BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                              Senator Carol Liu, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          Bill No:             AB 1452             
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          |Author:    |Hadley                                               |
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          |Version:   |February 27, 2015                      Hearing Date: |
          |           |    June 17, 2015                                    |
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          |Urgency:   |No                     |Fiscal:     |No              |
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          |Consultant:|Lenin Del Castillo                                   |
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          Subject:  Certificated employees:  personnel files:   
          expungement:  egregious  ????..misconduct

            SUMMARY
          
          This bill prohibits school districts, county offices of  
          education and charter schools from expunging from an employee's  
          personnel file credible complaints of, substantiated  
          investigations into, or discipline for, egregious misconduct.

            BACKGROUND
          
          Existing law specifies that school districts, county offices of  
          education, and charter schools are prohibited from entering into  
          an agreement that would authorize expunging from a school  
          employee's personnel file credible complaints of, substantiated  
          investigations into, or discipline for, egregious misconduct.   
          Egregious misconduct includes sex offenses, controlled substance  
          offenses and child abuse and neglect offenses.  However, this  
          prohibition does not preclude any agreement to remove documents  
          containing allegations that have been the subject of a hearing  
          before an arbitrator, school board, personnel commission,  
          Commission on Professional Competence, or administrative law  
          judge, in which the employee prevailed, the allegations were  
          determined to be false, not credible, or unsubstantiated, or a  
          determination was made that the discipline was not warranted.  
          (Education Code § 44939.5)

            ANALYSIS
          







          AB 1452 (Hadley)                                        Page 2  
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          This bill prohibits school districts, county offices of  
          education, and charter schools from expunging from an employee's  
          personnel file credible complaints of, substantiated  
          investigations into, or discipline for, egregious misconduct, as  
          defined in Education Code § 44932.

          STAFF COMMENTS
          
          1)Need for the bill.  According to the author's office, this  
            bill would prohibit a school district, administrator or  
            charter school from purging credible substantiated cases of  
            abuse or neglect where the district has made a decision not to  
            discipline a teacher based on an accusation of egregious or  
            immoral acts. This will preserve an important record for  
            current and future administrators to determine if there is a  
            pattern of behavior that suggests children may be at risk.  
            This will also allow prosecutors to build a more solid case  
            when a teacher is accused of new acts of egregious or immoral  
            behavior. By the same token, the absence of such accusations  
            in an employee's personnel record would also be a more  
            meaningful fact in establishing the possible innocence of an  
            accused employee, if parents, administrators and courts can  
            rely upon such records not to have been previously expunged.


          2)Closing a loophole.  Among other things, AB 215 (Buchanan,  
            Chapter 55, Statutes of 2014) established the prohibition for  
            school districts to enter into an agreement that would  
            authorize expunging a teacher's record of credible complaints  
            of, substantiated investigations into, or discipline for,  
            egregious misconduct.  Egregious misconduct includes sex  
            offenses, controlled substance offenses, and child abuse and  
            neglect offenses, as specified.  According to the author's  
            office, AB 215 did not expressly prohibit an administrator or  
            school district from unilaterally expunging a teacher's record  
            and as a result, a school district could purge personnel files  
            of egregious misconduct complaints as part of a district  
            policy.  This bill is intended to close that loophole. 


          3)Prior and related legislation.   AB 215 (Buchanan, Chapter 55,  
            Statutes of 2014) made various changes to the dismissal  
            process for certificated employees.









          AB 1452 (Hadley)                                        Page 3  
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            SUPPORT
          
          EdVoice

            OPPOSITION
           
           None received.

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