BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1717
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1717 (Dickinson) - As Amended: May 2, 2012
Policy Committee: EducationVote:11
- 0
Human Services 4 - 2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires increased communication between school
districts, the California Department of Social Services (DSS)
and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) about adverse
actions taken against employees, licensees, and credential
holders. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a school district to request that new applicants for
a classified, certificated, temporary or permanent position
provide written information about any current or previously
held license, registration or special permit for a community
care facility.
2)Requires school district employees to notify the school
district in writing by July 1, 2013, if the employee currently
holds or previously held a license, registration, or special
permit for a community care facility or is currently or was
previously employed by a community care facility licensed by
the DSS.
3)Requires a school district to submit an applicant's or
employee's name, birthdate, and driver's license or department
of motor vehicles number to DSS if the applicant or employee
currently holds or previously held a license, registration or
special permit for a community care facility or if the
applicant or employee is currently or was previously employed
by a community care facility licensed by the DSS.
4)Requires DSS to include the contact information for the
employing school district in the record of an individual
AB 1717
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holding a DSS license, registration, or special permit to
operate a community care facility and in the record of an
employee of a community care facility.
5)Requires DSS to notify the employing school district and the
CTC within 10 days when the license, registration, or special
permit of an individual who is also employed by a school
district is revoked, suspended, forfeited, canceled, or
surrendered on the grounds of conduct inimical to the health,
morals, welfare and safety of an individual in or receiving
services from the community care facility or has an exclusion
on those grounds.
6)Requires a school district to notify DSS if the employee of
the school district is dismissed on the basis of endangering
the safety of a pupil and the employee holds a license,
registration, or special permit for a community care facility
or is employed by a community care facility licensed by DSS.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)On-going costs in the range of $500,000 to $1 million (GF) for
DSS to match school district employees with current and former
Community Care License (CCL) holders, review whether or not
the employee ever had a license violation, and to notify
school districts and CTC of any subsequent violations.
2)One-time computer programming costs for DSS of several hundred
thousand dollars to include data on school district employers
for licensees and to develop a system for flagging licensees
who also work in a school district in case there is a license
violation.
3)Unknown, likely significant GF/98 state reimbursable mandated
costs in the range of several million dollars, for the
on-going workload associated with over 1,000 school districts
monitoring all of their employees, gathering the required
information for DSS and processing the licensing information
received by DSS.
4)Minor costs of less than $20,000 for the workload associated
with CTC processing information from DSS on credentialed
teachers whose CCL licenses have been revoked, suspended, or
forfeited.
AB 1717
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COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This bill creates a new statewide system for
increasing communication between the DSS and school districts
across the state. It requires school districts and the DSS to
share information about current and potential school district
employees who have ever been authorized by the DSS.
The new system requires school districts to obtain information
from job applicants and current employees about any
authorizations the person has obtained from the DSS. Upon
receipt of this information, the school district must provide
the person's name, birthdate, and driver's license number or
Department of Motor Vehicles number to the DSS. The DSS, in
turn, is required to include the contact information for the
employing school district in the individual's DSS record. If
the individual's license is revoked, suspended, forfeited,
canceled, or surrendered on the grounds that the holder
engaged in conduct inimical to the health, morals, welfare or
safety of individuals in the community care facility or if the
individual has an exclusion on those grounds, this bill
requires the DSS to notify the employing school district and
the CTC within 10 days. In addition, in the event that a
school district employee who is also authorized by the DSS is
dismissed on the basis of endangering the safety of a pupil,
the school district must notify the DSS.
2)Background . This bill is in response to a situation that
occurred in 2007 in the Sacramento City Unified School
District (SCUSD) where a teacher had his foster care license
revoked by DSS under allegations of misconduct with two
children. Law enforcement continued with a full investigation
after his foster care license was revoked. SCUSD found out
that the teacher was under investigation by law enforcement
and immediately placed the individual on administrative leave
with pay. SCUSD was not notified of the revocation of the
individual's foster care license.
While the DSS had enough evidence to revoke the individual's
foster care facility license, the County Sherriff eventually
cited insufficient evidence for criminal charges. When the
investigation concluded and criminal charges were not filed,
the district could not substantiate a dismissal case against
the teacher and allowed him to return to active teaching duty.
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According to the author, if the school district had known that
the individual's DSS foster care license had been revoked, the
district would have had enough evidence and documentation to
take disciplinary action against this individual at an earlier
time. Instead, the teacher was not dismissed until he was
subsequently arrested in 2011 on six counts of lewd acts with
minors. The delay jeopardized student safety and cost the
district thousands of dollars. The author argues that having a
mechanism for sharing information about adverse actions taken
by DSS or a school district would better protect students.
3)Community Care Licenses . The Department of Social Services
(DSS) Community Care Licensing Division is responsible for
licensing and regulation residential and nonresidential
community care facilities, including child care centers,
family child care homes, residential care facilities for the
elderly, continuing care retirement communities, adult day
care, and residential facilities for foster children. DSS
licenses close to 80,000 facilities throughout the state with
a total capacity of 1.4 million children and adults.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081