Consumer affairs.

(1) Existing law establishes in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency the Department of Consumer Affairs, which is composed of various agencies that license and regulate various businesses and professions. Existing law requires certain agencies to disclose information on the status of its licensees on the internet, as specified. In this regard, existing law specifies the licensees on which the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau is required to disclose information, including, among others, cemetery brokers, salespersons, and managers. This bill would also specify that the bureau is required to disclose information on licensed hydrolysis facilities and reduction facilities. (2) Existing law requires designated agencies in the Department of Consumer Affairs to require applicants to furnish a full set of fingerprints to the agency for purposes of conducting criminal history record checks. This bill would include the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners as one of those designated agencies. (3) The Dental Practice Act establishes the Dental Board of California to license and regulate the practice of dentistry, and repeals the provision establishing the board on January 1, 2029. Chapter 483 of the Statutes of 2024 revised the membership of the board by, among other things, removing a requirement that the board include a registered dental hygienist, and, instead, requiring the inclusion of a 2nd member who is a registered dental assistant. This bill would make conforming changes, including deleting obsolete references to a dental hygienist member of the board. (4) Existing law establishes the Dental Hygiene Board of California to license and regulate dental hygienists. Chapter 858 of the Statutes of 2018 created the board out of the former Dental Hygiene Committee of California, as specified. Existing law requires the dental hygiene board to make recommendations to the Dental Board of California regarding dental hygiene scope of practice issues. Existing law also requires the Dental Hygiene Board of California to establish the amount of fees relating to the licensing of dental hygienists and imposes limitations on those fees, including prohibiting the application fee for an original license and the fee for issuance of an original license from exceeding $250. This bill would remove the requirement for the dental hygiene board to make recommendations to the Dental Board of California, as described above. The bill would instead prohibit an application fee from exceeding $100 and an initial licensure fee from exceeding $150. The bill would make technical changes to the provisions regulating dental hygienists by, among other things, correcting references to the dental hygiene board and deleting an obsolete provision affecting the expiration of terms for members of the former Dental Hygiene Committee of California. (5) The Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensure Act establishes the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board to license and regulate speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and hearing aid dispensers. Existing law establishes the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Fund to deposit revenue received pursuant to the act and makes moneys in the fund available upon appropriation by the Legislature to carry out the purposes of the act. This bill would make technical changes to various provisions of the act and other related provisions, including updating references to the names of the board and the fund. (6) The Professional Fiduciaries Act establishes the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau to license and regulate professional fiduciaries, as defined. Existing law requires a licensee to file a statement with the bureau annually that contains specified information, including whether the licensee has been convicted of a crime. Existing law authorizes the suspension, revocation, denial or other disciplinary action for a failure to notify the bureau of a conviction pursuant to that requirement. This bill would update the cross-reference to that requirement. The bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the definition of professional fiduciary. (7) The Contractors State License Law establishes the Contractors State License Board to license and regulate contractors. Existing law exempts an inactive contractor's license from certain requirements during the period that a license is inactive, including specified bonding and qualifier requirements. This bill would also exempt an inactive license from workers' compensation requirements. The Contractors State License Law requires a licensee that is subject to a public complaint requiring a professional or expert investigation or inspection and report to pay fees to cover the costs of the investigation or inspection and report if it resulted in the issuance of a letter of admonishment or a citation. Existing law requires the full amount of the assessed fee to be added to the fee for the active or inactive renewal of a licensee. Under this bill, the licensee would be required to pay those fees only if the letter of admonishment or citation has become a final order of the registrar. The bill would delete the provision requiring the assessed fee to be added to the fee for renewal of a license. The Contractors State License Law requires a home improvement salesperson to register with the board in order to engage in the business of, or act in the capacity of, a home improvement salesperson. Existing law creates exemptions for certain individuals who, at the time of the sales transaction, are listed as personnel of record for a licensee responsible for soliciting, negotiating, or contracting for a service or improvement that is subject to registration, as specified. This bill would update a cross-reference to the provisions specifying those exempt individuals. (8) The Private Investigator Act provides for the licensure and regulation of private investigators by the Director of Consumer Affairs, and requires a licensee to make signed agreements and investigative findings available for inspection by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. This bill would specify that making these records available for inspection by the bureau does not violate rules or laws related to attorney work product and attorney-client privilege, as specified. (9) Existing law establishes the Court Reporters Board of California to license and regulate