Board committees reaffirm push for several statutory changes, including posting enforcement actions online

The Dental Hygiene Board of California on Nov. 8, 2025, voted in committee to reaffirm a set of proposed statutory amendments to the Business & Professions Code and directed staff to pursue sponsored legislation in 2026.

Executive Officer Anthony Lum presented four primary proposals: add BPC §19 15.1 to allow dental hygiene students to participate in sponsored health events (expanding access to care); amend §19 26.3 to remove a narrow 30‑day reporting requirement and instead add a renewal‑based work‑location reporting mechanism for RDHAPs so the board can better track where services are provided; update §19 41 to align accreditation language with the U.S. Department of Education’s institutional vs. programmatic terminology; and add §19 61.5 (and an implementation section numbered 19 50.1 in staff drafting) to permit posting enforcement actions on the board’s website and to create a narrowly defined executive‑officer citation‑removal process where subsequent evidence shows compliance.

Lum said staff tried to secure authorship for the 2025 legislative cycle but were unsuccessful and therefore asked the committee to reaffirm direction and seek sponsorship for 2026. Committee members discussed grammatical clarifications and recommended splitting the posting authority and executive‑officer removal authority into separate statutory subsections to improve transparency. The committee voted to reaffirm the statutory drafts and to direct staff to seek sponsored legislation; the motion passed on roll call.

Public and stakeholder remarks during committee discussion included requests for clarity about where newly requested data would be captured (e.g., how the board will record licensees who are not actively practicing versus those who report work locations) and suggestions that posting enforcement actions is consistent with transparency practices used by other healing‑arts boards. EO Lum said the board is not currently included in an existing program list that posts enforcement actions and wants the statutory authority to post results routinely.

What this means: if staff finds an author and legislation is introduced, the board’s recommended changes would require state law to be amended. The RDHAP work‑location reporting proposal, if enacted, would create a new source of statewide data on where RDHAPs practice; the enforcement‑posting language would allow the board to publish enforcement outcomes on its website subject to statutory conditions.

Next steps: staff will continue outreach to potential bill authors and will return draft language and a sponsorship plan to the board. The full board later reaffirmed the committee recommendations at its Nov. 8 session and voted to seek sponsorship (full‑board roll call recorded SEG 4647–4655).