Senate Bill 24 (SB 24) enacts Calley’s Law, a law that authorizes, beginning on January 1, 2023, a court to issue an order restraining a party – likely a parent or legal guardian – from accessing records and information pertaining to the health care, education, daycare, recreational activities, or employment of a minor child.
SB 24 also requires an “essential care provider,” such as a private school, daycare facility, or other similar organization that frequently provides essential care services to children, to develop on or before February 1, 2023, protocols to comply with a restraining order they may receive under Calley’s Law. Similarly, SB 24 requires a “discretionary services organization,” which includes any organization that provides nonessential services to children, such as recreational activities, entertainment, and summer camps, or a minor’s place of employment to develop protocols to comply with a restraining order they may receive under Calley’s Law within 30 days of the date it receives its first restraining order.
The protocols must, at a minimum, (1) designate the appropriate personnel responsible for receiving the protective order; (2) establish a means of ensuring that the restrained party is not able to access the records or information; and (3) implement a procedure for submission of a copy of an order and for providing the party that submits the copy of the order with documentation indicating when, and to whom, the copy of the order was submitted.
In the event a parent or legal guardian presents a court order under Calley’s Law, the essential care provider or a discretionary services organization is prohibited from releasing information or records pertaining to the minor child to the restrained party.
(SB 24 adds Section 6323.5 to the Family Code.)