Vital records.

Assembly Member Pacheco’s measure threads diacritical marks into California’s vital-records framework and enables a formal path to update existing certificates, recording an English-name field with marks such as accents or umlauts on birth, fetal death, death, and marriage records starting no earlier than two years after legislative funding is provided. The opening shift centers on ensuring diacritical marks are properly recorded while preserving the validity of documents as written.

Key mechanisms require the State Registrar to implement the diacritical-mark requirement for name fields, with the use of a diacritical mark deemed an acceptable entry on relevant certificates. The bill specifies that the presence or absence of a diacritical mark does not invalidate a document or affect the constructive notice of proper recordation. The State Registrar may develop a list of acceptable marks through all-county letters or similar instructions without further regulatory action, and it may remove diacritical marks from data before furnishing vital statistics to federal, state, or local agencies. The term “diacritical mark” includes accents, tildes, graves, umlauts, and cedillas.

The legislation adds a separate correction channel via an oath-based affidavit beginning July 1, 2026. If a name in an existing certificate is not accurately recorded due to the absence of a diacritical mark, the person asserting the omission (or their conservator, or a parent/guardian if the person is a minor) may file an sworn affidavit, supported by another knowledgeable person, with the State Registrar. The Registrar would review the request and, upon payment of the prescribed fee, issue an amendment to the appropriate certificate. A parallel process applies to confidential marriage licenses and certificates, with the county clerk authorized to accept and file amendments and to charge a fee up to the reasonable cost of providing the amended record. The bill notes that requiring the oath may expand the crime of perjury and imposes related local-program duties on counties.

From a fiscal perspective, the bill adjusts certified-copy fees for vital records. The base fee for a birth certificate to non-public-agency applicants is reduced to sixteen dollars (from eighteen), while fetal-death and death certificates remain twelve dollars. An additional five-dollar fee applies to all certified copies, with local registrars distributing funds into state and local trust accounts to support vital-record modernization, data analysis, and related activities. The act preserves existing distributions to funds and requires annual reporting of revenues and expenditures, while directing the Legislature to consider operative timelines—most notably, the amendment process for records takes effect on July 1, 2026, and the revised fee structure becomes operative January 1, 2027. The bill also preserves state-mandated-local provisions regarding reimbursement statutes, indicating that only mandated costs would be reimbursed if the Commission on State Mandates so determines.