BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 349
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 349 (Gatto) - As Amended: April 22, 2013
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the superintendent of a school district,
including county offices of education, or a charter school
administrator, to report a change in employment status of a
classified employee to the State Department of Education (SDE)
no later than 30 days after the status change, as specified.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the reporting to occur when a classified employee is
dismissed, resigns, is suspended, retires, or is otherwise
terminated by a decision not to employ or reemploy, as a
result of a pending allegation of misconduct involving a
child. Specifies this reporting does not include a change in
status solely due to a layoff.
2)Requires the report to be made to SDE regardless of any
proposed or actual agreement, settlement, or stipulation not
to make such a report, including if the report was withdrawn,
as specified.
3)Defines allegation of misconduct as any child abuse act
defined under the Child Abuse and Neglect and Reporting Act,
any sex offense, and any act that involves minors and
controlled substances, as specified.
4)Requires specified information to be reported to SDE,
including personnel information, an explanation of the
allegation of misconduct, and any pertinent information
related to the case, as specified. This bill requires SDE to
maintain these reports and not make this information available
to the public.
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FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time GF/98 start-up costs, likely between $1 million and
$5 million, to SDE to develop a database to house the reported
information and due process procedures, as specified.
2)Annual, GF/98 costs, likely between $500,000 and $1 million,
to SDE to conduct due process and investigative procedures
related to this bill, as specified.
SUMMARY CONTINUED
1)Requires SDE to do the following:
a) Establish due process procedures for removing an
employee's name from the reports, as specified.
b) Establish procedures to determine whether a decision to
dismiss, suspend, or not to employ or reemploy an employee
are unfounded or substantiated, as specified.
2)Requires the school district or charter school to provide SDE
with all relevant information pertinent to an investigation of
a classified employee of an allegation involving a child, as
specified.
COMMENTS
1)Background . The California Code of Regulations requires the
superintendent of the employing school district to report a
change in employment status to the Commission on Teacher
Credentialing (CTC) not later than 30 days after a
credentialholder (certificated teacher) is dismissed or
nonrelected, resigns, is suspended or placed on unpaid
administrative leave as a final adverse employment action for
more than 10 days, retires, or is otherwise terminated by a
decision not to employ or re-employ, as a result of an
allegation of misconduct, or while an allegation of misconduct
is pending.
The regulations further require the report to be made to the
CTC regardless of any proposed or actual agreement,
settlement, or stipulation not to make such a report. The
report is required to be made if allegations served on the
credentialholder are withdrawn in consideration of the
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holder's resignation, retirement or other failure to contest
the truth of the allegations.
This bill is modeled after these regulations.
2)Purpose . In November 2012, the State Auditor (SA), released a
report entitled Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD):
It Could Do More to Improve its Handling of Child Abuse Cases.
According to the SA, "California has no statewide mechanism
to communicate among school districts when a classified
employee at any school district separates by dismissal,
resignation, or settlement during the course of an
investigation involving misconduct with students. Thus, a
classified employee who has separated from his or her district
might be able to find employment with other school districts
without those school districts knowing the circumstances under
which the employee left a previous position." Specifically,
the auditor recommends establishing a statewide mechanism to
make this information available to school districts.
According to the author, "In 2010, there were more than
265,000 classified employees working in more than 1,000 school
districts in California's public school system. In 2012,
almost 30,400 classified employees worked for LAUSD alone, the
largest district in the state serving more than 659,200
elementary, middle, and high school students. Absent?a
[reporting system] system, a classified employee that left a
school by dismissal, resignation or settlement during the
course of an investigation for child abuse that did not result
in an arrest or criminal conviction can easily return to work
in another school district, a system failure that puts
California's children at risk."
3)Related legislation .
a) AB 449 (Muratsuchi), pending in this committee, requires
the superintendent of a school district or county office of
education, or the administrator of a charter school
employing a person with a credential, to report any change
in the credentialholder's employment status to the CTC) no
later than 30 days after the change in status, as
specified.
b) SB 160 (Lara and de Leon), is similar to this measure,
and is pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081