republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-686.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Indian children."
description: "Existing federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) , governs the proceedings for determining the placement of an Indian child when that child is removed from the custody of the child's parent or guardian. Existing law specifies that the state is committed to protecting the essential tribal relations and best interest of an Indian child by promoting practices in accordance with ICWA. Existing law requires a court in all Indian child custody proceedings to, among other things, comply with ICWA."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 686"
citation: "California AB 686 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Indian children."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Waldron"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 29
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-02-15"
last_action: "2019-10-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/66c8e3ca-3bab-4136-b249-73b3b8d4dfce"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686"
source_hash: "726dbf2c71a27157729f68b6a63aff9800dacd177595eefc9c777a75db315cf4"
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 686 (20192020) — Indian children.

Existing federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) , governs the proceedings for determining the placement of an Indian child when that child is removed from the custody of the child's parent or guardian. Existing law specifies that the state is committed to protecting the essential tribal relations and best interest of an Indian child by promoting practices in accordance with ICWA. Existing law requires a court in all Indian child custody proceedings to, among other things, comply with ICWA.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/15/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68699INT)
2. **03/28/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68698AMD)
3. **06/14/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68697AMD)
4. **07/09/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68696AMD)
5. **09/04/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68695AMD)
6. **10/02/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68693CHP)
7. **AB686** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686)
8. **09/13/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB686&version=20190AB68694ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB686 Waldron et al. By Rubio — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 686 Waldron Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 686 Waldron Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Waldron — primary (person)
- Ramos — author (person)
- Reyes — principal coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-15** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2019-02-28** Referred to Coms. on HUM. S. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 26). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-03-28** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-04-01** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-02** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (April 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, 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 Coms. on HUMAN S. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 10). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-26** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-07-09** 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`
- **2019-08-12** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2019-08-13** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-08-15** From Consent Calendar.
- **2019-08-15** Ordered to third reading.
- **2019-09-04** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2679.). `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 3287.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-19** 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 434, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/66c8e3ca-3bab-4136-b249-73b3b8d4dfce`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).