BILL NUMBER: AB 349 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Gatto
FEBRUARY 13, 2013
An act to amend Section 45125 of the Education Code, relating to
school administration.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 349, as introduced, Gatto. Classified employees: background
checks.
Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to
require each person to be employed in specified positions to have 2
fingerprint cards bearing the legible rolled and flat impressions of
the person's fingerprints together with a personal description of the
applicant prepared by a local public law enforcement agency having
jurisdiction in the area of the school district and requires the
agency to transmit these items to the Department of Justice. Existing
law requires the Department of Justice to ascertain whether the
person has been arrested or convicted of a crime and forward this
information to the employing agency within 15 working days after
receiving the fingerprint cards.
This bill would require the Department of Justice to forward this
information within 10 working days.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 45125 of the Education Code is amended to read:
45125. (a) (1) Except as provided in Section 45125.01, the
governing board of any a school
district shall require each person to be employed in a position
not requiring that does not require
certification qualifications, except a secondary school pupil
employed in a temporary or part-time position by the governing board
of the school district having jurisdiction over the school attended
by the pupil, to have two fingerprint cards bearing the legible
rolled and flat impressions of the person's fingerprints together
with a personal description of the applicant prepared by a local
public law enforcement agency having jurisdiction in the area of the
school district, which agency shall transmit the cards, together with
the fee required by subdivision (f), to the Department of
Justice; Justice, except that any district, or
districts with a common board, may process the fingerprint cards if
the district so elects.
(2) As used in this section, "local public law enforcement agency"
includes any a school district and as
used in Section 45126 requires the Department of Justice to provide
to any a school district, upon
application, information pertaining only to applicants for employment
by the district, including applicants who are employees of another
district.
(b) (1) Upon receiving the fingerprint cards, the Department of
Justice shall ascertain whether the applicant has been arrested or
convicted of any crime insofar as that fact can be ascertained from
information available to the department and forward the information
to the employing agency submitting the applicant's fingerprints no
more than 15 10 working days after
receiving the fingerprint cards. The Department of Justice shall not
forward records of criminal proceedings that did not result in a
conviction but shall forward information on arrests pending
adjudication.
(2) Upon implementation of an electronic fingerprinting system
with terminals located statewide and managed by the Department of
Justice, the Department of Justice shall ascertain the information
required pursuant to this subdivision within three working days. If
the Department of Justice cannot ascertain the information required
pursuant to this subdivision within three working days, the
department shall notify the school district that it cannot so
ascertain the required information. This notification shall be
delivered by telephone or electronic mail to the school district. If
a school district is notified by the Department of Justice that it
cannot ascertain the required information about a person, the school
district may shall not employ that
person until the Department of Justice ascertains that information.
(3) In the case of a person to be employed in a position not
requiring certification qualifications who is described in
subparagraph (A) or (B), the school district shall request the
Department of Justice to forward one copy of the fingerprint cards to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining any
record of previous convictions of the applicant.
(A) The person has not resided in the State of California for at
least one year immediately preceding the person's application for
employment.
(B) The person has resided for more than one year, but less than
seven years, in the State of California and the Department of Justice
has ascertained that the person was convicted of a sex offense where
the victim was a minor or a drug offense where an element of the
offense is either the distribution to, or the use of a controlled
substance by, a minor.
(c) The governing board of a school district shall not employ a
person until the Department of Justice completes its check of the
state criminal history file as set forth in this section and Sections
45125.5 and 45126, except that this subdivision does not apply to
secondary school pupils who are to be employed in a temporary or
part-time position by the governing board of the school district
having jurisdiction over the school they attend.
(d) The governing board of each a
district shall maintain a list indicating the number of current
employees, except secondary school pupils employed in a temporary or
part-time position by the governing board of the school district
having jurisdiction over the school they attend, who have not
completed the requirements of this section. The Department of Justice
shall process these cards within 30 working days of their receipt
and any cards in its possession on the date of the amendment of this
section by Assembly Bill 1610 of the 1997-98 Regular Session within
30 working days of that date. School districts that have previously
submitted identification cards for current employees to either the
Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall
not be required to further implement the provisions of this section
as it applies to those employees.
(e) A plea or verdict of guilty or a finding of guilt by a court
in a trial without a jury or forfeiture of bail is deemed to be a
conviction within the meaning of this section, irrespective of a
subsequent order under the provisions of
pursuant to Section 1203.4 of the Penal Code allowing the
withdrawal of the plea of guilty and entering of a plea of not
guilty, or setting aside the verdict of guilty, or dismissing the
accusations or information.
(f) (1) The school district shall provide the means whereby the
fingerprint cards may be completed and may charge a fee determined by
the Department of Justice to be sufficient to reimburse the
department for the costs incurred in processing the application. The
amount of the fee shall be forwarded to the Department of Justice
with the required copies of applicant's fingerprint cards. The
governing board may collect a reasonable fee payable to the local
public law enforcement agency taking the fingerprints and completing
the data on the fingerprint cards. In no event shall the fee
The fees shall not exceed the actual costs
incurred by the agency.
(2) The additional fees shall be transmitted to the city or county
treasury. If an applicant is subsequently hired by the board within
30 days of the application, the fee may be reimbursed to the
applicant. Funds not reimbursed to applicants shall be credited to
the general fund of the district. If the fingerprint cards forwarded
to the Department of Justice are those of a person already in the
employ of the governing board, the district shall pay the fee
required by this section, which fee shall be a proper charge against
the general fund of the district, and no fee shall be charged the
employee.
(g) This section applies to substitute and temporary employees
regardless of length of employment.
(h) Subdivision (c) of this section shall not apply to a person to
be employed if a school district determines that an emergency or an
exceptional situation exists, and that a delay in filling the
position in which the person would be employed would endanger pupil
health or safety.
(i) Where reasonable access to the statewide, electronic
fingerprinting network is available, the Department of Justice may
mandate electronic submission of the fingerprints and related
information required by this section.
(j) A school district shall request subsequent arrest service from
the Department of Justice as provided under Section 11105.2 of the
Penal Code.
(k) All information obtained from the Department of Justice is
confidential. Each An agency handling
Department of Justice information shall ensure the following:
(1) No recipient may A recipient shall not
disclose its contents or provide copies of information.
(2) Information received shall be stored in a locked file separate
from other files, and shall only be accessible to the custodian of
records.
(3) Information received shall be destroyed upon the hiring
determination in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 708 of
Title 11 of the California Code of Regulations.
(4) Compliance with destruction, storage, dissemination, auditing,
backgrounding, and training requirements as set forth in Sections
700 through 708, inclusive, of Title 11 of the California Code of
Regulations and Section 11077 of the Penal Code governing the use and
security of criminal offender record information is the
responsibility of the entity receiving the information from the
Department of Justice.
( l ) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
Department of Justice shall process pursuant to this section all
requests from a school district, an employer, or a human resource
agency for criminal history information on a volunteer to be used in
a school.