By the GovBuddy team · Last reviewed October 13, 2026
California’s 2026 legislative session brought important changes to employment practices, artificial intelligence, consumer privacy, children’s online safety, and healthcare technology. Many of these laws will take effect on January 1, 2027, although some requirements have later deadlines.
The Legislature completed its final votes on August 31, 2026. Governor Gavin Newsom had until September 30 to act on qualifying end-of-session bills. That deadline has now passed, giving businesses and public policy professionals a clearer picture of the laws they need to follow.
AI and privacy received particular attention. According to an October 6 review by Wilson Sonsini, California enacted more than two dozen significant measures in those areas alone. Employment legislation also introduced new rules for automated workplace decisions, employee repayment agreements, and leave policies.
The practical question is which laws apply to an organization and when it must act. A law may become effective in January while giving covered organizations several additional months, or even years, to meet particular requirements.
This guide covers notable laws passed in 2026, explains their principal deadlines, and identifies what organizations should review before implementation.
Understanding California’s 2026 Signing Cycle
California law distinguishes between a bill becoming law, a statute taking effect, and a specific provision becoming operative.
Most non-urgency statutes enacted during the 2026 regular session take effect on January 1, 2027. An urgency statute can take effect immediately. Some statutes also establish later operative dates, when particular legal requirements begin to apply.
These distinctions matter. A business that sees January 1 as the effective date for a law may assume every requirement begins that day, even if the legislation provides a later deadline.
The official source for checking those details is California Legislative Information, which publishes bill histories, amended text, and enacted legislation.
Not every bill approved by lawmakers became law. Governor Newsom vetoed AB 1542, concerning additional restrictions on sensitive personal information, and SB 1130, concerning disclosures for certain wearable recording devices. Neither proposal should be treated as an enacted requirement.
New California Employment Laws for 2027
The 2026 session produced several changes affecting how employers manage contracts, automated decisions, employee leave, and workplace training.
AB 1697: Changes to Stay-or-Pay Restrictions
AB 1697 revises California’s restrictions on certain employment agreements that impose repayment obligations or financial penalties when employees leave their jobs.
The legislation delays the application of the earlier restrictions under AB 692 to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027. It also changes exceptions involving retention bonuses, advanced paid time off, government-funded programs, and certain financial services arrangements.
AB 1697 took effect immediately as an urgency statute on September 30, 2026, but the revised restrictions apply to covered contracts entered into beginning January 2027.
Employers should review their repayment agreements and determine which arrangements meet the amended conditions.
SB 947: The No Robo Bosses Act
SB 947 addresses the use of automated decision systems in employment decisions.
Beginning July 1, 2027, covered employers cannot rely solely on automated systems for specified disciplinary or termination decisions. When an automated system is the primary basis for a covered decision, an independent human review and corroborating information are required. The law also establishes notice and information-access requirements.
For example, an employer may use software that flags poor performance or recommends disciplinary action. Under the new rules, certain decisions cannot simply follow the software’s recommendation without the required human assessment.
Employers should identify which systems influence employment decisions, document their review processes, and prepare the notices required by the legislation.
SB 1149: Expanded Bereavement Leave
SB 1149 expands California’s existing bereavement leave protections to include the death of a designated person.
A designated person may be related to an employee by blood or have a relationship equivalent to a family relationship. Covered employers may limit employees to one designated person within a 12-month period.
The change takes effect January 1, 2027. Employers with five or more employees should update applicable leave policies and employee guidance.
AB 1803: Anti-Hate Speech Training
AB 1803 expands the content required in California’s workplace harassment prevention training.
Beginning January 1, 2028, covered training must address speech that vilifies, humiliates, or encourages hatred based on characteristics protected under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Employers may be able to incorporate this material into existing training programs rather than create a separate course. Training providers and HR teams should review their materials before the new requirement applies.
These four employment measures and their principal implementation dates are described in Fenwick’s October 12, 2026 legislative review.
New AI, Privacy, and Consumer Protection Laws
California’s 2026 privacy legislation expands some existing consumer rights while changing the rules for website tracking, data brokers, and workplace surveillance.
SB 923: Expanded Consumer Data Deletion Rights
SB 923 changes the deletion requirements under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Previously, certain deletion obligations were tied to information collected directly from a consumer. SB 923 extends covered deletion rights to personal information a business collects about a consumer, including information obtained from other sources, subject to statutory exceptions.
The law also requires qualifying online-only businesses with direct consumer relationships to provide an online deletion request method alongside an email address.
The changes take effect January 1, 2027.