shorthand reporters and requires the board to develop standardization of policies on the use and administration of qualifier examinations by schools. Existing law requires the qualifier examination to consist of 4-voice testimony of 10-minute duration at 200 words per minute graded at 97.5 percent accuracy. This bill would instead require the qualifier examination to be graded at 95 percent accuracy. (10) The Professional Land Surveyors' Act provides for the licensure and regulation of land surveyors by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, which is within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and provides that a violation of the act is a crime. Existing law requires a licensed surveyor or licensed civil engineer, after making a field survey in conformity with the practice of land surveying, to file a record of survey relating to land boundaries or property lines with the county surveyor in the county in which the field survey was made, if the field survey discloses specified information. Existing law requires the record of survey to be a map and to show, among other things, certain signed form statements by the surveyor, the county surveyor, and the county recorder regarding the map's compliance with the Professional Land Surveyors' Act. This bill would make a date field next to the signature line of the form statement for the land surveyor. (11) The Automotive Repair Act establishes the Bureau of Automotive Repair to license and regulate automotive repair dealers, authorizes the Director of Consumer Affairs to adopt and enforce rules and regulations that are necessary to carry out the purposes of the act. Chapter 372 of the Statutes of 2021 replaced provisions that governed the licensure of lamp and brake adjusting stations and adjusters with provisions that govern the licensure of vehicle safety systems inspection, as specified. This bill would update cross-references to those provisions of the act. (12) Existing law provides that the Department of Food and Agriculture has general supervision of the weights and measures and weighing and measuring devices sold or used in the state. Existing law requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to adopt by reference certain tolerances, specifications, procedures, requirements, and standards for methods of sale that are recommended or published by the National Conference on Weights and Measures. This bill would replace references to "National Conference on Weights and Measures" with "National Council on Weights and Measures." (13) Existing law, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities and requires the Department of Cannabis Control to administer its provisions. Existing law requires an applicant for a state license to conduct commercial cannabis activity to provide, among other things, specified information to the Department of Cannabis Control and the Department of Justice. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions by updating cross-references. Existing law requires the department to establish a track and trace program for reporting the movement of cannabis and cannabis products throughout the distribution chain, as specified. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, to create an electronic database containing the electronic shipping manifests to facilitate the administration of the track and trace program, as specified. This bill would instead refer to the electronic database as an electronic system. (14) Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides for the regulation of private postsecondary institutions by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. Existing law defines "distance education" for purposes of the act to mean transmission of instruction to students at a location separate from the institution, and defines "teach-out" to mean the arrangements an institution makes for its students to complete their educational programs when the institution ceases to operate. Existing law requires an institution to maintain permanent records, for each student granted a degree or certificate. This bill would instead define "distance education" to mean transmission of instruction to students at a location separate from the faculty. The bill would revise the definition of "teach-out" to mean the arrangements an institution makes for its students to complete their educational programs when the institution or an educational program ceases to operate. The bill would repeal a provision requiring the bureau to establish a task force no later than March 1, 2015, to review standards for educational and training programs specializing in innovative subjects and instructing students in high-demand technology fields for which there is a shortage of skilled employees. The bill would require the permanent records required to be maintained by the institution to be complete and accurate. (15) Existing law requires a student to enroll in a private postsecondary institution by executing an enrollment agreement and makes the agreement unenforceable unless the student has received the institution's catalog and School Performance Fact Sheet before signing the agreement. Existing law requires an institution to provide a prospective student with a School Performance Fact Sheet prior to enrollment. This bill would require the student to receive the institution's current catalog and would require the institution to provide a prospective student with a current School Performance Fact Sheet. The bill would repeal a requirement that the bureau consider specified factors, including graduate salary and other outcome data and reporting requirements used by the United States Department of Education and specified other entities, and the reporting requirements of public postsecondary institutions to evaluate the feasibility of adopting these reporting requirements for private postsecondary institutions. The bill would repeal an obsolete reporting requirement relating to the bureau's staffing resources. (16) This bill would make other technical changes, including eliminating gendered pronouns. (17) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 27 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 775 to be operative only if this bill and SB 775 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (18) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 26051.5 and 26067 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 8 to be operative only if this bill and AB 8 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.