A Message from the Director

Welcome to the Web site of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The Department is California’s civil rights agency, the largest among all 50 states. The Department takes in, investigates, conciliates, mediates and prosecutes employment, housing, and public accommodation violations and hate violence under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, Disabled Persons Act, Unruh Civil Rights Act and Ralph Civil Rights Act. The Department issues regulations that implement, interpret and make specific its procedures. 

The Department is headquartered in Elk Grove.  We have regional offices in the Bay Area (Fremont) and Los Angeles; and district offices in Bakersfield, Fresno and San Jose.  (The San Jose District Office will be merged with the Bay Area Regional Office by June 2012).   In addition, the Department has established innovative clinical programs to train a new generation of civil rights lawyers and investigators with the law schools at the University of California, Irvine and Davis, and with the graduate school at California State University , Bakersfield.  New clinics are planned with California Community Colleges.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  See Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.'s Proclamation.  Events This Month:

• May 1 - Director Phyllis Cheng testifies before the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 4 on the Governor's Proposed Budget.
• May 4 - Director Phyllis Cheng presents the Department's update at the Employment Round Table of Southern California breakfast seminar, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, 7:30-11:25 am.  
• May 4 - State Bar of California names Director Phyllis Cheng the 2012 Public Lawyer of the Year.  See State Bar and DFEH press releases.
• May 7 - Director Phyllis Cheng testifies before the State Personnel Board on the CalHR reorganization.
• May 10 - Chief Counsel Nelson Chan presents the DFEH Webinar on "Sexual Harassment Prevention Training," 10 am-12 pm. 
• May 10 - Director Phyllis Cheng testifies before the Senate Budget/Fiscal Review Subcommittee 4 on the Governor's Proposed Budget.
• May 11 - Associate Chief Counsel R. Sybil Villanueva  provides sexual harassment prevention training to the employees of Loungefly Apparel, Chatsworth.
• May 12 - Director Phyllis Cheng speaks at the California Employment Lawyers Association Southern California Diversity Leadership Summit, Loyola Law School, 919 Albany Street, Los Angeles.  
• May 14 - The DFEH-UC Irvine School of Law Civil Rights Clinic commences a second summer clinical program.
• May 17 - Director Phyllis Cheng speaks at Scripps Memorial Hospital. La Jolla.
• May 18 - Director Phyllis Cheng speaks at the CALSHRM Legislative Conference, Sacramento. 
• May 21-25 - DFEH partners with the National Fair Housing Training Academy and Southwestern Law School to provide weeklong Fair Housing Training, Southwestern law School, Los Angeles.
• May 23 - Chief of Mediation Annmarie Billotti presents the DFEH Webinar on "Changes to the FEHA in 2012," 1-2 pm.
• May 31 - Director Phyllis Cheng speaks at the California Employment Lawyers Association Northern California Diversity Leadership Summit,  Golden Gate University School of Law, 536 Mission Street, San Francisco. 

To learn more about the Department, explore our Web site, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. 

I Want To:

• Request a Pre-Complaint Questionnaire from the Communication Center
  First step to file a complaint.
• Obtain a Right to Sue Notice
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• Amend a Right to Sue Notice
  Request changes to a Right to Sue Notice.

• Submit a Public Records Request
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• Check the Status of a Complaint
  Contact your investigator directly. If you have lost that information, or need other help regarding a specific complaint, please contact us.
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