NEW IN 2026: California laws taking effect in the new year
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Dec 31, 2025

NEW IN 2026: California laws taking effect in the new year

What you need to know: Starting January 1, a new set of California laws will take effect, impacting health care, housing, workplaces, schools, technology, and corporate disclosure requirements.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced key laws taking effect in 2026 that reflect California's continued focus on public safety, affordability, transparency, and accountability.

The new laws lower prescription drug costs, increase oversight of large corporations, strengthen consumer and worker protections, and protect California's diverse communities. At a time when the Trump administration is attacking our state, California is protecting its people.

California is proving once again that progress isn't something we talk about, it's something we build. While some in Washington remain stuck debating yesterday's problems, we're focused on delivering real solutions for today's families. These new laws reflect who we are: a state that protects workers, respects students, puts people before politics, and isn't afraid to hold powerful interests accountable.

Governor Gavin Newsom

Education

Expanding mental health resources for LGBTQ youth
AB 727 (Gonzalez): Requires that student ID cards issued by public middle and high schools, and public colleges/universities include a 24/7 hotline for the Trevor Project. The hotline provides crisis and suicide prevention support to LGBTQ youth. It ensures state education agencies publish and maintain resources for students who face discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

Ban on ultra-processed foods in schools
AB 1264 (Gabriel): California's first-in-the-nation law will remove the most concerning ultra-processed foods from being served at public schools, giving students healthier, real-food meals to improve nutrition and overall health.

Supporting student literacy
AB 1454 (Rivas): Provides educators and school leaders greater access to the tools, training, and resources needed to help students become better readers.

Streamlining college admissions
SB 640 (Cabaldon): Establishes a California State University (CSU) direct admissions process by notifying eligible high school students of automatic admission to participating CSU campuses. It also requires California Community Colleges to create programs that will support a smoother transfer for community college students to a four-year university.

Health

Alternative birth centers: licensing and Medi-Cal reimbursement
AB 55 (Bonta): Ensures that licensure of alternative birth centers is more accessible to midwives in California by amending or deleting onerous and unnecessary requirements.

State emergency food ban reserve program
AB 798 (Calderon): Expands the state emergency food bank program to include diapers and wipes for families with young children.

Midwifery Workforce Training Act
AB 836 (Stefani): Requires the Department of Health Care Access and Information to administer funding for a statewide midwifery education.

Capping insulin costs
SB 40 (Wahab and Wiener):  Beginning January 1, 2026, large state-related health insurers must cap insulin copays at $35 for a 20-day supply, improving affordability for Californians who rely on insulin.

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Access to prenatal multivitamins
SB 646 (Weber-Pierson): Expands access to prenatal multivitamins to support healthy pregnancies and infant development.

Perinatal services in rural hospitals
SB 669 (McGuire): Requires, by July 1, 2026, the establishment of a 10-year pilot project within up to 5 critical access hospitals on an application basis to establish standby perinatal services.

Immigration

Students – know your rights
AB 419 (Connolly): Requires schools to post information about students' rights regarding immigration enforcement in administrative offices and on school websites, helping families understand that all children have the right to a free public education.

Family Preparedness Act
AB 495 (Rodriguez): Strengthens protections for parents and children by helping families in emergencies, protecting family privacy, and preventing child facilities from collecting immigration-related information, especially if a parent is detained or separated.

Housing

Protecting renters
AB 628 (McKinnor): Requires landlords to provide working refrigerators in rental units beginning January 1, ensuring tenants have access to essential appliances.

Transit-oriented housing development
SB 79 (Wiener): Requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element.

Animal welfare

Statewide ban on cat declawing
AB 867 (Lee): Bans non-therapeutic cat declawing statewide. Only medically necessary procedures performed by a licensed veterinarian remain allowed.

Addressing the puppy mill pipeline
AB 506 (Bennett): Holds pet sellers accountable, requiring them to disclose the pet's origin and health information.
AB 519 (Berman): Prohibits third-party pet brokers, particularly online pet brokers, from selling cats, puppies, and rabbits bred by others for profit in California.
SB 312 (Umberg): requires dog importers to submit health certificates electronically to the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) within 10 days of shipment, and requires CDFA to provide those certificates upon request.

Workplace rights & protections

Supporting survivors of workplace sexual assault cover-ups
AB 250 (Aguiar-Curry)- Temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for adult survivors of workplace-related sexual assault cover-ups. From January 1, 2026 through December 21, 2027, survivors may file civil claims regardless of when the incident occurred.

Strengthening equal pay enforcement
SB 642 (Limón): Expands California's equal pay laws by broadening key definitions, extending the statute of limitations to three years (with recovery for up to six years), and clarifying categories of unlawful pay practices.

Technology, AI safety & digital rights

Preventing AI from posing as licensed professionals
AB 489 (Bonta): Prohibits AI chatbots from presenting themselves as doctors, nurses, or other licensed professionals to increase transparency and prevent misrepresentation by AI chatbots.

Addressing artificially generated pornography
AB 621 (Bauer-Kahan and Berman): Strengthens protections against digital sexual exploitation by targeting the creation and distribution of AI-generated sexual content.

Risk-mitigation requirements for large AI companies

More on The Californer
SB 53 (Wiener): Requires large AI developers to maintain documented risk-mitigation strategies to improve safety and transparency in the deployment of emerging technologies.

Safeguards for minors using AI chatbots
SB 243 (Padilla): Requires AI companies to include disclaimers that chatbots are not real people when used by minors and mandates safety protocols to prevent chatbots from encouraging self-harm.

Transparency in police reports drafted with AI
SB 524 (Arreguin): Requires law enforcement agencies to disclose when AI tools are used to draft official police reports.

Food delivery platforms: customer service
AB 578 (Bauer-Kahan): Strengthens consumer and worker protection on food platforms by prohibiting companies from using tips to offset base pay, requiring clear and itemized pay breakdowns for delivery workers, mandating access to a real customer-service representative when automated systems cannot resolve an issue, and guaranteeing refunds when orders are undelivered, incorrectly or only partially fulfilled.

Climate & environment

Updated plastic bag regulations
SB 1053 (Allen and Blakespear): Strengthens California's plastic bag ban by closing loopholes that allowed thicker plastic film bags to be distributed as "reusable" bags. The law eliminates plastic film checkout bags altogether and requires retailers to transition to truly reusable bags that meet higher durability standards or to paper bags with recycled-content requirements, reducing plastic waste and improving statewide recycling efforts.

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