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California State Board of Optometry approves legislative proposals for 2025 sunset report and begins in-depth review of draft report
Summary
At its Oct. 11 meeting in Sacramento the board approved statutory proposals to (1) define "person" in the optometry practice act, (2) add a probationary registration for opticianry, (3) require licensees to provide an email address if they have one, and (4) add nonbinding DEIB continuing-education language to the sunset report. Members also began a section-by-section review of the draft 2025 sunset report covering fiscal, licensing, enforcement, telehealth and workforce issues.
The California State Board of Optometry on Oct. 11 approved several statutory proposals for inclusion in the board's 2025 sunset report and began a chapter-by-chapter review of the draft report that staff expects to return to the board for final approval in December.
The board voted to add a statutory definition of "person" to Business and Professions Code section 3040 to make clear the optometry practice act can reach business entities that advertise or hold themselves out as providing optometric services, a change staff said is designed to close a gap identified in an administrative hearing. Executive Officer Gregory Pruden told members the change "would make clear that business entities are included in that definition, but we are not licensing you as a licensed optometrist. Only a natural person can be licensed in that way." Christine Schultz of the California Optometric Association spoke in support during public comment.
In a separate action the board approved a proposal to create a probationary registration for opticians (proposed BPC 2555.6), mirroring an authority that exists for optometrists. The new authority would give staff and the board a third option beyond approval or denial for applicants who present conviction histories or other circumstances where terms and conditions are appropriate. The board voted to instruct staff to amend the proposed language to clarify that any supervising individual must be in good standing and either be registered in an equivalent opticianry class or be a licensed optometrist or physician/surgeon.
The board also approved statutory language (proposed BPC 2552.1 and 3029) requiring applicants, registrants and licensees who already have an electronic mail address to provide it to the board by an implementation date (staff proposed 07/01/2026). Staff emphasized the proposal would not force anyone to create an email address; Member Pruitt raised data-security concerns, and staff replied that the board already holds other…
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