Employees: bereavement leave.

The bill was reformatted from an amended Senate version to the enrolled version, adding passage dates (Senate May 19, 2026; Assembly August 19, 2026), a CHAPTER heading, and an approval line for the Governor.

Coauthor lists, 'AMENDED IN SENATE' headers, line numbers in the statutory text, and the 'Revised 8-13-26' revision note were removed as part of the enrolled bill formatting.

Removed 'parent-in-law' from the list of family members eligible for bereavement leave. Employees whose parent-in-law dies can no longer claim them as a family member directly and must instead use the designated person provision, which is capped at one per 12-month period.

Cleaned up the 'family member' definition by removing a redundant phrase ('or designated person or domestic partner as defined in Section 12945.2') and simplifying it to just 'domestic partner as defined in Section 12945.2.' Also fixed the awkward phrasing 'a spouse either of the following' to simply 'either of the following.'

Added Senator Cervantes and Assembly Member Wicks as principal coauthors, and added Senator Laird and Assembly Member Ward as regular coauthors.

Minor stylistic change in subdivision (i): 'subdivision (f) or subdivision (g)' shortened to 'subdivision (f) or (g).'

A new paragraph (1) defines 'designated person' for bereavement leave as any individual related to the employee by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The employee may identify this person at the time of the leave request.

The 'family member' definition was restructured from a single list referencing the Section 12945.2 designated person definition into a two-part structure: (A) the existing family relationships plus the Section 12945.2 designated person, and (B) the new standalone 'designated person' as defined in the new paragraph (1). This effectively expands who qualifies beyond what Section 12945.2 alone would cover.

Employers are now authorized to limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for bereavement leave purposes.

Coauthors were expanded: Senator Wiener added to the Senate coauthors and Assembly Member Ortega added to the Assembly coauthors, indicating broader legislative support.