State holidays: Diwali.

The bill was expanded from a single section stating legislative intent to eight sections amending five different codes (Code of Civil Procedure, Education Code, and Government Code), making it fully operative legislation.

Diwali (the 15th day of the month of Kartik in the Hindu lunar calendar) was added as an official state holiday under Government Code Section 6700, alongside Lunar New Year, Cesar Chavez Day, Genocide Remembrance Day (April 24), Juneteenth (June 19), and Native American Day (fourth Friday in September).

Diwali was explicitly excluded from the list of judicial holidays under Code of Civil Procedure Section 135, meaning courts will not close on Diwali even though it is a state holiday.

Public schools may close on Diwali only if the governing board agrees via a memorandum of understanding with represented employees (Education Code Section 37220.7). This is permissive, not mandatory.

Community colleges may close on Diwali if the governing board agrees via a memorandum of understanding (Education Code Section 79020, subdivision (l)).

State employees may elect to receive eight hours of holiday credit for Diwali in lieu of their personal holiday credit under Government Code Section 19853. This is an employee choice, not a mandatory day off.

State Bargaining Unit 5 employees may elect to use vacation, annual leave, or compensating time off for Diwali (Government Code Section 19853.1).

Classified school employees and community college classified employees may be entitled to paid holiday on Diwali, subject to governing board agreement through a memorandum of understanding (Education Code Sections 45203 and 88203).

The fiscal committee answer changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the amended bill now has a fiscal impact due to the paid holiday provisions.

Assembly Members Fong and Gipson were added as coauthors of the bill.

Fixed a duplicated word in Section 79020 of the Education Code: 'Except as otherwise provided provided' was corrected to 'Except as otherwise provided.'

The legislative counsel's digest was expanded to note that the bill authorizes certain community college and public school employees to be given time off with pay for Diwali, and that it authorizes public schools to include exercises acknowledging and celebrating Diwali. The digest reference also changed from 'AB 268, as amended, Kalra' to 'AB 268, Kalra.'

Removed line numbers, page headers/footers, amendment history headers, and author attribution lines that are present in the Senate-amended version but not needed in the final enrolled version.

A new Section 1 is added with eight subsections of legislative findings and declarations explaining Diwali's religious and cultural significance to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, including its meaning (from Sanskrit 'Deepavali' meaning 'a row of lamps'), its celebration as a festival of lights, and its specific significance in each faith tradition.

All section numbers are renumbered by one to accommodate the new Section 1: old SEC. 1 becomes SEC. 2, old SEC. 2 becomes SEC. 3, and so on through old SEC. 7 becoming SEC. 8.

The legislative counsel's digest is updated to replace the statement about the Legislature's intent to designate Diwali as an official state holiday with a reference to the new findings and declarations section.

A minor typo is introduced in Section 79020 (Education Code) where 'provided' appears twice: 'Except as otherwise provided provided, the community colleges...'

Removed enrolled-bill formatting elements (passage dates, clerk signature blocks, governor receipt line) and replaced them with chaptered-law formatting (STATE OF CALIFORNIA AUTHENTICATED header, CHAPTER 358 designation, Governor approval date of October 6, 2025).

Reformatted page headers from 'AB 268' to 'Ch. 358' and adjusted line breaks and indentation throughout the text to match the official chaptered publication layout.