the definition of "personal information" publicly available information. Existing law defines "publicly available" for these purposes to include 3 types of information. One type is information that a business has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media. This bill would revise that part of the definition of "publicly available" by removing the condition that the business have a reasonable basis to believe the information is lawfully made available. The CCPA also includes in that definition of "publicly available" information made available by a person to whom the consumer has disclosed the information if the consumer has not restricted the information to a specific audience. This bill would delete that part of the definition of "publicly available." This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020.

Existing law, the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, requires every state agency directly involved in the furnishing of information or the rendering of services to the public where contact is made with a substantial number of non-English-speaking people to employ a sufficient number of qualified bilingual persons in public contact positions to ensure provision of information and services to the public in the language of the non-English-speaking person, except as specified. The act requires every state agency that serves a substantial number of non-English-speaking people and provides materials in English explaining services to also provide the same type of materials in any non-English language spoken by a substantial number of the public served by the agency, as specified. The act also requires a state agency to distribute certain written materials in the appropriate non-English language or provide other specified translation assistance at its statewide and local offices and facilities if the state agency finds, among other things, that the statewide or local office or facility serves a substantial number of non-English-speaking persons. The act defines "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" to mean members of a group who either do not speak English or who are unable to effectively communicate in English because it is not their native language and who comprise 5% or more of the people served by the state agency, as specified. This bill would revise the definition of "substantial number of non-English-speaking people" to include the higher of either the people served by or eligible to be served by the state agency and would make related conforming changes to the act. The act requires each state agency to conduct a language survey of each of its statewide and local offices every 2 years to determine and provide, among other things, the number and percentage of non-English-speaking people served by each statewide and local office, broken down by native language. The act requires each state agency to develop and update an implementation plan that provides a detailed description of how the agency plans to address any deficiencies in meeting the requirements of the act, as specified. The act authorizes a state agency to rely upon data gathered from its most recent language survey in developing its implementation plan. This bill would revise and recast the above-described language survey requirements to instead require each state agency to conduct an assessment and survey of the language needs of non-English-speaking and limited-English-speaking people, as specified. The bill would require a state agency to utilize specified information in conducting the assessment and survey and in developing and updating the above-described implementation plan, including, among other things, the most recent census data from the United States Census Bureau. The bill would authorize a state agency to rely on its most recent survey and assessment in developing its implementation plan. The act requires each state agency to report to the Department of Human Resources the language survey results, its implementation plan, and any additional information requested by the department, as specified. The act requires the department to review the results of the surveys and implementation plans, compile that data, and provide a report to the Legislature every 2 years that identifies significant problems or deficiencies and propose solutions where warranted. This bill would include each state agency's most recent language assessment in the materials required to be reported to and reviewed by the department and would require the department's report to the Legislature to include each state agency's language assessment, survey results, and implementation plan. This bill would also require the California Health and Human Services Agency to designate a Language Access Director to ensure individuals with limited English proficiency and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have meaningful access to government programs and services. This bill would require the Language Access Director to, among other things, lead the implementation, monitoring, and periodic updating of every Language Access Plan within the agency and coordinate with language access coordinators throughout the agency to implement each Language Access Plan. The bill would require the Language Access Director, commencing no later than January 1, 2027, to engage communities with limited English proficiency and deaf and hard of hearing communities to assist in expanding access to the programs and services provided by the California Health and Human Services Agency and the various departments and offices within the agency. This bill would require the Language Access Director to develop a Language Access Plan Guidance Document to support its various departments and offices in the development of their Language Access Plans. The bill would require each department and office within the agency to develop a Language Access Plan, as specified. The bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to allocate, from a specified appropriation, sufficient funds to implement and carry out the provisions relating to the Language Access Director and Language Access Plans.

This measure would recognize June 19, 2026, as Juneteenth and would urge the people of California to join in celebrating Juneteenth as a day to honor and reflect on the significant role that African Americans have played in the history of the United States and how they have enriched society through their steadfast commitment to promoting unity and equality.

Maddy summaryThis House Resolution in the California Legislature formally recognizes October 11, 2026, as International Referees' Day to honor sports officials at all levels. The bill aims to acknowledge the dedication, integrity, and essential role referees play in ensuring fair and safe athletic competitions. It encourages athletes, coaches, families, and communities to express appreciation for officials and foster a culture of respect and sportsmanship during events.

This measure would affirm the Legislature's commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and encourage local, state, and federal policymakers, among other organizations, to adopt and uphold DEI principles.