republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-543.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Education: sexual harassment: written policy: posters."
description: "Existing law requires each educational institution in the state to have a written policy on sexual harassment and to display that policy in a prominent location, as defined, in the main administrative building or other area of the educational institution's campus or schoolsite. Existing law requires a copy of that policy, as it pertains to students, to be provided as part of any orientation program conducted for new students at the beginning of each quarter, semester, or summer session, as applicable."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 543"
citation: "California AB 543 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Education: sexual harassment: written policy: posters."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Smith"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-02-13"
last_action: "2019-10-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c6c975dd-764b-46a8-854d-cfdf3c036c0e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543"
source_hash: "5bfcde35d9893b4d6b262ebddd47c1f543c14982c66cd935b0b70198d636086c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 543 (20192020) — Education: sexual harassment: written policy: posters.

Existing law requires each educational institution in the state to have a written policy on sexual harassment and to display that policy in a prominent location, as defined, in the main administrative building or other area of the educational institution's campus or schoolsite. Existing law requires a copy of that policy, as it pertains to students, to be provided as part of any orientation program conducted for new students at the beginning of each quarter, semester, or summer session, as applicable.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/13/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54399INT)
2. **04/02/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54398AMD)
3. **06/12/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54397AMD)
4. **06/18/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54396AMD)
5. **10/02/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54394CHP)
6. **AB543** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543)
7. **09/13/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB543&version=20190AB54395ENR)

## Votes

- AB 543 Smith Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Special Consent AB543 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 543 Smith Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Higher Education] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Smith — primary (person)
- Leyva — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-13** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-14** From printer. May be heard in committee March 16.
- **2019-02-25** Referred to Coms. on ED. and HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-01** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on HIGHER ED. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (March 27). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-04-02** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-04-03** Re-referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-04** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96(a). `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-04-25** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1475.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-16** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-11** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 5). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-12** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-24** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2019-08-30** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 30). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-08-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-04** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2019-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2712.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 11 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2019-09-10** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 3252.)
- **2019-09-10** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3298.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-02** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-02** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 428, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c6c975dd-764b-46a8-854d-cfdf3c036c0e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).