Sexual Harassment Prevention Training for Elected Officials & Supervisors
The two-hour supervisor course, written for public agencies. Eighteen case studies work through the situations supervisors and elected officials actually face — the rumor everyone heard, the after-hours messages, the complaint made outside the chain of command.
One Course, Two Overlapping Mandates
California requires two hours of sexual harassment prevention training for supervisory employees under Government Code § 12950.1, and AB 1661 requires local agency officials to receive that same training. Public agencies frequently need to satisfy both — often for the same person.
Who must take it
Supervisory employees at employers with five or more employees, and — under AB 1661 — members of a local agency legislative body and elected local agency officials where the agency provides any compensation, salary, or stipend.
How often
Two hours, completed within six months of taking office or assuming a supervisory position, and every two years thereafter. The course is set to a two-year recurrence and re-assigns automatically.
What must be covered
Federal and state law on the prohibition, prevention, and correction of sexual harassment; the remedies available to victims; and practical examples addressing prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation — plus abusive conduct.
Records
For local agency officials, the agency must record the completion dates and the training provider, keep them at least five years, and treat them as public records subject to disclosure.
Why the Two-Hour Version Is Different
Supervisor training is not a longer version of general awareness training. The statute expects supervisors to learn what to do — the obligations that attach the moment they learn something, whether or not anyone filed a complaint.
Two hours, interactive
Government Code § 12950.1 requires two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training for supervisory employees. Time on task is tracked per section here, so the two hours are documented rather than estimated.
AB 1661 covers the dais
Elected officials and legislative body members are not employees, but AB 1661 brings them inside the same two-hour requirement — the same training supervisors receive, on the same six-month and two-year cadence.
The duty to act on knowledge
A supervisor who learns of potential harassment has an obligation to act, even absent a formal complaint. The course's investigation-handoff checklist makes the escalation path concrete rather than aspirational.
Retaliation is the second claim
Retaliation claims frequently outlive the underlying allegation and are often the easier case to prove. A full lesson covers what retaliation is, including the schedule change or reassignment that follows a complaint.
Abusive conduct and bystanders
The required content reaches beyond sexual harassment to abusive conduct and bullying, gender identity and expression, and bystander intervention — how to speak up early, before a pattern establishes itself.
Five-year public record
AB 1661 mirrors AB 1234's recordkeeping: completion dates and provider, retained at least five years, disclosable under the Public Records Act. Records persist across recertification cycles in eFile LMS.
Course Content, Lesson by Lesson
Ten lessons, 67 sections, 18 case studies, and nine retention checks, closing with a final assessment and certification.
Course Introduction
7 sections
9 min
- Course Introduction
- Online Sexual Harassment Prevention Course
- About this Course
- Proof of Participation
- How This Course is Intended to Help You
- Course Objectives
- Where to Get Help
Supervisor Training Requirements
6 sections · 1 knowledge check
9 min
- Why California Requires This Training
- Government Code Section 12950.1
- Case Study: New Supervisor Timing
- AB 1661 and Local Agency Officials
- Case Study: Two Roles, One Training Cycle
- Retention Check Quiz #1
What Is Sexual Harassment?
7 sections · 1 knowledge check
10 min
- Definition and Core Idea
- Case Study: The Joke That Changed the Team
- Who Is Protected and Who Can Be Liable
- Overlap With Other Protected Characteristics
- Case Study: Comments About Gender Expression
- Abusive Conduct and Bullying
- Retention Check Quiz #2
Forms of Harassment
8 sections · 1 knowledge check
16 min
- Key Elements
- Verbal, Non-Verbal, Physical, and Digital Conduct
- Case Study: After-Hours Direct Messages
- Quid Pro Quo
- Hostile Work Environment
- Case Study: The Break Room Pattern
- Case Study: The Project Lead's Attention
- Retention Check Quiz #3
Supervisor Responsibilities
9 sections · 1 knowledge check
18 min
- The Supervisor's Role
- Supervisor Response in Practice
- Case Study: The Rumor Everyone Heard
- Building a Respectful Workplace
- Duty to Intervene
- Case Study: The Offsite Complaint
- Unacceptable Behavior Continuum
- Applying the Continuum
- Retention Check Quiz #4
Supervisory Power and Repeated Conduct
7 sections · 1 knowledge check
12 min
- Why Power and Repeated Conduct Matter
- Case Study: Alex and Jordan
- The Pattern Over Time
- Supervisor Lessons from the Pattern
- Case Study: Conference Dinner Boundary
- Case Study: Private Apology Pressure
- Retention Check Quiz #5
Complaints and Investigations
8 sections · 1 knowledge check
14 min
- Is This Serious Enough to Investigate?
