BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1452|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1452
Author: Hadley (R)
Introduced:2/27/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/17/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Certificated employees: personnel files:
expungement: egregious misconduct
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: 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.
ANALYSIS: 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
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prevailed, the allegations were determined to be false, not
credible, or unsubstantiated, or a determination was made that
the discipline was not warranted.
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.
Comments
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. The author's
office indicates that 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.
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.
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FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/18/15)
EdVoice
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/18/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15
AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Jones, O'Donnell, Olsen, Waldron,
Weber
Prepared by:Lenin Del Castillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
6/18/15 19:06:54
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AB 1452
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