California AB 1159 (Student Personal Information: Artificial Intelligence Training Ban)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: privacy
status: enacted-pending
scope: Prohibits operators of covered K-12, early-learning, and higher-education websites, services, or apps from using students' covered personal information, including persistent unique identifiers, to train or develop a generative AI system or service, and requires reasonable security procedures for that information.
obligations: Per the Legislative Counsel's Digest, read directly from leginfo: the bill would 'prohibit an operator from using covered information, as defined, including persistent unique identifiers, created or gathered by the operator's site, service, or application to train a generative artificial intelligence system or service or develop an artificial intelligence system.' Operators must also implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the covered information.
effectiveDate: Phased: K-12 (KOPIPA) and early-learning (ELPIPA) amendments operative 2027-01-01; new higher-education (HESIPA) chapter operative 2027-07-01.
enactedDate: 2026-09-10
appliesTo: Operators (or entities working on their behalf) of internet websites, online services, or apps with actual knowledge that the product is used for K-12, preschool/prekindergarten, or higher-education purposes and was designed or marketed for those purposes
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1159
notes: Signed by Governor Newsom September 10, 2026 as Chapter 182, Statutes of 2026 (confirmed directly against leginfo's billStatusClient page: Approved by Governor 09/10/26, Chaptered 09/10/26). Amends the existing Student Online Personal Information Protection Act framework across K-12 (KOPIPA) and early learning (ELPIPA), and adds a new higher-education chapter (HESIPA). This resolves the highest-priority lead flagged by the prior discovery round, which reported AB 1159 as signed but not yet sourced. Distinct from ca-ab2013 (generative-AI training-data transparency, applies to AI developers generally) and ca-crc-ads-employment-regs (FEHA employment discrimination): AB 1159 is a student-privacy-specific ban on using minors'/students' covered data to train or build AI systems at all, not a disclosure or anti-discrimination duty.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

privacy

status

enacted-pending

scope

Prohibits operators of covered K-12, early-learning, and higher-education websites, services, or apps from using students' covered personal information, including persistent unique identifiers, to train or develop a generative AI system or service, and requires reasonable security procedures for that information.

obligations

Per the Legislative Counsel's Digest, read directly from leginfo: the bill would 'prohibit an operator from using covered information, as defined, including persistent unique identifiers, created or gathered by the operator's site, service, or application to train a generative artificial intelligence system or service or develop an artificial intelligence system.' Operators must also implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the covered information.

effectiveDate

Phased: K-12 (KOPIPA) and early-learning (ELPIPA) amendments operative 2027-01-01; new higher-education (HESIPA) chapter operative 2027-07-01.

enactedDate

2026-09-10

appliesTo

Operators (or entities working on their behalf) of internet websites, online services, or apps with actual knowledge that the product is used for K-12, preschool/prekindergarten, or higher-education purposes and was designed or marketed for those purposes

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1159

notes

Signed by Governor Newsom September 10, 2026 as Chapter 182, Statutes of 2026 (confirmed directly against leginfo's billStatusClient page: Approved by Governor 09/10/26, Chaptered 09/10/26). Amends the existing Student Online Personal Information Protection Act framework across K-12 (KOPIPA) and early learning (ELPIPA), and adds a new higher-education chapter (HESIPA). This resolves the highest-priority lead flagged by the prior discovery round, which reported AB 1159 as signed but not yet sourced. Distinct from ca-ab2013 (generative-AI training-data transparency, applies to AI developers generally) and ca-crc-ads-employment-regs (FEHA employment discrimination): AB 1159 is a student-privacy-specific ban on using minors'/students' covered data to train or build AI systems at all, not a disclosure or anti-discrimination duty.