On Thursday, Jan. 1, hundreds of new laws went into effect in California. During the 2025 application period, 850 bills were introduced in the California Senate, and 1,500 bills were introduced in the California Assembly. In total, 917 bills were passed by both houses of the California Legislature, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately signed 794 of them into law. According to CalMatters, the majority of these approved bills went into effect on Jan. 1.  

The approved Senate and Assembly bills deal with a range of topics, including immigration, healthcare, artificial intelligence, education, the environment, housing, consumer protections, food regulation, and more. The UCSD Guardian compiled information on a variety of newly enacted bills across some of these categories. 

Education

Senate Bill 640: SB 640 introduces the CSU Direct Admission Program. This new program requires California high school districts to directly submit students’ GPA and transcript data to 16 participating California State University campuses. High school students who meet CSU admission requirements are then able to officially select which campus they would like to attend, and are guaranteed a spot at one of the campuses. 

SB 640 also extends the amount of time California community college students have to earn an associate degree for transfer. This degree is a pathway that guarantees students a spot at participating universities, including within the CSU system. Under SB 640, students can now take up to three years to complete the associate degree for transfer, rather than the previous limit of two years. 

This bill passed with bipartisan support, with no opposing or abstaining votes recorded in the California Senate or Assembly. The CSU Employees Union also expressed support for the bill. 

Assembly Bill 715: AB 715 creates a new California state Office of Civil Rights that will assist public school districts in recognizing and addressing cases of discrimination. The Office of Civil Rights will primarily manage complaints and questions about discrimination relating to antisemitism, religion, sexuality, and gender identity. 

AB 715 reinforces existing California laws that mandate investigations into incidents of discrimination, while adding language that subjects discriminatory “professional development materials and curriculum” to the category of matters that can be investigated. The bill will require the presence of an antisemitism prevention coordinator in the new Office of Civil Rights.

In response to AB 715, a group of California parents and teachers sought an injunction to prevent the law from going into effect. Those who brought the suit argued that the way AB 715 defines antisemitism is vague and thus could potentially restrict the rights of teachers by limiting their ability to discuss different viewpoints on Israel and Palestine. U.S. District Judge Noël Wise ruled against this injunction, allowing AB 715 to go into effect on Jan. 1. 

The bill passed the state Assembly in a 71-0-9 vote, with nine assemblymembers abstaining from the vote. It passed the California Senate in a 35-0-5 vote, with five senators abstaining. The bill raised some controversy with over 100 different organizations across the state. 

Artificial Intelligence

Assembly Bill 621: AB 621 expands penalties for parties involved in creating or distributing pornographic deepfakes. Deepfakes are AI-generated content in which a person’s likeness is digitally manipulated. If individuals depicted in sexually explicit deepfakes are not consenting, creators of the content could face up to $250,000 in civil penalties per violation. 

Individuals who operate a website or application with the “primary purpose” of creating and distributing pornographic deepfakes are also subject to civil penalties. Unless the owner of the website is proven to have explicit written consent from depicted individuals, they are subject to full prosecution by public prosecutors. 

AB 621 passed the state Assembly in a 79-0-1 vote, with one assemblymember abstaining. The bill passed the state Senate with unanimous support. Some companies have raised opposition for the bill, including TechNet, which argued that the language used in the bill is too vague and could unnecessarily implicate service providers in illegal activity. 

Assembly Bill 489: Under AB 489, developers of AI systems that misrepresent themselves as licensed health care professionals and give medical advice are now subject to punishment by an enforcement agency or medical licensing board. 

AB 489 extends title protections to apply to developers of AI chatbots. Title protections are licensing regulations that ensure the legitimacy of a professional title. Individuals who are licensed by a medical regulatory board have to meet pre-determined criteria in order to legally hold a professional title, provide patient care, and give medical advice. Now, when these title protections are violated by AI chatbots acting as medical advisors, medical professional boards and state-enforcing agencies have the power to prosecute the developers of the chatbot. 

This bill passed the state Assembly in a 79-0-1 vote, with one assemblymember abstaining. AB 489 passed the state Senate in a 39-0-1 vote, with one senator abstaining. Healthcare providers such as Kaiser Permanente and medical licensing boards like the California Nurses Association and the Dental Board of California all expressed support for the bill.  

Immigration

Assembly Bill 495: AB 495, also known as the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, ensures that a greater number of relatives can make enrollment and medical decisions for children while they are at school. If a child’s parent is detained by immigration enforcement, they can authorize any adult within five generations related to the child to make choices on behalf of the parent. 

Trusted adults that are not related to the child and are selected by a parent can also secure a caregiver’s affidavit — a legal form of guardianship that designates an adult as a temporary caregiver — to make education-related decisions for a child. 

Healthcare

Senate Bill 729: SB 729 requires large group insurers — defined as companies with over 100 employees to whom they provide full insurance plans — to offer coverage for infertility treatment. Covered infertility treatment includes coverage for in vitro fertilization, or IVF. SB 729 also mandates that coverage is provided for unlimited embryo transfers and up to three completed egg retrievals. 

This bill also includes a provision that extends this coverage to members of the LGBTQ+ community and to parents who are single by choice. This provision ensures that all Californians have the same access to infertility coverage provided by large group insurers. 

Environment

Senate Bill 1053: SB 1053 closes a loophole in SB 270, now prohibiting the use of all kinds of plastic bags at all stores in California. SB 270, passed in 2014, previously banned the use of only lightweight plastic bags, allowing for some kinds of thicker plastic bags to be used in stores. 

Now, under the new bill, only recycled paper bags can be given out at stores for a 10-cent fee. SB 1053 also mandates that all paper bags in stores have to be made from 50% post-consumer materials by 2028.