School employees: contracts: sole proprietors: criminal background checks.

Existing law requires an employee of an entity that has a contract with a school district to provide janitorial, administrative, grounds and landscape maintenance, transportation, and food services for the school, if that employee may have contact with pupils, to submit or have submitted his or her fingerprints to the Department of Justice, which is required to ascertain whether that individual has been arrested or convicted of a crime and to notify the employer designated by the individual of that fact. Existing law also authorizes a school district, on a case-by-case basis as specified, to require an entity providing schoolsite services other than those listed above to submit or have submitted its employee's fingerprints. The Department of Justice is authorized to forward a copy of the fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to verify the record of previous arrests or convictions of the applicant. The Department of Justice is required to review the criminal record summary it obtains from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and notify the employer only as to whether or not an applicant has any convictions or arrests pending adjudication for offenses which, if committed in California, would have been punishable as a violent or serious felony and is required to provide written notification to the contract employer only concerning whether an applicant for employment has any conviction or arrest pending final adjudication for any of those crimes. This bill would provide that an individual operating as a sole proprietor of an entity that has a contract with a school district, as specified, is considered to be an employee of the entity for purposes of the criminal background check requirements described above. The bill would also require a school district to prepare and submit that employee's fingerprints to the Department of Justice. Because this bill would create a new duty for school districts, it would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.