BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1717
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 10, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
AB 1717 (Dickinson) - As Amended: March 26, 2012
SUBJECT : Certificated school district employees
SUMMARY : Requires notification to the Department of Justice
(DOJ) and school districts when a community care facility
license, registration, or special permit is revoked, or there
has been an exclusion from a facility on specified grounds.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to provide
written notification, including related records, to DOJ in
writing within 10 days whenever a community care facility
(CCF) license, registration, or special permit is revoked or
an the license holder has been excluded from the facility on
the grounds that the holder engaged in conduct inimical to the
health, morals, welfare, or safety of either an individual in,
or receiving services from, the facility or the people of the
State of California.
2)Requires DOJ, in conducting a criminal background check of an
applicant for certificated employment with a school district
who is also a holder of a license, registration, or special
permit for a community care facility, to provide to the school
district notification of any information and copies of all
records provided by DSS as described in paragraph 1).
3)Requires that, subsequent to employment by a school district,
DOJ shall provide the information and copies of records
received from DSS as described in paragraph 1) within 10 days
of receipt.
EXISTING LAW
1)Under the Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the
licensure and regulation of CCFs by DSS, Community Care
Licensing Division.
2)Authorizes DSS to take enforcement action, including, but not
limited to, actions to suspend, temporarily suspend, or revoke
a license and to impose civil penalties for violations of
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rules and regulations established under licensing provisions
governing CCFs.
3)Authorizes DSS to prohibit (i.e., exclude) any person from
being a member of the board of directors, an executive
director, or an officer of a licensee, or a licensee from
employing, or continuing to employ, or of allowing in a
licensed facility, or allowing contact with clients of a
licensed CCF by, any employee, prospective employee, or person
who is not a client who has, among other things, "engaged in
conduct which is inimical to the health , morals, welfare, or
safety of either an individual in or receiving services from
the facility, or the people of the State of California."
Health & Safety Code � 1558(a).
4)Requires DSS to provide written notice within 10 days to the
local director of social services and the local county
probation department whenever a license, registration, or
special permit issued to a CCF is suspended, revoked,
temporarily suspended, forfeited, canceled, or expires.
5)Requires that school districts obtain criminal background
checks from DOJ concerning applicants for employment in a
position requiring certification qualifications and to request
subsequent arrest service from DOJ, as provided in the Penal
Code.
6)Requires DOJ to provide an applicant for employment by a
school district with information on convictions for a violent
or serious felony, any sex offense, or any controlled
substance offense.
7)Authorizes DOJ to provide subsequent arrest notification to
any agency authorized to receive state summary criminal
history information to assist in fulfilling employment,
licensing, or certification duties upon the arrest of any
person whose fingerprints are maintained on file at DOJ as the
result of an application for licensing, employment,
certification, or approval. Penal Code � 11105.2.
8)Prohibits school districts from hiring or retaining a person
who has been convicted of a violent or serious felony in a
position requiring certification qualifications, unless the
conviction is reversed, the person is acquitted in a new trial
or the charges are dismissed, or the person has obtained a
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certificate of rehabilitation and pardon, as provided in the
Penal Code.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : In explaining the issue giving rise to this bill, the
author relates the following:
In April 2011, a special education teacher was
arrested on felony charges of six counts of lewd acts
with a minor at Sam Brannan Middle School in
Sacramento City Unified School District. Unbeknownst
to the school district, the accused had previously had
his foster care license revoked by the Department of
Social Services after similar accusations had been
reported. Had the school district known the teacher's
foster care license had been revoked, it would have
had enough evidence and documentation to take
disciplinary action. Because the District did not
have this information, the teacher remained on the
school payroll for 14 more months while investigations
took place.