- Basic Investigation Steps
- Investigation Handoff Checklist
- Case Study: The Vague Hallway Report
- Limited Confidentiality
- When There Are No Direct Witnesses
- Case Study: Screenshots Without Witnesses
- Retention Check Quiz #6
Reporting, Remedies, and Retaliation
6 sections · 1 knowledge check
13 min
- Reporting Options
- Case Study: Reporting Outside the Chain
- Available Remedies
- What Retaliation Is
- Case Study: Schedule Change After a Complaint
- Retention Check Quiz #7
Prevention and Speaking Up
6 sections · 1 knowledge check
13 min
- Speak Up Early
- Case Study: The Meeting Joke
- Bystander and Supervisor Intervention
- Case Study: The Group Text
- Preventive Practices
- Retention Check Quiz #8
Conclusion
3 sections · 1 knowledge check
7 min
- Conclusion
- Final Assessment
- Certification
Course content developed in partnership with MV Cheng & Associates.
Compliance Is the Floor. Judgment Is the Point.
The two-hour requirement is easy to satisfy badly. A course that recites definitions produces supervisors who can identify quid pro quo on a quiz and still miss the situation in front of them — a pattern of comments that no one has formally reported, a direct message sent at eleven at night, an apology demanded in private after an incident in public.
This course is built the other way around. Two lessons are devoted to supervisory power and repeated conduct, following a single fact pattern as it develops over time, because that is how these situations actually present: not as a discrete event, but as an escalating pattern that several people noticed and no one acted on. The unacceptable behavior continuum gives supervisors a shared vocabulary for the part of the range that is not yet unlawful but is already a problem.
What supervisors and officials take away
- A working test for when conduct is serious enough to investigate, and what to do when the report arrives secondhand and vaguely.
- The basic investigation steps, and — more importantly — the point at which to hand off rather than proceed alone.
- How to explain the limits of confidentiality honestly, without discouraging the person from reporting.
- How to evaluate a complaint when there are no direct witnesses and the evidence is screenshots.
- What retaliation looks like in scheduling, assignments, and everyday treatment after a complaint.
- Reporting options inside and outside the chain of command, and the remedies available to people who are harassed.
Two roles, one training cycle
Public agencies frequently employ people who are covered twice — an elected official who also supervises staff, or a department head serving on a regional board. The course addresses this directly with a case study on aligning cycles, so a single completion is documented against every obligation it satisfies instead of being tracked twice or missed entirely.
Compliance Calendar
New officials and new supervisors
Training is due within six months of taking office, commencing employment, or assuming a supervisory position — whichever applies.
Recertification
The two-year cycle runs from the last completion. eFile LMS re-assigns the course automatically and notifies the learner before the deadline.
Record retention
Agencies keep the completion date and provider for each local agency official, as a public record subject to disclosure on request.
Pairs With
Harassment Prevention — Employees
The one-hour nonsupervisory course required of every California employee under Government Code § 12950.1.
View course → AB 1234Ethics Training
The other six-month, two-year obligation that attaches to compensated local agency officials.
View course → SB 827Fiscal & Financial Training
Two hours of budgeting, revenue, debt, audit, and procurement oversight, newly required as of 2026.
View course → Brown ActBrown Act Training
California's open meeting law, including the SB 707 teleconference and language-access changes.
View course →References
- Cal. Gov. Code § 12950.1 — two hours of training for supervisory employees, every two years
- Cal. Gov. Code § 53237.1 — the AB 1661 requirement for compensated local agency officials
- Cal. Gov. Code § 53237.2 — training records, five-year retention, public records
- California Civil Rights Department — Sexual Harassment Prevention Training: Information for Employers (FAQ)
- California Legislative Information — AB 1661 (2015–2016), Local government: sexual harassment prevention training
- California Legislative Information — SB 1343 (2017–2018), Employers: sexual harassment training
This page summarizes statutory requirements for general information and is not legal advice. Requirements change, and their application depends on your agency's structure and local policies. Confirm how they apply with your agency counsel.
Train Supervisors and Officials Together
See how eFile LMS assigns, tracks, and documents harassment prevention compliance across both mandates. Book a personalized demo with our team.