BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1224
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|Author: |Huff |
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|Version: |April 7, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: April 20, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lenin DelCastillo |
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Subject: Certificated school employees: assignments and
reassignments: seniority: reporting
SUMMARY
This bill requires a local educational agency (LEA) that makes
an assignment or reassignment of an employee due to seniority
provisions in current law to report them to the State Department
of Education (SDE), which would then be required to annually
aggregate the data and make it publicly available on its Web
site.
BACKGROUND
Existing law requires school districts to provide preliminary
notification to a permanent employee that his or her services
will not be required for the ensuing year no later than March
15th and provide final notification of termination of his or her
services by May 15th. Permanent employees that receive a
preliminary layoff notice are allowed to request a hearing to
determine if there is cause for not reemploying him or her for
the ensuing year. The hearing is to be conducted by an
administrative law judge who shall prepare a proposed decision,
containing findings of fact and a determination as to whether
the charges sustained by the evidence are related to the welfare
of the schools and students. Copies of the proposed decision,
which is not binding on the governing board, shall be submitted
to the governing board and to the employee on or before May 7th.
(Education Code § 44949)
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When a district is undergoing a layoff, existing law requires
the governing board to assign and reassign teachers according to
their seniority and qualifications. A teacher must pass a
subject matter competency test prior to being assigned to teach
a subject he or she has not previously taught and for which he
or she doesn't have the appropriate background or teaching
credential. (Education Code § 44955)
Existing law requires school districts undergoing layoffs to
terminate certificated employees in the inverse order in which
they were employed. Current law permits districts to deviate
from the order of seniority if:
1) The district demonstrates a specific need to teach a
specific course or course of study, or to provide services
authorized by certain services credentials and the retained
individual has the specific experience or training required
to meet that need, or
2) For purposes of maintaining or achieving compliance with
constitutional requirements related to equal protection of
the laws.
(Education Code § 44955)
Existing law specifies that for a period of 39 months from the
date of termination, a permanent teacher, who in the meantime
has not turned 65, has preferential rights to reappointment and
substitute service in order of seniority. Existing law provides
probationary employees preferred rights for a period of 24
months.
(Education Code § 44956 and § 44957)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1) Requires a local educational agency that makes an
assignment or reassignment of an employee due to seniority
provisions specified in current law to report that
assignment or reassignment to the State Department of
Education (SDE).
2) Requires the SDE to annually aggregate the number of
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assignments and reassignments reported and make that number
available to the public on its Web site.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author's office,
"seniority rules dictate that more senior teachers have
first rights to employment posts over more junior teachers.
When classrooms and programs are consolidated during tough
budget years, these newer, younger teachers are bumped
first. These decisions are often only based on date of
hire. This puts new teachers at a disadvantage and results
in a discernable degradation in the continuity of teaching,
negatively impacting students. Without knowing how many
teachers are bumped in any given year, lawmakers are left
with an absence of helpful data that could be used to
assess how the current economic outlay, laws and
regulations that are being produced are affecting student
learning and teacher employment."
2) Assignments and reassignments. School district governing
boards are required to make assignments and reassignments
whereby employees are retained based on their seniority and
qualifications. However, prior to assigning or reassigning
a teacher to teach a subject that he or she has not
previously taught, and for which he or she does not have a
teaching credential, the employee is required to pass a
subject matter competency test in the appropriate subject.
There may be a combination of factors that lead to the
assignment or reassignment of staff, and it may not always
be based strictly on seniority. Decisions may be based on
the need to fill a district's unique staffing needs. For
example, if there is additional demand for a particular
career technical education course and there are several
teachers to choose from, a district may elect to choose the
teacher that may have taught the course previously, rather
than a new, less senior teacher that has never taught that
course. Additionally, staff
may request a new assignment or to be reassigned to teach a
different course. Nonetheless, these decisions are made by
the local school district administrators.
3) What purpose would the data serve? In requiring school
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districts to report assignment and reassignment data to the
State Department of Education (SDE) and for SDE to make
this information available on its Web site, it is unclear
what purpose this would serve or what clear benefit it
would provide. Decisions to assign or reassign may vary
from district to district, and again, those decisions may
not be solely based on seniority or date of hire and take
into account other factors such as the teachers'
credentials, specific training, and previous experience.
In matters of assignment and reassignment, the employees
are still employed; these are not situations involving
layoffs.
4) Mandated costs. The bill's requirements would likely
result in a state-reimbursable mandate imposing additional,
unknown costs to the state.
5) Seniority deviation. Current law allows a school district
to deviate from seniority if it demonstrates a specific
need for personnel to teach a specific course or course of
study, or to provide services authorized by certain
specialized services credentials and the retained
individual has the specific experience or training required
to meet that need or to provide those services, which
others with more seniority do not possess.
6) Vergara v. California. The Vergara case was filed here in
California by nine public school children from around the
state in May 2012. The case challenges various state
employment provisions of the education code related to the
way the teacher workforce is managed, including seniority
and last in, first statutes, and whether they protect
incompetent teachers and disproportionately hurt low-income
and minority children. The plaintiffs argue that these
laws play out in classrooms and schools in ways that
violate students' rights to access equal education under
the California constitution. A decision was reached in
August 2014 with the plaintiffs prevailing. However, the
decision was appealed and the state appeals court just
recently reversed the trial court's decision on April 14,
2016. The plaintiffs have already indicated they will be
appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.
7) Previous legislation.
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SB 1185 (Huff, 2014) would have allowed school districts to
exempt teachers in career pathways programs from the
seniority-based staffing provisions in current law. This
bill failed passage in this Committee.
SB 453 (Huff, 2013) would have authorized the governing
board of a school district to evaluate and assess the
performance of certificated employees using a
multiple-measures evaluation system; to make specified
employment decisions based on teacher performance; and
expand the reasons districts may deviate from the order of
seniority in terminating and reappointing teachers. This
bill failed passage in this Committee.
SB 355 (Huff, 2011) proposed to authorize school districts
to evaluate and assess the performance of certificated
employees using a multiple-measures evaluation system, make
specified employment decisions based on teacher
performance, and expand the reasons districts may deviate
from the order of seniority in terminating and reappointing
teachers. This bill failed passage in this Committee.
SB 1285 (Steinberg, 2010) proposed various changes to the
procedures school districts are required to follow when
hiring, terminating, and reappointing teachers, including
criteria to deviate from seniority. This bill was held in
the Assembly Rules Committee.
SB 955 (Huff, 2010) would have made various changes to
statutes governing staffing notification deadlines, layoff
and dismissal procedures, and reemployment preferences
pertaining to certificated educators. This bill was heard
and passed by this Committee and subsequently held by the
Senate Rules Committee.
SUPPORT
None received.
OPPOSITION
California Professional Firefighters
California Teachers Association
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