The Overview

Your elected officials are about to get a crash course in spotting and answering hate, because California will now require it. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 1578 on Sept. 27, requiring state elected officials and certain elected local officials to complete at least one hour of anti-hate training beginning Jan. 1, 2028. The California Department of Justice recorded 2,023 hate-crime events statewide in 2024, up 141.7 percent over the decade from 2015 to 2024. ​

What the Law Does

State elected officials must complete at least one hour of training on responding to hate within their first six months in office, and every two years after that. For elected local agency officials, the law adds anti-hate speech training as a required component of the sexual harassment prevention training they already must complete when their agency pays them a salary or stipend.

A state agency may develop its own training or direct officials to a course from the Civil Rights Department, which must create and post one online. Because the law imposes new requirements on local agencies, it constitutes a state-mandated local program; if the Commission on State Mandates finds it creates reimbursable costs, the state must pay them.

Legislative Status

Asm. Corey Jackson (D) authored the bill, with Asm. Josh Lowenthal (D) as principal coauthor. The full Assembly passed it 58-18 on May 26. The Senate passed it 30-10 on Aug. 30, and the Assembly concurred in Senate amendments 59-17 the same day.

Jackson called the measure part of a broader effort: "I'm proud that two bills from our anti-hate legislative package, AB 1578 and AB 1803, were signed into law, and grateful to Assemblymembers Josh Lowenthal and Patrick Ahrens for their partnership and leadership," he said, according to Our Weekly. The California Family Council opposed the bill, arguing in its April analysis that it did not define hate speech and could give government power to label religious and political speech as hateful.

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