California lawmakers have unanimously approved a bill authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) to strengthen school hiring safeguards and help prevent educators with serious misconduct histories from moving between schools undetected. The legislation follows a KQED and ProPublica investigation that found at least 14 educators were hired by new schools after former employers had determined they engaged in sexual harassment of students or other sexual misconduct and had reported them to the state.
Current California law requires applicants to disclose all prior teaching positions and requires school administrators to contact previous employers to determine whether the applicant was reported to the state for credible or substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. However, the law does not currently include clear consequences for noncompliance.
The new bill would allow California’s teacher credentialing agency to discipline teachers and administrators who fail to follow these requirements, including issuing public reprimands or suspending or revoking credentials. According to the bill’s author, the goal is to ensure school districts prioritize these safety checks by establishing meaningful accountability.
Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to sign or veto the measure. An earlier version of the bill would have created a searchable database of teachers reported for misconduct, but that provision was removed from the final legislation. While California is developing a similar database for certain school support staff, public school teachers are not currently included.
California lawmakers unanimously passed legislation last week to ensure that school administrators are informed about past accusations of misconduct against teachers as part of their hiring process.
