California AB 1825 Training Requirements (2026 Guide)

AB 1825 remains one of the most commonly searched compliance terms for California HR teams. But the compliance picture has shifted significantly since that law first took effect in 2005.

Here's the short version: employers with five or more employees must provide at least one hour of training to nonsupervisory employees and two hours to supervisory employees every two years. That five-employee threshold comes from California Government Code § 12950.1 as amended.

This guide explains what AB 1825 originally required, how SB 1343 and later legislation expanded those rules, and what employers must do today.

Note: Effective July 1, 2022, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) was also renamed to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), which now enforces these rules.

AB 1825 vs. current California law: what changed and what still applies

There's a lot of confusion about whether AB 1825 is still the governing framework or whether later laws replaced it. The answer is both. AB 1825 created the foundation, and subsequent legislation built on it.

AB 1825 required employers with 50 or more employees to provide 2 hours of training and education to all supervisory employees every two years. Under the original AB 1825, only supervisory employees were required to complete training. The law applied only to larger employers and said nothing about rank-and-file staff.

SB 1343, signed into law in 2018, dropped that threshold to five employees and expanded the requirement to include all workers. The original compliance deadline was also January 1, 2020. However, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 778 into law in 2019, he extended the deadline by one year to January 1, 2021.

Several AB 1825 elements survive intact in today's framework. The two-hour supervisor training requirement, the two-year retraining cycle, and the interactive-training standard all originated in AB 1825 and remain codified. In 2014, California passed AB 2053, which added the prevention of abusive conduct to the training.

Added in 2017, California SB 396 focused on including gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation in the training. These content requirements layer on top of AB 1825's original scope.

Today, employers must follow the combined rule set: AB 1825 + AB 2053 + SB 396 + SB 1343, all enforced under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) by the CRD.

Here's how the original law compares to what's in effect today:

Who must be trained and by what deadline

Knowing whether the law applies to you starts with how you count employees and ends with a specific calendar date on a training certificate.

The five-person count includes full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers, as well as independent contractors who regularly provide services. For these staff, an employer is required to train its California-based employees so long as it employs 5 or more employees anywhere, even if they do not work at the same location and even if not all of them work or reside in California.

For multi-state employers, the takeaway is clear: if your company has five or more employees total and any of them work in California, California's training rules apply to those California-based workers.

Here's who must complete training, and for how long:

• Supervisors. 2 hours of interactive training. If someone can hire, fire, promote, discipline, or direct other employees, they're likely a supervisor under this law — even if "supervisor" isn't in their job title.
• Non-supervisory employees. 1 hour of interactive training.
• Temporary and seasonal employees. Seasonal and temporary employees hired for less than six months must complete training within 30 calendar days of hire or 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.
• Workers from staffing agencies. In the case of a temporary employee employed by a temporary services employer, the training must be provided by the temporary services employer, not the client. The staffing agency bears primary training responsibility, though the client employer should verify compliance.

Deadlines follow a clear pattern:

1. New hires (non-supervisors). Within 6 months of hire.
2. New supervisors (hired or promoted). New supervisory employees must be trained within 6 months of assuming their supervisory position.
3. Temporary/seasonal. Within 30 days or 100 hours, whichever comes first.
4. Retraining. Every 2 years from the date of last completed training.

Meeting these deadlines is only half the equation. The training itself must meet specific content and delivery standards to satisfy California's requirements.

What California-compliant training must include

Sexual harassment under California law is broadly defined as unwelcome sexual advances, or verbal, physical, and visual conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile work environment. Training must go well beyond that single definition.

A compliant course must cover:

• The legal definition of sexual harassment under FEHA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including federal and state prohibitions on harassment, discrimination, and retaliation
• Practical examples of conduct that constitutes harassment in California
• Abusive conduct and workplace bullying (required by AB 2053)
• Harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation (required by SB 396)
• Harassment by non-employees, third parties, and in remote-work settings
• Remedies available to victims, including reporting processes
• Supervisory obligations to report, respond to complaints, and handle personal accusations

A policy acknowledgment, a pamphlet, or a passive video does not satisfy California's sexual harassment training requirements.

Instead, California mandates "effective interactive training," meaning courses must include questions, hypothetical scenarios, or skill-building activities. Compliant online training should therefore feature knowledge checks, branching scenarios, or role-play exercises that require learners to actively respond.

