republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-956.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Marriage and family therapy: interns and trainees: advertisements."
description: "Existing law, the Marriage and Family Therapist Act, provides for the licensure or registration and regulation of marriage and family therapists and interns by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and makes a violation of its provisions a crime. Existing law requires marriage and family therapist interns, trainees, and applicants for licensure or registration to at all times be under supervision. Existing law requires interns and trainees to inform each client or patient prior to performing any professional services that he or she is unlicensed and under the supervision of a licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical social worker, licensed psychologist, or a licensed physician and surgeon certified in psychiatry. Existing law requires any person that advertises services performed by a trainee to include the trainee's name, the supervisor's license designation or abbreviation, and the supervisor's license number."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 956"
citation: "California AB 956 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Marriage and family therapy: interns and trainees: advertisements."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Roger Hernández"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2011-02-18"
last_action: "2011-08-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fe344f81-5432-4849-90d7-4290daa3bcff"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956"
source_hash: "2809e6c8972e093207a2376b892a7720b6847a20efe71405b66332374410db41"
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 956 (20112012) — Marriage and family therapy: interns and trainees: advertisements.

Existing law, the Marriage and Family Therapist Act, provides for the licensure or registration and regulation of marriage and family therapists and interns by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and makes a violation of its provisions a crime. Existing law requires marriage and family therapist interns, trainees, and applicants for licensure or registration to at all times be under supervision. Existing law requires interns and trainees to inform each client or patient prior to performing any professional services that he or she is unlicensed and under the supervision of a licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical social worker, licensed psychologist, or a licensed physician and surgeon certified in psychiatry. Existing law requires any person that advertises services performed by a trainee to include the trainee's name, the supervisor's license designation or abbreviation, and the supervisor's license number.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956&version=20110AB95699INT)
2. **05/27/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956&version=20110AB95698AMD)
3. **08/03/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956&version=20110AB95696CHP)
4. **AB956** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956)
5. **07/15/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB956&version=20110AB95697ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent #6 AB956 Roger Hernández By Emmerson — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and re-refer to Committee on Appropriations with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 956 HERNÁNDEZ Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 956 HERNÁNDEZ Consent Calendar Second Day — **70–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Roger Hernández — primary (person)
- Bonnie Lowenthal — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2011-03-31** Referred to Com. on B., P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: to consent calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (April 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-05** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 4). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-09** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-12** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 70. Noes 0. Page 1355.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-12** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-05-26** Referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-06-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-27** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2011-06-28** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-07-06** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2011-07-11** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 1787.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-07-11** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after July 13 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2011-07-14** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 2325.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-07-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1:30 p.m.
- **2011-08-03** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-08-03** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 166, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fe344f81-5432-4849-90d7-4290daa3bcff`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).