Section 45125 Of Article 1. Employment From California Education Code >> Division 3. >> Title 2. >> Part 25. >> Chapter 5. >> Article 1.
45125
. (a) (1) Except as provided in Section 45125.01, the
governing board of any school district shall require each person to
be employed in a position not requiring certification qualifications,
except a secondary school pupil employed in a temporary or part-time
position by the governing board of the school district having
jurisdiction over the school attended by the pupil, to have two
fingerprint cards bearing the legible rolled and flat impressions of
the person's fingerprints together with a personal description of the
applicant prepared by a local public law enforcement agency having
jurisdiction in the area of the school district, which agency shall
transmit the cards, together with the fee required by subdivision
(f), to the Department of Justice; except that any district, or
districts with a common board, may process the fingerprint cards if
the district so elects.
(2) As used in this section, "local public law enforcement agency"
includes any school district and as used in Section 45126 requires
the Department of Justice to provide to any school district, upon
application, information pertaining only to applicants for employment
by the district, including applicants who are employees of another
district.
(b) (1) Upon receiving the fingerprint cards, the Department of
Justice shall ascertain whether the applicant has been arrested or
convicted of any crime insofar as that fact can be ascertained from
information available to the department and forward the information
to the employing agency submitting the applicant's fingerprints no
more than 15 working days after receiving the fingerprint cards. The
Department of Justice shall not forward records of criminal
proceedings that did not result in a conviction but shall forward
information on arrests pending adjudication.
(2) Upon implementation of an electronic fingerprinting system
with terminals located statewide and managed by the Department of
Justice, the Department of Justice shall ascertain the information
required pursuant to this subdivision within three working days. If
the Department of Justice cannot ascertain the information required
pursuant to this subdivision within three working days, the
department shall notify the school district that it cannot so
ascertain the required information. This notification shall be
delivered by telephone or electronic mail to the school district. If
a school district is notified by the Department of Justice that it
cannot ascertain the required information about a person, the school
district may not employ that person until the Department of Justice
ascertains that information.
(3) In the case of a person to be employed in a position not
requiring certification qualifications who is described in
subparagraph (A) or (B), the school district shall request the
Department of Justice to forward one copy of the fingerprint cards to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining any
record of previous convictions of the applicant.
(A) The person has not resided in the State of California for at
least one year immediately preceding the person's application for
employment.
(B) The person has resided for more than one year, but less than
seven years, in the State of California and the Department of Justice
has ascertained that the person was convicted of a sex offense where
the victim was a minor or a drug offense where an element of the
offense is either the distribution to, or the use of a controlled
substance by, a minor.
(c) The governing board of a school district shall not employ a
person until the Department of Justice completes its check of the
state criminal history file as set forth in this section and Sections
45125.5 and 45126, except that this subdivision does not apply to
secondary school pupils who are to be employed in a temporary or
part-time position by the governing board of the school district
having jurisdiction over the school they attend.
(d) The governing board of each district shall maintain a list
indicating the number of current employees, except secondary school
pupils employed in a temporary or part-time position by the governing
board of the school district having jurisdiction over the school
they attend, who have not completed the requirements of this section.
The Department of Justice shall process these cards within 30
working days of their receipt and any cards in its possession on the
date of the amendment of this section by Assembly Bill 1610 of the
1997-98 Regular Session within 30 working days of that date. School
districts that have previously submitted identification cards for
current employees to either the Department of Justice or the Federal
Bureau of Investigation shall not be required to further implement
the provisions of this section as it applies to those employees.
(e) A plea or verdict of guilty or a finding of guilt by a court
in a trial without a jury or forfeiture of bail is deemed to be a
conviction within the meaning of this section, irrespective of a
subsequent order under the provisions of Section 1203.4 of the Penal
Code allowing the withdrawal of the plea of guilty and entering of a
plea of not guilty, or setting aside the verdict of guilty, or
dismissing the accusations or information.
(f) (1) The school district shall provide the means whereby the
fingerprint cards may be completed and may charge a fee determined by
the Department of Justice to be sufficient to reimburse the
department for the costs incurred in processing the application. The
amount of the fee shall be forwarded to the Department of Justice
with the required copies of applicant's fingerprint cards. The
governing board may collect a reasonable fee payable to the local
public law enforcement agency taking the fingerprints and completing
the data on the fingerprint cards. In no event shall the fee exceed
the actual costs incurred by the agency.
(2) The additional fees shall be transmitted to the city or county
treasury. If an applicant is subsequently hired by the board within
30 days of the application, the fee may be reimbursed to the
applicant. Funds not reimbursed to applicants shall be credited to
the general fund of the district. If the fingerprint cards forwarded
to the Department of Justice are those of a person already in the
employ of the governing board, the district shall pay the fee
required by this section, which fee shall be a proper charge against
the general fund of the district, and no fee shall be charged the
employee.
(g) This section applies to substitute and temporary employees
regardless of length of employment.
(h) Subdivision (c) of this section shall not apply to a person to
be employed if a school district determines that an emergency or an
exceptional situation exists, and that a delay in filling the
position in which the person would be employed would endanger pupil
health or safety.
(i) Where reasonable access to the statewide, electronic
fingerprinting network is available, the Department of Justice may
mandate electronic submission of the fingerprints and related
information required by this section.
(j) A school district shall request subsequent arrest service from
the Department of Justice as provided under Section 11105.2 of the
Penal Code.
(k) All information obtained from the Department of Justice is
confidential. Each agency handling Department of Justice information
shall ensure the following:
(1) No recipient may disclose its contents or provide copies of
information.
(2) Information received shall be stored in a locked file separate
from other files, and shall only be accessible to the custodian of
records.
(3) Information received shall be destroyed upon the hiring
determination in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 708 of
Title 11 of the California Code of Regulations.
(4) Compliance with destruction, storage, dissemination, auditing,
backgrounding, and training requirements as set forth in Sections
700 through 708, inclusive, of Title 11 of the California Code of
Regulations and Section 11077 of the Penal Code governing the use and
security of criminal offender record information is the
responsibility of the entity receiving the information from the
Department of Justice.
(l) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Department of
Justice shall process pursuant to this section all requests from a
school district, an employer, or a human resource agency for criminal
history information on a volunteer to be used in a school.