Bill

SB 1497

84(R) - 2015
Senate Education
Senate Education
Crimes
Education

Vote Recommendation

Vote Yes; Amend
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Positive
  • Neutral

Author(s)

Van Taylor

Bill Caption

Relating to a requirement that a school district, open-enrollment charter school, or shared services arrangement terminate or refuse to hire an employee or applicant convicted of certain offenses.

Fiscal Notes

No significant fiscal implication to State.

Local Government

School districts, charter schools, and SSAs would be required to perform additional criminal history checks on all employees and would be required to discharge any employees that had been convicted of certain offenses even if the employee had been younger than 18 or had satisfied court requirements over 30 years before 2007.
 
School districts, charter schools, and SSAs could not hire an applicant that had been convicted of certain offenses even if the employee had been younger than 18 or had satisfied court requirements over 30 years before 2007.
 
There would be administrative costs to conduct new criminal background checks on all employees and there would be administrative costs to replace any employees that had to be terminated. These costs would vary from district to district, charter school to charter school, and SSA to SSA depending on how many employees could no longer remain employed.


Bill Analysis

SB 1497 would amend Education Code to require school-districts and open-enrollment charter schools to terminate or refuse to hire someone convicted of certain offenses, which is expanded from the original code to include misdemeanor sexual offenses (Chapter 21, Penal Code), offenses against public indecency (Chapter 43, Penal Code), and similar offenses under the laws of another state or federal law. The bill also would clarify that a district's board or board's designee would be required to take action to suspend or terminate an employee convicted of the specified offenses.

Vote Recommendation Notes

This bill affirms the principle of personal responsibility and the principle of limited government. Since children are mandated to attend school and a majority of children attend government school, the government has a responsibility to protect children from individuals who possess a track record of certain offenses. This also affirms the principle of personal responsibility because it protects parents who may not want their child or children exposed to individuals who have been convicted of certain offenses. For these reasons, we support HB 1497.

This bill could be strengthened by amending to change "shall" to "may" in order to make the provisions of the bill a permissive authorization rather than a mandatory requirement. This would enable schools to implement the provisions in the way that works best for them.