AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 25, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 15, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

96

Introduced by Assembly Member Bryan

(Coauthor: Assembly Member Schultz)

January 27, 2026

An act to add Section 707.3 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to juveniles.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: no   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law, as amended by the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016, enacted by Proposition 57 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes the district attorney to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a court of criminal jurisdiction in a case in which a minor is alleged to have committed a felony when the minor was 16 years of age or older, or in a case in which a specified serious offense is alleged to have been committed by a minor when the minor was 14 or 15 years of age, but the minor was not apprehended prior to the end of juvenile court jurisdiction. Existing case law prohibits the use of a minor’s statements made at a transfer hearing or to a probation officer from being used during a criminal prosecution of the minor transferred to the court of criminal jurisdiction.

This bill would codify existing case law to prohibit the use of the minor’s statements made during a transfer hearing or to the minor’s probation officer for the purposes of preparing a report for a transfer hearing from being used against the minor during subsequent juvenile proceedings or subsequent criminal proceedings, as specified. This bill would state that the provisions of this bill are declaratory of existing law.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 707.3 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

707.3.

(a) Testimony a minor gives at a transfer hearing conducted pursuant to Section 707, or statements the minor makes to the minor’s probation officer for purposes of preparing a report for a transfer hearing, shall not be used against the minor in subsequent juvenile proceedings or subsequent criminal proceedings for the offense. This section does not prohibit the minor’s statements made to the minor’s probation officer for purposes of preparing a report for a transfer hearing or at a transfer hearing from being used at sentencing.

(b) This section shall not be construed to restrict, expand, alter, or modify the decision in Bryan v. Superior Court (1972) 7 Cal.3d 575 or Ramona R. v. Superior Court (1985) 37 Cal.3d 802. This section is declaratory of existing law.