Businesses should examine where they obtain consumer information, how they locate it after receiving a deletion request, and whether their existing request methods satisfy the new rules.
SB 690: Changes to Website-Tracking Litigation
SB 690 amends the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), affecting certain claims involving website and application tracking technologies.
For specified pen-register and trap-and-trace claims arising from activity on websites and online or mobile applications, the law removes the private right of action and assigns enforcement authority against private actors to the California Attorney General.
Other CIPA provisions remain in place, including provisions that may support claims involving interception or recording.
The change becomes operative January 1, 2027. It also applies to qualifying pending claims in actions started during the preceding two years.
Businesses should not assume that ordinary website tracking is now exempt from all privacy or consent requirements.
AB 883: Shorter Data Broker Deletion Deadlines
AB 883 changes requirements for registered data brokers handling deletion requests through California’s Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP).
The relevant processing interval is reduced from 45 days to 30 days. The law also includes additional provisions affecting notices and enforcement involving certain elected officials and judges.
The principal changes take effect January 1, 2027, with specified additional provisions becoming operative July 1, 2027.
Affected data brokers should review their processing schedules and records used to demonstrate compliance.
AB 1883 and AB 1331: Workplace Surveillance Restrictions
Two new laws restrict particular workplace monitoring practices.
AB 1883 prohibits employers from using covered AI-enabled surveillance tools to recognize or infer employees’ emotional states or to collect neural data.
AB 1331 prohibits employers from monitoring employees in workplace bathrooms through workplace surveillance tools, except where directed by a court order.
Both laws take effect January 1, 2027.
Employers using workforce monitoring products should examine the actual information those tools collect and the purposes for which it is processed.
AB 2561: Protecting User Privacy Settings
AB 2561 prevents operating systems and applications from reversing a user’s affirmative privacy-setting choice without consent, subject to legal exceptions.
For software companies, implementation requires reviewing how privacy preferences are stored, maintained, and changed. A system update or product redesign should not silently reverse a protected user choice.
The law takes effect January 1, 2027.
SB 813 and AB 1405: Independent AI Auditor Framework
California also introduced a framework for organizations that independently audit AI systems.
SB 813 directs the California Government Operations Agency to establish criteria for qualified independent verification organizations by January 1, 2028.
AB 1405 establishes registration requirements for auditors conducting covered assessments, with a January 1, 2029 registration deadline.
These laws do not require every organization using AI to commission an independent audit. They establish requirements for auditors involved in assessments that applicable California law requires.
Children’s Online Safety: New Requirements for Platforms and AI Chatbots
Children’s online safety was a major focus of California’s 2026 legislation. On September 10, Governor Newsom signed measures addressing companion chatbots, social media features, age assurance, and children’s personal information.
SB 1119: Adam’s Law for AI Companion Chatbots
SB 1119 establishes additional child-safety requirements for covered AI companion chatbot operators.
The legislation addresses age assurance, parental controls, child-safety measures, crisis-response procedures, risk assessments, and independent audits.
Operators must determine users’ ages under the applicable framework or apply child-protective safeguards across their services. Covered child accounts also receive specified default protections.
The implementation timetable includes several dates:
- January 1, 2027: The statute takes effect.
- July 1, 2027: Core child-safety requirements become operative.
- January 1, 2029: Initial independent audit requirements apply to qualifying operators meeting the statutory revenue threshold, subject to timing conditions.
- January 1, 2032: Audit requirements begin applying to other covered operators.
A general-purpose AI system is not automatically subject to every provision. Businesses should first determine whether their service meets the law’s definition of a covered companion chatbot operator.
AB 1709: Restrictions on Addictive Platform Features
AB 1709 restricts covered platforms from providing specified addictive features to users under 16.
These include certain autoplay functions and algorithmic feeds based on users’ activity or preferences.
Covered platforms must also satisfy applicable age-verification requirements.
The law establishes civil penalties of up to $25,000 per affected minor for negligent violations and $50,000 for knowing violations.
The law takes effect January 1, 2027.
AB 2246: A Revised Age-Appropriate Design Code
AB 2246 replaces California’s earlier Age-Appropriate Design Code framework, portions of which had faced successful preliminary legal challenges.
The revised law applies to covered online services, products, and features likely to be accessed by children under 18.
It requires businesses to estimate users’ ages with certainty appropriate to the risks of their data practices or extend the relevant child protections to all users.
Other provisions address default privacy settings, the use of children’s personal information, and product design practices.
The effective date is January 1, 2027. Coverage depends on the statutory definitions, and the law should be assessed alongside any applicable court rulings.