According to the author, there is presently no requirement or
mechanism in place for DSS to notify DOJ of license revocations
or individual exclusions or for DOJ to include this information
in the background checks that are conducted on potential school
employees through the California Teacher Credentialing
Commission. The author says that the current notification
includes an individual's state summary criminal history of
convictions and arrests, even those that do not result in
convictions. This bill, the author says, closes a loophole in
current law that has resulted in some suspected child abusers
and predators unknowingly in classrooms instructing children.
Is there sufficient need for this bill and would it address the
identified issue ?
Currently, in conducting background checks on behalf of a school
district, DOJ provides information on specified felony, sex
offense, and controlled substance offense convictions, and
subsequent arrests. The author has provided one example of an
instance in which a teacher arrested for lewd acts with a
student turned out to have had a foster care license revoked in
the past. The information concerning license revocations and
individual exclusions that would be provided by DSS to DOJ and
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then to a school district under this bill can already be
obtained by school districts through a request for such
information to DSS' Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD).
The standard of proof applied by CCLD to revoke a license or
impose an exclusion is lower than the standard required for
criminal prosecution and conviction. In the case of a current
employee, as in the provided example, if there is a subsequent
arrest, that information would be provided to the school
district by DOJ under current law. It is not clear that this
one reported example of an individual-without a past criminal
conviction or post-employment arrest-is illustrative of a
sufficiently widespread problem to warrant the expanded
reporting requirements mandated by this bill.
Additionally, if the intent of this bill is to identify job
applicants who have previously had a license revoked due to
conduct inimical to the health, morals, welfare, or safety of
children, this bill is greatly under-inclusive. There are
innumerable comparable situations that could arise in which a
prospective or current certificated school district employee has
been sanctioned through loss of a license for similar conduct
that would not be identified. This bill does not, for example,
cover loss of a health facility license for precisely the same
conduct. Nor does it cover loss of other professional licenses
or certifications-e.g., nursing, social work, counseling,
physical therapy-under similar circumstances. While this bill
is limited to license revocations and exclusions under the
Community Care Facilities Act, the rationale for this bill could
be the basis for similar reporting by myriad other licensing and
certification entities.
The requirements of this bill are outside of DOJ's current
responsibilities and incompatible with its database system .
The reporting requirements of this bill are outside the scope of
DOJ's existing criminal history data systems. DOJ maintains an
electronic fingerprint-based criminal history repository to
conduct criminal background checks. The system is not set up to
collect or maintain paper records of non-law enforcement,
regulatory actions taken by administrative agencies against
licensees and other individuals. In addition, because the
records that would be provided by DSS are name-based, rather
than fingerprint-based, the possibility of misidentification is
high. This bill involves far more than simply closing a
loophole. Implementing the requirements of this bill would
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require DOJ to establish an entirely new process unrelated to
its current law enforcement functions and existing databases and
systems.
Unclear language related to exclusions : This bill would require
notification to DOJ not only of revocations but also "�w]henever
a license, registration, or special permit issued under this
chapter for a community care facility ? has an exclusion ?."
This language is confusing because "exclusions" are prohibitions
that apply to individuals, not to a license, registration, or
special permit as the language provides. An exclusion
authorizes DSS to prohibit an individual from, for example,
serving as a board member or the executive director of, from
being employed by, or being on the premises of a licensed
facility. If this bill is passed by this committee, it must be
amended to clarify this language .
In sum, this bill would establish a new and costly reporting
process where a widespread need has not been established. It
would qualitatively change the nature of DOJ's current criminal
history data collection and reporting functions and require
development of an entirely new paper-based system. School
districts are already able to contact CCLD to determine if a job
applicant (or current employee) has had a community care license
revoked and, if so, the grounds for revocation. Moreover, to
the extent the circumstances giving rise to this bill are, in
fact, commonplace, this bill would address only one of myriad
similar situations in which the same issue could arise.
DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill has been double-referred. Should
this bill pass out of this committee, it will be referred to the
Education Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Sacramento City Unified School District (sponsor)
Association of California School Administration
Riverside County School Superintendents' Association
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089