Employee Race or Ethnicity FAQs
- Why did Race/Ethnicity information move from Employment History (EH) PIMS to Affordable Care Act System (ACAS)?
- Why can’t I update Ethnic Origin in EH PIMS in Item 445?
- Why isn’t ethnic information printing on the employee’s Turnaround PAR or NOPA?
- Where can I find the most updated CalHR Form 1070?
- How do I request Ethnicity access in ACAS?
- Where can I view or update an employee’s Race/Ethnicity information?
- How can I access Race/Ethnicity information in the ACAS system?
- When do I need to update Race/Ethnicity information in ACAS?
- What ethnic information did SCO convert to the ACAS system?
- What Race/Ethnicity codes can be entered in ACAS?
- What is an Outdated EH Ethnicity Code?
- Why can't I key Ethnicity Code F?
- Are there detailed instructions for accessing, viewing and entering Race/Ethnicity data in ACAS?
- Why are some Race/Ethnicity values highlighted on the ACAS Ethnicity screen?
- Does the Management Information Retrieval System (MIRS) contain multiple Race/Ethnicity codes for an employee?
- How do I view/key an employee’s ethnicity information if the employee has more than one position?
- Is there a limit to the number of Race/Ethnicity designations that an employee can select and/or key enter into ACAS?
- Who should I contact if I have additional questions?
Background – AB532
The Ethnic Origin was moved from EH PIMS to ACAS effective March 7, 2022, to comply with Assembly Bill (AB) 532 (2015/2016) and Government Code Section 8310.9. The California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) modified their Form 1070, State Employee Race/Ethnicity Questionnaire, to reflect seventeen (17) valid designation options and the State Controller’s Office (SCO) has modified their systems to accommodate one or more selections per employee. For more information, please refer to Personnel Letters 23-034 and 22-006.
Update Effective January 1, 2024 – SB189
Effective January 1, 2024, Senate Bill (SB) 189 (2022) and Government Code Section 8310.6, mandate that employees have the option of selecting from one of the following additional ethnicity categories for Black or African American groups.
- A descendant of a person or persons who were enslaved in the United States.
- Not a descendant of a person or persons who were enslaved in the United States, including, but not limited to, African Black, Caribbean Black, or other Black.
- Descendant status is unknown or choose not to identify.
To accommodate the new selections, the ACAS Ethnicity screen has been expanded to two screens.
Effective March 7, 2022, the EH system was updated to no longer allow the key entry of Ethnic Origin on any transactions. Ethnic information was moved to the ACAS system.
Because ethnic information is no longer key entered on the EH system, it no longer prints on Turnaround PARs or NOPA documents.
The new Form 1070 can be found at https://www.calhr.ca.gov/Documents/calhr-1070.pdf
The SCO Security Authorization form (PSD125A) has been revised to include a new column (ETH ACAS) for access to the Ethnicity screen in ACAS. For more information on how to add or edit user access, please refer to your agency’s Security Monitor or the SCO Decentralized Security Administration (DSA) at DSA@sco.ca.gov.
NOTE: ETH ACAS allows users to have view or update access levels. At the time of conversion, SCO assigned Ethnicity access based on the user's current PIMS access level.
Effective March 7, 2022, the SCO moved ethnic information for all active and temporarily separated employees to a new Ethnicity screen in the ACAS system. See Personnel Letters 23-034 and 22-006 and the User Guide for Keying Ethnicity into ACAS for more information.
To key or view ethnicity information in the ACAS system, please refer to the User Guide for Keying Ethnicity into ACAS
The employing department must update an employee’s race or ethnicity whenever CalHR Form 1070 (Rev. 11/2023) is submitted for one the following reasons:
- Employee is newly hired.
- Employee is rehired.
- Employee elects to make changes to current Race/Ethnicity selection.
NOTE: For new hire appointments, Race/Ethnicity values cannot be entered in ACAS until the following work day, because the employee’s record will not exist on ACAS until that point in time.
For any EH PIMS records that were active or temporarily separated on March 4, 2022, SCO moved existing Ethnic Origin data in the EH PIMS record to ACAS. That included:
- Employee designated alpha codes.
- Department designated numeric codes (for employees who did not self-identify)
- Spaces/blanks for any record where an Ethnic Code did not exist.
The codes were placed appropriately into one of three sections of the ACAS Ethnicity screen:
- Alpha codes for employee-designated values.
- Numeric codes for department-designated values.
- Outdated EH Ethnicity Code field.
If an employee was permanently separated at the time of conversion and had a record on ACAS, SCO moved spaces to their Ethnicity record.
Self-Identifying Race or Ethnicity (Alpha Codes)
- American Indian or Alaska Native (H)
- Hispanic or Latino (D)
- White (E)
BLACK or AFRICAN AMERICAN
- Descendant (Y)
- Non-Descendant (N)
- Descendant Status Unknown/Choose Not to Identify (O)
ASIAN
- Cambodian (U)
- Chinese (J)
- Filipino (G)
- Indian (M)
- Japanese (I)
- Korean (K)
- Laotian (V)
- Vietnamese (L)
- Other Asian (S)
PACIFIC ISLANDER
- Guamanian (R)
- Native Hawaiian (P)
- Samoan (Q)
- Other Pacific Islander (T)
HR Selected Employee Race or Ethnicity (Numeric Codes)
- Black or African American (1)
- Asian (2)
- Hispanic (4)
- White (5)
- Pacific Islander (6)
- American Indian (7)
At the time of converting Ethnic Codes to the ACAS system, there were older codes in the EH PIMS system that no longer exist on the CalHR Form 1070 (Rev. 11/2023). Many of these codes have existed in an employee’s record for years, but have not been included on the Form 1070 or in the SCO Personnel Action Manual (PAM) for quite some time.
Only the letter or number associated with the designation appears on the Ethnicity screen – not the designation name. Whenever a new employee designates or HR selected value is entered in ACAS, the outdated code is automatically deleted. An outdated code cannot be key entered.
The outdated codes and their older definitions include:
- 3 - Multiple Races, Non-Hispanic or Latino
- 8 - Filipino
- 9 - Not Known
- A - Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano
- B - Puerto Rican
- C - Cuban
- F - Black or African American
- W - Not Known
- X - Multiple Races, Non-Hispanic or Latino
- Z - Not Known
Effective January 2, 2024, Code F – Black or African American, can no longer be key entered in ACAS. It will continue to be reportable data, but as an outdated code only. Employees who previously designated Code F, can update their Black or African American code selection to Y, N or O, by submitting a new Form 1070. This includes employees who previously designated multiple ethnicity values, in addition to Code F.
Please refer to the User Guide for Keying Ethnicity into ACAS.
Highlighted values identify the current ethnicity selection(s) in the employee’s ACAS record.
Effective March 14, 2022, if an employee’s ACAS record contains one or more ethnicity values, the MIRS system reflects all that apply. Please refer to MIRS Letter #22-001 for additional information.
If an employee has multiple positions, the same ethnicity value(s) apply to all positions. When accessing the employee’s information on ACAS, a Multiple Positions screen will appear and the user will be asked to identify a specific position. The user will only be allowed to access positions for which they have security authority. Only the position(s) for which the user has authority can be accessed.
An employee can choose to identify with one or more selections from the CalHR 1070 form (Rev. 11/2023).
Most questions can be answered with the information contained in Personnel Letters 23-034 and 22-006 and the User Guide for Keying Ethnicity into ACAS. Should you require additional information, please contact the Statewide Customer Contact Center (SCCC) at (916) 372-7200.