Other Important Child-Safety Laws
Several additional laws affect online platforms, educational technology, and products intended for children.
| Law | Main change | Principal date |
|---|---|---|
| AB 2 | Expands potential civil liability for certain large platforms when negligence causes injury to a child | January 1, 2027 |
| AB 1856 | Revises California’s digital age-assurance and age-signal framework | January 1, 2027 |
| AB 1159 | Restricts specified uses of protected student information to train or develop AI | January 1, 2027; certain higher education provisions July 1 |
| AB 1946 | Strengthens reporting and response requirements involving child sexual abuse material, including specified AI-generated content | January 1, 2027 |
| SB 867 | Establishes a temporary moratorium on specified AI companion chatbot toys marketed or designed for children under 16 | January 1, 2027 through January 1, 2031 |
The requirements differ in scope. Businesses should determine whether they fall within each law’s definitions before changing their products or internal policies.
An earlier law also remains relevant to California’s implementation calendar. AB 495, the Family Preparedness Plan Act, was enacted in 2025 rather than 2026. Its child care and preschool-related implementation work continued during 2026, so it should be tracked separately from this year’s newly enacted legislation.
New AI Laws Affecting Healthcare
California passed two notable measures concerning clinical decision support and the use of AI in healthcare.
AB 1979: Independent Clinical Judgment
AB 1979 requires covered healthcare facilities, clinics, and physician practices to take reasonable steps to preserve licensed professionals’ independent judgment when AI-assisted systems inform clinical care.
It also addresses the use of AI for functions reserved for licensed professionals and brings certain consumer healthcare chatbot businesses within California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
The law takes effect January 1, 2027.
Healthcare organizations should review which decisions AI tools support, how clinical professionals use their recommendations, and what patient information those systems process.
SB 503: Bias Risk in Clinical AI
SB 503 establishes requirements for developers and deployers of covered clinical decision support systems to assess and address known or reasonably foreseeable risks of biased impacts.
Developers must provide relevant documentation about their systems, while deployers have responsibilities for monitoring and addressing identified risks.
The law takes effect January 1, 2027.
For healthcare providers, vendor documentation is an important starting point. Organizations also need processes suited to their own use of the technology.
New AI Transparency and Chatbot Disclosure Laws
Several other 2026 measures address how businesses disclose AI-generated content and communicate with consumers.
AB 1609: Customer Service Chatbots
AB 1609 applies to businesses exceeding $500 million in national annual gross revenue.
The law prevents covered businesses from presenting customer service chatbots as human and requires clear disclosures where customers could reasonably be misled.
It also requires an accessible method for requesting a human agent during regular business hours. Covered businesses must make a good-faith effort to connect the customer within 15 minutes or arrange an appointment within one business day.
The effective date is January 1, 2027.
Businesses within the revenue threshold should review chatbot disclosures and how customer requests are transferred to human support.
SB 1000: California AI Transparency Act Amendments
SB 1000 changes the California AI Transparency Act, including removing the previous one-million-monthly-user threshold from the definition of covered generative AI providers.
The law also revises disclosure verification requirements and includes exceptions, such as a temporary exclusion for certain assistive technology systems.
SB 1000 took effect September 30, 2026, as an urgency statute. However, organizations should review the timing of individual duties under the amended framework rather than treating the urgency date as a universal implementation deadline.
Other AI Disclosure Measures
AB 2713 updates requirements concerning content provenance data and digital signatures on covered large online platforms. Provenance data helps users examine available information about the origin or alteration of digital content.
SB 1050 requires qualifying advertisements prominently featuring synthetic performers to carry disclosures, subject to exceptions.
SB 1111 clarifies protections for qualifying digital replicas of a person’s voice or likeness.
These three measures take effect January 1, 2027.
California Laws 2026–2027: Key Effective Dates
The following table provides a practical overview of the main implementation dates covered in this article.
| Date | Laws and requirements |
|---|---|
| September 30, 2026 | AB 1697 and SB 1000 took effect as urgency statutes |
| January 1, 2027 | Most privacy, child-safety, healthcare AI, consumer protection, and employment changes take effect |
| July 1, 2027 | SB 947 workplace automated-decision rules and SB 1119 core child-safety requirements begin |
| January 1, 2028 | AB 1803 training requirements begin; SB 813 independent verification criteria deadline |
| January 1, 2029 | AB 1405 auditor registration deadline; initial qualifying SB 1119 child-safety audits |
| January 1, 2031 | Scheduled expiration of SB 867’s AI companion chatbot toy moratorium |
| January 1, 2032 | SB 1119 independent audit requirements extend to other covered operators |
The dates above summarize significant milestones. They do not include every statutory exception, transition provision, or condition.
