California update: two End Chronic Disease-backed bills signed into law
A new health education framework for schools and the nation’s second statewide registry for frontotemporal degeneration. Both give people and policymakers better tools to prevent and address chronic disease.
End Chronic Disease has been busy in California, where two new bills we supported have been signed into law. These efforts advance a common goal: giving people and policymakers better tools to prevent and address chronic disease.
SB 1133: the Ready to Learn, Ready for Health Act
On August 22, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1133, the Ready to Learn, Ready for Health Act, into law. End Chronic Disease’s affiliated 501(c)(4) entity sponsored the legislation with State Senator Tony Strickland (R).
The new law paves the way for nutrition, sleep, physical activity, stress management, digital balance, and environmental awareness to become part of California’s Health Education Framework when it is next revised, helping ensure students have access to practical information about the everyday factors that can shape their long-term health. The Sacramento Bee highlighted End Chronic Disease’s work behind the legislation, and Kelly was also quoted in Hoodline, EdSource, and My News LA.
SB 1047: adding frontotemporal degeneration to the state registry
At the same time, we’ve continued our work to strengthen California’s approach to neurodegenerative disease data. Our affiliated 501(c)(4) entity co-sponsored Senate Bill 1047 (SB 1047), which extends the California Neurodegenerative Disease Registry through 2032 and adds frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) to the registry, helping improve the data available to researchers, clinicians, public health officials, and policymakers.
Frontotemporal degeneration is the most common cause of dementia for individuals under the age of 60, and there’s still very little that we know about what causes it, how to treat it, or how we might even prevent it. New York established the nation’s first state-level FTD registry in 2025. With SB 1047 now signed into law, California becomes the second state to require statewide collection of FTD diagnosis data.
Disease registries are essential tools for understanding illnesses and improving public health. Cancer registries, for example, have a long history in the United States, with the first statewide cancer registry established in Connecticut in 1935. Since then, cancer registries have helped researchers track cancer rates, identify patterns across different populations, study changes over time, and evaluate prevention efforts.
An FTD registry could provide a similar foundation by helping researchers and public health officials better understand how many people are affected, where cases are occurring, and how the disease affects different populations. Over time, more comprehensive data could help identify research priorities, improve access to care, and inform future studies into potential treatments and prevention.
The successful effort to pass SB 1047 brought together advocates including the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, Emma Heming Willis (wife of actor Bruce Willis, who currently lives with FTD), End Chronic Disease, and other advocates working to improve our understanding of FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases.
End Chronic Disease helped generate significant media coverage for this bill. Kelly spoke alongside Emma Heming Willis about the effort for a broadcast interview that aired across every major news outlet in California, including FOX40.
End Chronic Disease Communications Director Nora Kenney Mittiga wrote about SB 1047 and the broader need for better neurodegenerative disease data in the Washington Examiner, and Kelly penned a letter to the editor on the same topic in the Washington Post.
On September 30, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1047 into law.
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