Ethics Training Courses

Free online courses are available to satisfy laws requiring ethics training for state and local officials. Officials should be aware that the state officials ethics course will not satisfy the Assembly Bill 1234 local officials ethics course requirements and vice versa.

For State Officials

California law requires state officials to complete an ethics training course within six months of being hired. If your service is ongoing, you must complete the course once during each two-year period. The two-year period begins with an odd-numbered year, for example, 2017-18, 2019-20, etc. To help state officials meet this requirement, the Attorney General’s Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission have developed the State Officials - Ethics Training Course. State officials who wish to use this course to satisfy their mandatory ethics training requirement should check with their agency to ensure additional training is not required.

For Local Officials

Cities, counties and special districts in California are required by law (AB 1234, Chapter 700, Stats. of 2005) to provide ethics training to their local officials. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has made the AB 1234 Local Ethics Training available to satisfy the local officials ethics training requirement.

Other local officials ethics training courses may be available from commercial enterprises, nonprofit organizations or a local agency’s own legal counsel. Persons preparing local officials ethics training courses should review the Attorney General’s guidelines, pdf.