AB 2796: Criminal history information: background checks.
- Session Year: 2025-2026
- House: Assembly
- Latest Version Date: 2026-05-27
Current Status:
In Progress
(2026-05-28: Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.)
Introduced
In Committee
First Chamber
In Committee
Second Chamber
Enacted
Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain state summary criminal history information, as defined, and to furnish this information to various state and local government officers, officers and officials, and as well as other prescribed entities, if needed in the course of their duties. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to furnish state summary criminal history information and, if authorized, federal-level criminal history information, upon a showing of a compelling need, to specified entities, including, among others, peace officers of the United States, other states, or territories or possessions of the United States. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to furnish criminal history information to a person who is not authorized by law to receive it.
This bill would also authorize the Attorney General to provide that information to peace officers of tribes in other states under the same conditions. By expanding access to criminal history information, this bill would expand a crime and therefore impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires employees of entities that have contracts with a private school or heritage school and provide services, including schoolsite administrative or grounds, landscape maintenance maintenance, and instruction, to provide their fingerprints to the department, as specified. Existing law requires employees of an entity that contracts with a local educational agency to, if the employee interacts with pupils without the immediate supervision of, among others, a school employee, complete a criminal background check, as specified. Under existing law, a county, city, city and county, or special district is required to have specified prospective employees or volunteers complete a background check that inquires as to whether the applicant has been convicted of certain offenses. Existing law also requires the submission of fingerprints to the department for certifying a massage professional, licensing a professional fiduciary, registering a tax preparer, confirming the appointment of a humane officer, working for a bank or its affiliates, and licensing an escrow agent, as specified. Existing law requires the department to ascertain whether the individual whose fingerprints were submitted has been arrested or convicted of a crime and notify the employer if the person has been convicted of specified felonies. Existing law authorizes the department to notify specified entities of pending criminal proceedings.
This bill would instead require those background checks to be submitted pursuant to the provisions above and would make conforming changes.
Existing law authorizes a human resource agency, as defined, or a nonprofit corporation or other organization specified by the Attorney General that employs or uses the services of volunteers in positions in which the volunteer or employee has supervisory or disciplinary power over a child or children to request from the department records of all convictions or any arrest pending adjudication involving specified offenses of a person who applies for a license, employment, or volunteer position in which they would have supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor or any person under their care.
This bill would revise and recast those provisions to instead allow a qualified entity, as defined, to require a covered individual, as defined, to undergo a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history background check and would authorize a qualified entity to get a subsequent arrest notification pursuant to the provisions above. By expanding access to criminal history information, this bill would expand a crime and therefore impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would make any statutory requirement for an entity to conduct a federal criminal history information check for licensing, certification, or employment purposes inapplicable until the Federal Bureau of Investigation authorizes the entity to conduct a federal criminal history information check, as specified. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation authorizes an entity to conduct a federal criminal history information check, the bill would require the entity to require an applicant, licensee, certified individual, or employee who did not previously undergo a federal criminal history information check to resubmit their fingerprints for that purpose.
Existing law requires an application used to determine the eligibility to own a firearm to include 2 copies of the applicants fingerprints.
This bill would instead require an applicant for a certificate of eligibility and a dangerous weapons license or permit issued by the department, including, among other weapons, an assault weapon or short-barreled shotgun, to submit to the department fingerprint images and related information for purposes of conducting a state and national criminal history background check, as specified, and for the purpose of determining if the applicant is prohibited by state or federal law from possessing, receiving, owning, or purchasing a firearm. The bill would require the department to retain the fingerprint impressions for subsequent arrest notification, as specified.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to screen all providers and designate each provider as limited, moderate, or high categorical risk. For all providers designated as a high categorical risk, existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services, or its designee, to conduct a criminal background check and require specified individuals to submit a set of fingerprints within 30 days of the State Department of Health Care Servicess request in a manner specified by the State Department of Health Care Services.
This bill would instead add the State Department of Public Health in place of the State Department of Health Care Servicess authority to have a designee for these purposes. The bill would require, as an alternative to the State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of Public Health to prescribe the manner by which a person submits their fingerprints.
Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to require that specified applicants, providers, and individuals submit fingerprint images and related information for purposes of a state and federal criminal background check and prescribes a procedure for the State Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Justice to follow for these purposes.
This bill would also add the State Department of Public Health to this requirement and procedure as an alternative to the State Department of Health Care Services and would instead require the information be submitted for specified individuals who are subject to a state and national criminal history background checks. The bill would define applicant and provider for these purposes.
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate community care facilities, residential care facilities for persons with chronic, life-threatening illness, residential care facilities for the elderly, and childcare centers. Existing law requires the department to obtain a criminal record for all applicants for licenses for these facilities and services and specified other employees and officers of these facilities, including, among others, adults responsible for the administration or direct supervision of staff, a staff person, volunteer, or employee who has contact with clients, and, if the applicant is a firm, partnership, association, or corporation, the chief executive officer or other person serving in a like capacity.
This bill would expand the list of individuals to include, among others, an administrator, supervisor, manager, or director of the facility, or an individual acting in those roles, an adult responsible for the operation of the facility, and a person with a 10% or greater financial interest in the applicant. The bill would clarify that a staff person, volunteer, or employee who has direct contact with clients includes adults and minors. The bill would also include limited liability companies in the list of applicant types to which these provisions apply. By expanding access to criminal history information, this bill would expand a crime and therefore impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law, the Yacht and Ship Brokers Act, prohibits a person from, among other things, acting as a broker or salesperson for the purchase or sale of a yacht without a license. The act authorizes the issuance of a temporary license to a salesperson under specified conditions. The act requires an applicant for a broker or salesperson license to undergo a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history background check.
This bill would authorize the Deputy Director of Boating and Waterways to extend the term of a temporary license or issue a new temporary license to provide an applicant for a broker or salesperson license time to comply with the criminal history background requirement, as specified.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.