Supervisors are also expected to apply what they learn by recognizing and responding to complaints. The training itself must cover these supervisory duties, including how to conduct an investigation and how to maintain a harassment-free workplace.

Given California's diverse workforce, employers should also ensure training is available in languages employees understand. Accessibility features like closed captioning and screen-reader compatibility are also important considerations.

Employer responsibilities and recordkeeping

Providing training is only part of the obligation. Employers must also document and retain evidence of compliance, which includes documentation of the training it has provided its employees for a minimum of two years. Required records include:

• Names of employees trained
• Date of training
• Sign-in sheet (if used)
• Copy of all certificates of attendance or completion (if issued)
• Type of training
• Copy of all written or recorded materials used
• Copy of the training content itself

Employees are wise to save their own certificates of completion as personal proof.

In addition to the harassment prevention training regulations, SB 513 (which took effect January 1, 2026) also requires employers that maintain training records to ensure that those records include any resulting certification or qualification. Recordkeeping standards are getting tighter, not looser.

For official resources, the CRD website offers a free online training portal, required workplace posters, and FAQ documents. The training is currently available in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

In practice, HR teams face real operational challenges: assigning training at scale, tracking completions across locations, and onboarding new hires within the six-month window.

Employers can use the free CRD training, but should weigh tradeoffs around reporting depth, automation, multilingual support, and integration with existing HR systems before choosing their approach.

Consequences of noncompliance

Failure to provide required harassment prevention training doesn't carry a standalone fine in the way a parking ticket does. But the consequences are serious.

The CRD has the authority to investigate employers who fail to comply with training requirements. If an employer is found to be non-compliant, the CRD can seek a court order compelling the employer to provide training. The CRD can also investigate complaints, issue orders, and seek remedies including back pay, policy changes, and monetary damages.

However, the bigger risk shows up in litigation. When sexual harassment occurs in the workplace, employers frequently rely on a legal defense that they took "reasonable steps" to prevent and correct harassment. Without documented training, the employer's ability to defend against a harassment lawsuit is substantially weakened.

A plaintiff's attorney can argue that the employer showed disregard for its legal obligations, which can increase damages significantly. Conversely, as the original AB 1825 statute notes, completing training does not insulate an employer from liability. Compliance is expected, not optional — but it is one component of a defensible compliance posture.

How EasyLlama simplifies California compliance

EasyLlama's California harassment prevention training is built to address the operational challenges outlined above. EasyLlama turns compliance into a managed, automated workflow instead of a last-minute scramble. Here's how the platform handles each piece.

One course, full California coverage. EasyLlama's California-specific harassment prevention course is aligned to AB 1825, AB 2053, SB 396, SB 1343, SB 778, and FEHA. HR teams don't have to cross-reference multiple laws on their own. The course is available in multiple languages, addressing accessibility and multilingual needs that the free state training can't match at the same scale.

Role-based assignment. HR can organize learners by entity, department, role, and location. EasyLlama automatically assigns the correct two-hour supervisor or one-hour non-supervisor course based on the employee profile. The system applies the six-month new-hire deadline and the two-year retraining cadence automatically, reducing the risk of missed deadlines.

Mobile-first, interactive delivery. Employees complete training on any device, which is critical for distributed and deskless workforces. Courses include the interactive elements California requires, such as realistic scenarios and knowledge checks.

Automated reminders and retraining. EasyLlama sends automated invitations and follow-up reminders via email, SMS, and Slack. Recurring retraining triggers automatically, so HR doesn't have to manually track the two-year cycle. Organizations can begin getting employees compliant in as little as five minutes after purchasing licenses.

Audit-ready documentation and integrations. EasyLlama integrates with over 1,000 HRIS, LMS, and payroll providers — including BambooHR, Workday, Gusto, ADP, and Paylocity — to sync employee data and automate assignments. It centralizes completion records and enables one-click bulk certificate exports for audit proof.

Anonymous reporting and case management. Its anonymous reporting and case management tools give employees a safe channel to speak up after training is complete. These tools form a complete compliance workflow — from assigning the right training and documenting completion to reinforcing learning and providing safe reporting channels.

See how EasyLlama's California harassment prevention training can work for your team today.