It’s the beginning of a new year, and that means it’s time for a bevy of new state laws to go into effect.
For the 2023-24 legislative session that just wrapped up, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 1,017 bills into law, according to Chris Micheli, a veteran Sacramento lobbyist. That’s a tick more than one-fifth of the 4,821 bills introduced over that span.
Most of the new laws are slated to kick in on Jan. 1. From new parking rules to health care coverage and more, here is a quick look at some of them:
Cannabis cafes
San Diego County’s first cannabis cafe is opening this winter in National City. More could soon join it, thanks to a new law that lets local jurisdictions give the green light to permit certain cannabis retailers to prepare and sell drinks and food that do not contain cannabis. The law, signed by the governor in late September, also allows the retailers to host ticketed live events on the premises.
The idea is to pave the way for a version of Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes, where people can use cannabis with others while also consuming coffee, sandwiches and live music, for example. The new law “will allow cannabis retailers to diversify their business and move away from the struggling and limited dispensary model,” Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat who championed the effort in the legislature, said in a news release.
Newsom vetoed similar legislation in 2023 over concerns from public health advocates. This bill included additional provisions meant to reduce health risk, including letting employees wear employer-provided masks and allowing local governments to require filtration and ventilation systems to prevent smoke from permeating nearby buildings.
Child content creators
Minors who make money by producing online content should get some extra financial protection as a result of two bills the governor signed last year.
One expands the Coogan Act, a longtime California law that requires parents to open a trust and set aside at least 15% of their child actor’s gross earnings. The new rules have been expanded to include “kidfluencers” — or, as the bill describes them, “child influences in paid online content or internet websites, social networks and social media” — as part of the creative or artistic services that would trigger a Coogan trust account.
Another extends those financial protections to children who appear in vlogs, or video blogs.
Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from the South Bay, noted the Coogan Act covers children under contract — not necessarily children who appear in their parents’ online content. This new law requires content creators to set aside a percentage of total gross earnings in a trust for the child (to be accessed when they become an adult) if the minor is in at least 30% of their content within a month.
Education
Several education bills were signed into law last year, ranging from rules to protect young people from policies that would out them as LGBTQ+ against their will to rules that require elementary schools to offer free menstruation products.
The law protecting LGBTQ+ students was sponsored by San Diego Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward and bars districts from passing policies that require schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identification. The new law came after several school districts in California passed such policies, prompting concerns about students’ privacy and safety.
“Everybody has the right to be able to come out on their own terms,” said Ward, the vice chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.
The issue of parental notification is also still playing out in California courts. In 2023, two teachers sued Escondido Union School District, saying they should be able to tell parents about students’ transgender identity.
Other new laws cover what is taught in the classroom, including a bipartisan measure that ensures students are being taught accurately how Native Americans in California were treated during the Gold Rush era and the Spanish colonization of California.
“Classroom instruction about the Mission and Gold Rush periods fails to include the loss of life, enslavement, starvation, illness and violence inflicted upon California Native American people during those times,” said Assemblymember James Ramos, a San Bernardino Democrat and the first Indigenous Californian to serve in the Legislature. “These historical omissions from the curriculum are misleading.”
Eviction notices
Tenants soon will have more time to respond to an eviction notice.
California law originally dictated that a landlord could not file an eviction lawsuit until after serving their tenant with a three-day notice — which excludes Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays — to pay. Tenants then had five days after they were served to file their defense in court. If they failed to do so, a judge could award a default judgment to the landlord.
The new law doubles those five-day windows to 10 days.
Responding to eviction lawsuits is not necessarily a simple feat, supporters of the new law have argued — particularly for people struggling to pay their rent. Tenants need to obtain hard-to-find legal aid or an expensive attorney to complete their defense filing accurately, and then they have to find the means to travel to court.
Fertility treatment
Certain insurers must cover fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization, in 2025.
This law, which won’t take effect until July, will require large group health care service plans to cover up to three oocyte (egg) retrievals. It also prohibits health care service plans from imposing different conditions or coverage limitations on fertility medications or services.
Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-San Fernando Valley, said her bill being signed into law is “a triumph for the many Californians who have been denied a path toward family-building because of the financial barriers that come with fertility treatment, their relationship status or are blatantly discriminated against as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.”
Medical debt
Medical debt will no longer be shared with credit reporting agencies, meaning that debt will not show up on credit reports.
That said, medical debts still must be paid. In her analysis of the bill Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, noted that the new rules doesn’t forgive medical debt or restrict the collection of it.
Instead, she said, the new rules are meant to help “lift the credit scores of people who have been inaccurately and unfairly saddled with medical debts on their credit reports, opening opportunities for access to healthier financial products, better housing and more employment opportunities.”
Online subscriptions
A new law may make it easier to opt out of pesky automatic subscription renewals.
Companies will now have to obtain the “express affirmative consent” to automatically renew subscriptions entered into after July 1, 2025. Consumers also will need to be sent annual reminders about automatic renewals, what the charges are, and information about how to cancel the service.
Parking near crosswalks
Under a new state law that aims to save lives by boosting visibility, drivers will no longer be allowed to park within 20 feet of an intersection all across California starting Jan. 1 — although in San Diego, city officials say they don’t plan to start issuing citations until March 1.
Between now and then, crews are removing meters near intersections, painting curbs red in those areas, posting “no parking” signs and trying to educate people about the new law, AB 413.
The education campaign is important because tickets can be written under the law even if there is no signage or red paint, and city officials say there’s no chance they can modify all 16,000 San Diego intersections in time.
“This is an important step toward improving safety on our city streets,” said Bethany Bezak, the city’s director of transportation. “Working together, we can prevent needless crashes and save lives simply by changing how and where we park our vehicle.”
Involuntary detention
San Diego County will begin enforcing Senate Bill 43 — the law Newsom signed in 2023 that expands the state’s definition of “grave disability” and thus the criteria for detaining people against their will under section 5150 of the state’s Welfare and Institutions Code.
That means rank-and-file law enforcement officers and other designated first responders must begin deciding whether someone has a severe, moderate or mild substance use disorder, whether their medical condition is serious and likely to deteriorate, or whether their personal safety is so compromised that they are likely to die if they are not detained.
For the first time in the state’s history, it will be possible for a Californian to be involuntarily detained without committing a crime if a first responder has probable cause to believe that a substance use disorder is involved or if a person appears to be living in a manner that looks unsafe or if they have not availed themselves of obviously needed medical care.
Hospitals across the state cried foul at the idea of implementing SB 43 in 2024, begging county boards to delay the arrival as long as possible. Though the law allows local governments to punt the law to Jan. 1, 2026, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors opted to choose a middle ground, setting the start date for New Year’s Day 2025.
Youths in residential facilities
Residential treatment facilities that serve minors must report certain information to the child, their parent or guardian, and California’s Department of Social Services when seclusion or restraints are used.
These facilities are allowed to use seclusion or restraints when staff believe the patient may be a danger to themselves or others, said Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, who championed this law.
The new law mandates that children must be informed of their rights — including the right to contact state social service workers and the California Office of the Foster Care Ombudsperson — within one day of seclusion or restraints being used. Those minors also must be given an oral and written description of the incident, including who approved the disciplinary actions and the rationale behind them.
That written information must be given to Department of Social Services within seven days, leaving it up to the state to review and determine if any laws were potentially violated by using seclusion and restraints, therefore warranting an investigation.
Beginning in 2026, the department will need to publicly post information about these incidents, so parents and guardians can be better informed about where they send their children.
The effort to bring more transparency to what punishments are used in youth residential facilities was championed by media personality and activist Paris Hilton, who has detailed the “continuous torture” she faced while attending a boarding school as a teenager. Hilton has championed similar laws in other states related to what’s been dubbed the troubled teen industry as well as at the federal level.
“For too long, these facilities have operated without adequate oversight, leaving vulnerable youth at risk,” said Hilton.
“After being abused in a California facility in my teens, it is validating to see California taking a stand to protect our youth, and I hope our state is the standard for transparency and accountability in these facilities moving forward.”
San Diego Union-Tribune staff writers Paul Sisson, Kristen Taketa and David Garrick contributed to this report.
