Postsecondary education: sexual harassment, harassment, intimidation, and bullying policies: student training

The law updates campus sex-discrimination standards for digital sexual abuse and clarifies that affirmative consent must be voluntary, ongoing, and revocable. It also aligns employee-screening rules at public colleges with the revised definition.

What the law does ​

• Defines affirmative consent, sextortion, digitized sexually explicit material, stalking, and technology-facilitated sexual harassment.
• Includes sexual exploitation, sexual violence, stalking, sextortion, and technology-facilitated sexual harassment within sexual harassment.
• Treats creating digitized sexually explicit material without the depicted person's written consent, or knowingly distributing it without written consent, as sexual exploitation.
• Requires community college districts and California State University campuses to use the new sexual-harassment definition when screening final-stage applicants for academic, athletic, and administrative jobs.
• Requests independent colleges receiving state aid and the University of California to follow corresponding applicant-screening practices.

Who it affects ​

• Students and employees at California public postsecondary institutions and at independent colleges receiving state financial assistance.
• Applicants for academic, athletic, and administrative positions at community colleges, California State University, the University of California, and covered independent colleges.
• Community college districts, California State University campuses, the University of California, and covered independent colleges.

Context ​

The updated definitions become operative August 1, 2027.