Overview
- Education measures expand scholarships, integrate career technical education into graduation requirements, and add supports for vulnerable students, with bills such as AB 79, AB 88, AB 821 and AB 1009.
- Health statutes bolster access and transparency, including oral health assistance for people with disabilities (AB 341), a ban on misleading or AI-generated health titles (AB 489), and the California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act (AB 1415).
- Environmental and energy actions include protecting marine life through the Blue Whales and Blue Skies program (AB 14), requiring data-center energy impact reporting (SB 57), updating species protections (AB 1319) and setting lithium battery safety guidelines (AB 1285).
- Labor and public-safety laws tighten payroll and worker-record rules, adjust benefits and classifications, and strengthen criminal statutes by addressing cyberbullying policies in schools, criminalizing forced marriage, updating sexual assault definitions, and banning ghost guns.
- More than a dozen bills were vetoed, including AB 15 on unsolved homicides and SB 36 on emergency price controls, with the governor citing fiscal concerns and policy duplication; most enacted laws take effect January 1 unless specified otherwise.