Think your kid’s done with a booster seat? New California law says maybe not

A new California law aims to keep more short children in booster seats for longer, imposing fines if they can’t properly wear their seat belt.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a watered-down version of Assembly Bill 435 that originally proposed to ban smaller teenagers from sitting in the front seat and to require short-statured youth to use booster seats into their middle school years.

But enough of the Democrats who control the Legislature balked at ending the time-honored tradition of teens calling “shotgun” to ride in the front seat.

Instead, they settled on changing the standards police officers use to determine if a child is tall enough to safely wear a seatbelt while riding in a vehicle. Currently, California law requires children to use booster seats until they turn 8 o