Keeping Track of Legislative Changes After a Bill Becomes Law
For government affairs professionals, the end of a legislative session brings a different kind of work. Teams must determine which enacted laws matter to their organizations and follow developments that could affect implementation.
Some laws require further agency guidance. Others may be amended through new legislation or challenged in court. A compliance calendar prepared immediately after the signing deadline may therefore need to be updated as more information becomes available.
This is especially relevant when multiple departments are affected by the same legislative package.
A healthcare organization, for example, may need its technology team to review clinical AI systems while its privacy team examines consumer information practices. Government affairs staff may also need to follow related legislative developments. Each group has different responsibilities, but all need access to accurate information about the laws involved.
GovBuddy provides legislative bill research, tracking, and information about legislators, committees, and staff. Teams using Connect Plus can organize relevant legislation, follow bill activity, and work with shared research rather than maintaining disconnected records.
For organizations following California policy beyond the 2026 signing cycle, these tools can help keep legislative developments visible as the next session approaches.
See how GovBuddy can support your legislative research and tracking work.
How to Prepare for California’s New Laws
Organizations should begin by identifying the laws that apply to their activities. A complete list of newly enacted bills is useful for research, but implementation planning requires a more focused approach.
Three steps can make that work easier.
1. Review the Chaptered Legislation
Use the final enacted text from California Legislative Information rather than an earlier bill version or a legislative summary.
Check which businesses, activities, employees, and information types are covered. Review the exceptions as carefully as the main requirements. Record the effective date and any separate operative deadlines.
2. Assign Responsibility for Each Applicable Requirement
Once the relevant laws are identified, establish who is responsible for assessing and implementing each change.
For example:
| Team | Areas to review |
|---|---|
| Government affairs | Amendments, legislative follow-up, committee activity |
| HR and employment | Workplace AI, employee contracts, leave policies, training |
| Technology and privacy | Consumer deletion rights, privacy settings, age assurance |
| Healthcare | Clinical AI, professional judgment, bias monitoring |
| Education | Student data protections and covered AI uses |
An assigned owner should be able to identify the required action, the deadline, and how completion will be documented.
3. Continue Monitoring Official Guidance
The passage of a bill does not always settle every implementation question. Government departments may publish guidance, adopt regulations, or clarify procedures after enactment.
Organizations should use the appropriate regulator’s official publications and review significant new requirements with qualified legal counsel where needed.
California’s 2027–28 Regular Session convenes for its organizational session on December 7, 2026. New legislative activity may introduce changes to laws enacted during 2026.
Key Takeaways
- January 1, 2027 is the main effective date for many laws enacted during California’s 2026 legislative session, but several major requirements begin later.
- AI regulation now covers several distinct activities, including workplace decisions, clinical decision support, companion chatbots, and disclosures to consumers.
- Consumer privacy requirements are expanding. Businesses should review their deletion processes, data sources, and user privacy settings.
- Children’s online safety carries significant obligations for covered platforms and chatbot operators, with phased deadlines and potentially substantial penalties.
- Implementation requires ongoing monitoring. The chaptered statute, applicable regulatory guidance, and any later amendments should inform an organization’s compliance plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do most new California laws passed in 2026 take effect?
Most non-urgency statutes enacted during the 2026 regular session take effect January 1, 2027. Some have later operative dates, while urgency statutes can take effect immediately.
What are the biggest California AI laws passed in 2026?
Notable measures include SB 947 on automated employment decisions, SB 1119 on companion chatbot safety, AB 1979 and SB 503 on clinical AI, and SB 1000 on generative AI transparency.
Do the new California laws apply to every business?
No. Coverage depends on each statute’s definitions, activities, thresholds, and exceptions. Some measures apply only to particular employers, technology providers, healthcare organizations, or large platforms.
Where can I verify whether a California bill became law?
Visit California Legislative Information. Search by bill number and legislative session, then review the bill history and final chaptered text.
Sources
- California Legislative Information: official legislation, chaptered bill text, and bill histories.
- California State Senate, Legislative Deadlines: official 2026 legislative calendar.
- Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Child Safety Legislation: September 10, 2026.
- Wilson Sonsini, California Privacy and AI Legislation Review: October 6, 2026.
- Fenwick, California Employment Bills for 2027 and Beyond: October 12, 2026.
- California Attorney General: official enforcement and implementation information.
This article provides general legislative information and is not legal advice. Applicable obligations depend on the final statutory text, relevant exceptions, and subsequent regulatory or court action.