Usually, legislation passed by the State Senate or Assembly take effect on January 1 of a specified year. However, this year, there are several bills that were passed in the 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 sessions that became law the first of this month.
Rural hospitals: The governor signed SB 669 (McGuire, 2025) into law on Oct. 11, 2025 and it went into effect on July 1 of this year. It addresses the shortage of maternity-care services in rural sections of the state. According to Sen. McGuire, some communities have become “maternity care deserts,” meaning that they have no maternity services available to the local population.
The new law establishes a 10-year pilot program that provides “standby perinatal services,” beginning with small, rural hospitals in Humbolt and Plumas counties. These hospitals must be more than 60 minutes away from the closest full-service hospitals.
Schools: Three new laws affecting schools went into effect this month, Senate Bill 760, Assembly Bill 727, and Assembly Bill 3216.
All-gender restrooms
Senate Bill 760 (Newman, et al., 2023) requires that, as of July 1, schools must have at least one all-gender restroom with clear signage indicating that it is open to all genders. Such restrooms must be open during school hours when students are present and must be fully operational and well stocked, including menstrual products.
This bill is an amendment to the state’s Education Code to “ensure safe, inclusive, and accessible facilities for all students, particularly transgender and gender-nonconforming students.” Theoretically, it strengthens the state’s safety-and-inclusion mandates. And schools are subject to required compliance checks.
Suicide prevention
Existing law, as of July 1, 2025, is intended to help prevent student suicides. According to CalMatters, the new law “requires a public or private school that serves pupils in any of the grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and that issues pupil identification cards, to have printed on the identification cards the number for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.”
Assembly Bill 727 (Gonzalez, et al., 2025) requires public institutions of higher learning, like two-year colleges and state universities, that issue pupil identification cards to print the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline phone number on the cards, including a special text line for a “specified LGBTQ+ suicide hotline.”
Phone-free schools
Assembly Bill 3216 (Hoover, et al., 2024) is a bipartisan bill introduced by Assembly members Josh Hoover, David Alvarez, Josh Lowenthal, and Al Muratsuchi. It extends provisions on earlier legislation that is intended to reduce classroom distractions, cut down on cyberbullying, and promote the mental well-being of students.
According to provisions of this bill, school districts, including charter schools, must develop a policy to limit or prohibit students’ use of smartphones while on campus or under school supervision. However, there must be reasonable exemptions for emergencies, safety, and medical needs. CalMatters states that the policy must be reviewed and updated every five years.
Driverless cars
Assembly Bill 1777 (Ting, et al., 2024) is a new state law which, according to Alexa Mae Asperin, writing for Fox 11 Los Angeles, “implements new traffic safety regulations specifically targeting driverless robotaxis operating on public roads.” The law, however, has many unknowns, probably because the technology is so new and is changing so rapidly. Nevertheless, Asperin states, “AB-1777 successfully closes a long-standing legal loophole by explicitly giving police the authority to officially cite autonomous vehicle companies for moving violations, mirroring the consequences faced by human drivers.”
At this point, specific financial or criminal punishments for companies that disobey the laws have not been formulated. It will probably be up to the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish protocols.
Police face masks
Senate Bill 627, also known as the No Secret Police Act, was sponsored by Senator Scott Wiener, et al. and had support from several organizations, including MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund). The law bans law enforcement officers at both local and state levels from using face coverings. However, clear face shields that do not obscure a person’s identity are excluded.
On Nov. 17, 2025, former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed suit against the Golden State, claiming that the new law would threaten the safety of officers and might cause their families to be harassed. There have been several court battles regarding the new law, both before and after Bondi was fired by President Donald Trump. However, as things stand now, the law is in effect in our state.
Convertible pistols
Assembly Bill 1127 (Gabriel and Stefani, 2025) went into effect this month. It prohibits the selling, exchanging, giving, transferring, or delivering of semiautomatic machinegun-convertible hand guns. These are pistols with a cruciform trigger bar that can be converted into a machine gun through the installation of a “pistol converter,” that interferes with the trigger mechanism, enabling automatic firing.
The penalties for violating the law are severe. An initial violation will bring a fine of $5,000. A second violation involves a fine and possible suspension or revocation of a dealer’s license. And a third violation will result in a misdemeanor charge and mandated revocation of the sales license. However, the law does not ban the existing possession of converted or convertible hand guns.
According to the All About Lawyer website, the state’s justification for the ban was prompted by the recent increase in such weapons in the hands of the citizenry. It states, “Recoveries of machine gun conversion devices by police, including Glock switches, increased by 784 percent between 2019 and 2023.” Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel said that he hopes this legislation “forces Glock to change its design so switches no longer work.” When interviewed by CBS News, he said that Glock has known about the design vulnerability for a long time. In 2023, 5,816 of these machine-gun pistols were seized in California.
Aside from AB 1127, the state is also tightening its policy on the granting of CCW (Concealed Carry Weapon) permits. If this increases public safety, I suppose it’s a good thing, but it is definitely a burden on law-abiding citizens who require personal protection.
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Jim Glynn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He may be contacted at j_glynn@att.net.