Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1845 on Tuesday, a new law requiring California colleges and universities that receive state financial assistance to overhaul how they train employees to recognize human trafficking, report suspected cases, and support students who may be exploited. The bill, signed in Sacramento, takes effect January 1, 2027, with full implementation of training, policies, and reporting procedures required by July 1, 2027.
The law was authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, a Sacramento Democrat and former prosecutor, as reported by KCRA 3. Krell has said exploitation and trafficking can occur on college campuses, and that students and employees need resources to recognize and address it. Her motivation traces back to her time as a California Deputy Attorney General, when she prosecuted a case in which a human trafficker stole a college student's financial aid check and forced her into prostitution, according to the California Office of the Governor.
Newsom signed AB 1845 as part of a broader public safety package strengthening protections for sexual assault survivors, and did so while national news coverage was focused on campus sexual violence allegations at Cornell University, per GV Wire. The timing placed California's own campus safety legislation into a national conversation already underway.
What Colleges Must Do
Under the new law, affected postsecondary institutions will be required to provide annual employee training on sex and labor trafficking, warning signs, and procedures for responding to and reporting suspected cases beginning July 1, 2027, per the bill's text. Campuses will also have to clarify which law enforcement agency is responsible for investigating human trafficking, sexual assault, and other serious crimes, and document reported trafficking cases so they can be forwarded to the appropriate agency as soon as reasonably possible.
The law goes further than annual training mandates. Postsecondary institutions must maintain compliance with human trafficking reporting and annual crime statistics as an explicit condition of participating in the Cal Grant Program, California's state-funded undergraduate financial aid system, according to BillTrack50. Colleges and universities must also update written law enforcement agreements establishing investigative responsibilities for human trafficking and sexual crimes by July 1, 2027, and re-evaluate those agreements every five years afterward.
Closing Gaps a State Audit Found
The legislation was designed in part to close reporting gaps identified by a California State Audit, which found that several colleges failed to promptly disclose serious campus crimes to local police agencies, according to an April 2026 analysis from the California State Assembly Committee. The findings highlighted the importance of timely disclosure of serious campus crimes to local police agencies.
The bill cleared the Assembly with unanimous, bipartisan support, passing 77-0 on August 28, 2026, and was co-sponsored by Republican Assemblymember Juan Alanis of Modesto, according to LegiScan. Newsom signed the measure ahead of his deadline to act on bills passed during the legislative session, KCRA 3 reported.
Krell's Record on Trafficking Legislation
Krell said consistent reporting is necessary to support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable, and that women and girls who experience sexual abuse, sex trafficking, or sexual assault are rarely given the support needed to move forward and rebuild their lives. “It’s really important that colleges understand what’s at stake,” she said, adding that faculty, staff and students need tools and resources, per KCRA 3's reporting.
AB 1845 is not Krell's first swing at trafficking law this year. Earlier in 2026, her Assembly Bill 379 took effect statewide, creating a misdemeanor for loitering with intent to buy sex and levying $1,000 fines earmarked for a state Survivor Support Fund, as Hoodline previously reported. Krell previously served as a California Deputy Attorney General.
Andrew Story, quoted in KCRA 3's coverage of the signing, said campus should be a place of safety, and that students should be able to be themselves without worrying about what could happen to them or their friends. He called sex trafficking one of the worst crimes, noting that it causes victims to lose their bodily autonomy.
A State Leading the Nation in Reported Cases
California consistently leads all U.S. states in reported human trafficking cases, registering 1,128 cases involving 2,045 identified direct victims in 2023, according to National Human Trafficking Hotline data cited by the Joslyn Law Firm. That scale helps explain why lawmakers have steadily widened mandatory anti-trafficking training across industries in the state. California first required such training for hotel and lodging employees under Senate Bill 970 in 2018, mandating at least 20 minutes of instruction every two years for front-line staff, according to Littler Mendelson.
AB 1845 now extends that incremental approach from hospitality into higher education, linking compliance directly to the financial aid dollars that keep California's colleges and universities running.
