BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1530 (Padilla) - School Employees: Dismissal and Suspension.
Amended: April 26, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 24, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 1530 modifies the notice and hearing procedures
relating to the dismissal and suspension or certificated
employees, as specified. This bill also expands the scope of
offenses for which a certificated employee must be immediately
placed on a mandatory leave of absence.
Fiscal Impact:
Hearing notice and procedures: Unlikely to result in new
state costs.
Expansion of offenses: Potentially significant reimbursable
state mandate, to the extent that certificated employees are
placed on mandatory leaves of absence for the new offenses.
Background: Existing law prohibits the dismissal of a
certificated employee who has achieved permanent status except
for one or more of the following causes:
Immoral or unprofessional conduct.
Commissioning, aiding, or advocating the commission of acts of
criminal syndicalism.
Dishonesty.
Unsatisfactory performance.
Evident unfitness for service.
Physical or mental condition unfitting him or her to instruct or
associate with children.
Persistent violation of or refusal to obey state laws or
regulations pertaining to schools.
Conviction of a felony or of any crime involving moral turpitude.
Violation of the prohibition against advocating or teaching
communism with the intent to indoctrinate or inculcate in the
mind of any pupil a preference for communism.
Knowing membership in the Communist Party.
Alcoholism or other drug abuse which makes the employee unfit to
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instruct or associate with children. (Education Code � 44932)
Existing law requires a governing board to notify an employee in
writing of its intention to dismiss or suspend him or her at the
expiration of 30 days unless the employee demands a hearing.
Current law prohibits a 30-day Notice of Intent to Dismiss or
Suspend (30-day Notice) from being given between May 15 and
September 15 in any year. (EC � 44934 and EC � 44936)
Additionally, before a governing board can take action to issue
a 30-day Notice for unprofessional conduct or unsatisfactory
performance, the following must occur:
Unprofessional Conduct : The employee must be given advance
notice of at least 45 days, and the notice must specify the
nature of the cause, list specific instances of behavior, and
furnish the employee an opportunity to correct the faults and
overcome the grounds of the charge. (EC � 44938(a))
Unsatisfactory Performance : The employee must be given advance
notice of at least 90 days, and the notice must specify the
nature of the performance issues, with specific instances of
behavior with "such particularity" as to furnish the employee an
opportunity to correct his or her faults and overcome the
grounds for the charge. (EC � 44938(b))
Existing law authorizes immediate suspension of a permanent
employee for specified conduct, and requires that a dismissal or
suspension hearing requested by an employee must begin within 60
days of an employee's request. Additionally, the hearing must be
conducted by a Commission on Professional Competence (CPC) made
up of three members: 1) One member selected by the employee; 2)
one member selected by the governing board; and, 3) an
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who serves as the chair.
The decision made by the CPC is made by majority vote and is
deemed to be the final decision of the governing board. Existing
law also prohibits testimony or evidence relating to matters
that occurred more than four years prior to the date of the
filing of the notice, and prohibits a decision relating to the
dismissal or suspension of any employee from being made based on
charges or evidence of any nature relating to matters occurring
more than four years prior to the filing of the notice.
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Members of a CPC receive their regular salary, fringe benefits,
accumulated sick leave and other leaves and benefits, but
receive no additional compensation. If the result is that the
employee is dismissed or suspended, the employee will share
equally the expenses of the hearing including the cost of the
ALJ. If the employee is not dismissed or suspended, the
governing board will pay the expenses of the hearing, including
the cost of the ALJ, the cost of the educators serving on the
CPC, and reasonable attorney fees incurred by the employee. (EC
� 44944)
Current law establishes certain crimes as "mandatory leave of
absence offenses" and requires school districts to place an
employee criminally charged of those offenses on a compulsory
leave of absence. Mandatory offenses include sex offenses
specified in EC � 44010 and offenses involving aiding or
abetting the unlawful sale, use, or exchange to minors of
specified controlled substances with the exception of marijuana,
mescaline, peyote, or tetrahydrocannabinols. (EC � 44940 and �
44940.5)
Proposed Law: This bill streamlines the notice and hearing
procedures relating to the dismissal and suspension of
certificated employees. It also expands the scope of offenses
for which a certificated employee must be immediately placed on
a mandatory leave of absence to include offenses involving
aiding or abetting the unlawful sale, use, or exchange to minors
of marijuana, mescaline, peyote, or tetrahydrocannabinols, which
are specifically excluded from the current list of controlled
substances for which this disciplinary action applies.
Staff Comments: According to the author, the intent of this bill
is to streamline the process for districts to suspend or dismiss
certificated employees for serious offenses, and to give final
authority in doing so to a school district's governing board. To
that end, this measure revises hearing procedures for employees
dismissal and suspension hearings, and changes notice
requirements. That primary aspect of the bill is not likely to
drive any additional state costs. It may result in local cost
savings, and reduced workload; in certain circumstances, it may
increase local costs to involve the school district governing
board in termination decisions, if there are a significant
number.
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A seemingly unintended consequence of the bill is a small part
of the measure that could create a new state reimbursable
mandate. Existing law which specifies the offenses for which a
certificated employee must be immediately placed on a mandatory
leave of absence (pending a hearing, in most cases) includes
offenses involving aiding or abetting the unlawful sale, use, or
exchange to minors of controlled substances, but specifically
excludes marijuana, mescaline, peyote, or tetrahydrocannabinols
(for administrative proceedings; this statute does not address
criminal charges). This bill strikes that statutory exception
for the identified controlled substances. In so doing, it
requires school districts to place employees on mandatory leaves
of absence for a new set of offenses.
Because this would be a new state mandate to place employees on
leaves of absence for offenses which would not have previously
triggered the action, school districts could file a test claim
for reimbursement for expenses related to that mandate, such as
the cost of substitutes and, potentially, the cost of suspension
and dismissal hearings for those specific offenses. State costs
would depend upon the number of certificated employees accused
of committing controlled substance offenses involving marijuana,
mescaline, peyote, or tetrahydrocannabinols.
Proposed Author Amendments: The proposed amendments add "serious
and egregious unprofessional conduct" to the list of offenses
for which an employee can be dismissed, and defines the term;
additional amendments make other clarifying and conforming
changes.