AB 1956 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Suicide prevention.

Summary

Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention within the department. Existing law authorizes the office, if established, to perform certain functions, including, among others, conducting state-level assessment of regional and statewide suicide prevention policies and practices and reporting on progress to reduce rates of suicide. Existing law authorizes the office, if established, to focus activities on groups with the highest risk, including youth, Native American youth, older adults, veterans, and LGBTQ people. This bill would authorize the office's activities focused on youth to pay special attention to boys. The bill would additionally authorize the office to focus activities on young men. The bill would require the office, if established, to report to the Legislature, on or before July 1, 2028, on strategies to implement the activities focused on boys and young men.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Aug 2026

Assembly Passage

May 2026

Senate Passage

Aug 2026

Signed into Law

Aug 2026

Introduced Feb 13, 2026 Signed Aug 28, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons

What changed between versions

02/13/26 - Introduced → 05/11/26 - Amended Assembly · 4 edits · May 11, 2026

MODERATE

The amendment adds Assembly Member Ramos as a coauthor, changes the language authorizing establishment of the Office of Suicide Prevention to be more explicitly permissive, broadens the scope of the office's assessment duties to include policies in addition to metrics and domains, and cleans up a duplicated entry in the list of high-risk groups. These are relatively modest refinements that clarify intent rather than fundamentally alter the bill.

SCOPE

The language authorizing the Office of Suicide Prevention was changed from 'is hereby authorized to establish' to a more permissive formulation ('may establish'), emphasizing that establishment is optional rather than directed.

REQUIREMENT

Subsection (2) now requires the office's state-level assessment to cover 'policies and specific metrics and domains' rather than just 'specific metrics and domains,' explicitly broadening what must be evaluated.

ELIGIBILITY

The list of high-risk groups in subsection (b) was cleaned up to remove a duplicated reference to LGBTQ people, resulting in a single consolidated list: boys, Native American youth, older adults, veterans, LGBTQ people, and young men.

TECHNICAL

Assembly Member Ramos was added as a coauthor of the bill.

Floor votes · Senate Aug 10, 2026 · Assembly May 18, 2026

How they voted

39–0

Passed · 1 other

Total votes 40

Aug 10, 2026

D Democratic30

30 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican10

9 Yea 1

90% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Aug 28, 2026

Signed into law

Approved by the Governor.

legislature

Aug 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling.

lower

Aug 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0.).

upper

Aug 3, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar.

upper

Jul 1, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Jun 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (June 10). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

upper

May 27, 2026

Committee

Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD.

upper

May 18, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 72. Noes 0. Page 5130.)

lower

May 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read third time and amended. Ordered to third reading. (Page 5013.)

lower

Apr 29, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 29).

lower

Apr 8, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 7). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Mar 2, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on HEALTH.

lower

Feb 14, 2026

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 16.

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor