Yesterday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee gutted Kayleigh's Law, stripping a bill designed to protect child survivors of sex crimes of the very protections that made it meaningful.
Only in Sacramento.
Senate Bill 1395, Kayleigh's Law, authored by Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Santa Clarita), would have allowed judges to issue 20-year protective orders at sentencing for individuals convicted of felony sex offenses against a minor. Right now, survivors are forced to return to court repeatedly just to maintain basic protections against their abusers. Kayleigh's Law was designed to end that cycle once and for all.
The bill sailed through multiple policy committees with strong, agreed-upon protections in place. Then it reached the Assembly Appropriations Committee, a committee whose job is to look at the cost of a bill, not rewrite its policy. What they sent back is unrecognizable.
Under the gutted version, judges could only issue a 10-year protective order, half of what the bill previously provided, or until a minor victim turns 18, whichever is later. In practice, this could leave child victims with no meaningful protection beyond what current law already provides. It is, in plain terms, a do-nothing bill.
"No survivor should have to keep facing their abuser in court just to stay protected," said Senator Valladares. "What the Assembly Appropriations Committee did is not a compromise. It is a betrayal of every child victim this bill was designed to protect."
This is especially hard to stomach knowing that stronger versions of this law are already on the books in states across the country, and a federal version of Kayleigh's Law that includes even stronger protections, including lifetime protective orders, is currently moving through Congress with strong bipartisan support.
While Washington is stepping up for child victims with lifetime protections, Sacramento is busy watering down a bill that would have only lasted 20 years. California is not leading on this issue. It is falling behind, and children are paying the price.
Kayleigh's Law is named after survivor and advocate Kayleigh Kozak, who has fought courageously to ensure no other child goes through what she did. The bill is co-sponsored by the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
Senator Valladares is calling on her colleagues to reject the gutted version and join her in fighting to restore the full 20-year protective order that survivors deserve. Anything less is a failure of the most basic duty of government: to protect the people who need it most.