Ethics Training

Many public officials are required to take an ethics training course to educate them on the ethical standards required of any individual who works in state or local government. Public officials may utilize free online courses available to satisfy this requirement.

Please note that the state officials ethics course will not satisfy the local officials ethics course requirements and vice versa. 

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 every two-year period. The two-year period begins with an odd-numbered year, for example, 2023-24, 2025-26, etc. To help state officials meet this requirement, the Attorney General’s Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission have developed an online 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.

• State Officials Ethics Training Course

Cities, counties and special districts in California are required by law (AB 1234, Chapter 700, Stats. of 2005 and SB 827 Chapter 661, Stats of 2025) to provide ethics training to their local officials. Effective January 1, 2026, SB 827 expands the ethics training requirement to department heads or similar administrators of local agencies, including educational agencies. All local agency officials must complete an ethics training course within six months of being hired.

Several training options are available to your agency, including training conducted by commercial organizations, nonprofits, or an agency's own legal counsel. In addition, the Attorney General’s Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission have established an online training program that allows local officials to satisfy the local ethics training requirements at no cost. The course can be accessed via the link below. When the training is finished, you must print the Certification of Completion provided at the end. 

• Local Officials Ethics Training Course

The law also provides that if an entity develops criteria for the required ethics training, the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Attorney General need to be consulted regarding any proposed course content. Implementing this provision, the Fair Political Practices Commission has adopted Regulation 18371.

Under the regulation, anyone developing and conducting a local ethics course fulfills its obligation to consult the Fair Political Practices Commission so long as the entity reviews and includes the “core content" topics covered by the Political Reform Act and specified in Regulation 18371(b). The core contents should be reviewed no more than 60 days in advance of the date the training is developed or conducted, and every year thereafter.

Local agencies that provide ethics training must also maintain the records of the officials who have completed the training and the entity that provided the training for at least five years.

Beginning July 1, 2026, local agencies that maintain a website must provide clear instructions and contact information on their website for requesting ethics training records from the local agency.

Generally, the Fair Political Practices Commission does not independently review each training course, but can be further consulted if there are questions regarding the core content that must be included under the Political Reform Act. 

Similarly, the Office of the Attorney General has prepared an outline of course requirements to provide uniform guidance regarding appropriate course content. Due to the demand for ethics training, it is anticipated that the Office of the Attorney General will be unable to review and comment on individual course materials. 

Additional resources regarding local agency ethics training may be found on the Attorney General’s webpage and the Institute for Local Government.

The FPPC cannot advise on the legal requirements of these ethics trainings because the FPPC does not have jurisdiction to do so. For questions pertaining to legal interpretation and application of AB 1234 and SB 827, please consult your local agency counsel.

If you have questions, concerns, or technical issues related to the online training program offered on our website only, please feel free to contact us at: ab1234@fppc.ca.gov.