Teachers: teacher assignment monitoring.

(1) Existing law establishes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to issue teaching and services credentials, and to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law requires the commission to report to the Legislature and the Governor on the availability of teachers in California, including specified information, by April 15 of each year. This bill would make adjustments in the data required to be reported by the commission for this report. The bill would also require the commission to periodically provide reports and recommendations to the Legislature regarding the state's teacher workforce for purposes of developing and reviewing state policy, identifying workforce trends, and identifying future needs regarding the state's teacher workforce. The bill would require these reports to be made publicly available on the commission's Internet Web site. (2) Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish a nonpersonally identifiable educator identification number for each educator to whom it issues a credential, certificate, permit, or other document authorizing that individual to provide a service in the public schools. This bill would authorize the identification number established pursuant to this provision to be used for purposes of sharing data with local educational agencies and the State Department of Education to satisfy specified reporting requirements. The bill would also authorize the identification number to be used to disclose data pursuant to a provision relating to scientific research conducted by the University of California, a nonprofit educational entity, or, in the case of education-related data, another nonprofit entity, provided that the request for information is approved as specified. (3) Existing law requires county superintendents of schools to monitor and review teacher assignments for purposes of ensuring that the rate of teacher misassignment remains low. This provision requires county superintendents of schools to submit annual reports to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and authorizes the commission to establish reasonable sanctions for the misassignment of credential holders. This bill would revise and recast this provision, providing, among other things, more authority and responsibility to the commission in collecting data relating to potential and actual teacher misassignments. The bill would also apply this provision to charter schools. Because applying this provision to charter schools imposes new duties on charter schools and local educational agencies serving as chartering authorities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require potential misassignments that cannot be verified as legally authorized to be corrected by the administrator responsible for the assignment within 30 days of final notification by the commission. The bill would prohibit adverse action from being taken against an affected certificated person who files a notification of misassignment with the county superintendent of schools, or in the case of a charter school, the chartering authority, and, if a misassignment is determined to have taken place, the bill would nullify any performance evaluation of the employee in any subject to which the employee was misassigned. Because this provision would create new duties for a county office of education when a certificated employee files a notification of misassignment, this provision would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.