The bills by Sen. Bob Margett, a Republican, and Sen. Jack Scott, a Democrat, were prompted by an Associated Press investigation last year into sexual misconduct by teachers reports the Associated Press in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Margett’s bill allows the state to revoke licenses from teachers who plead no contest to certain sex crimes or drug offenses without waiting for a discretionary review that can sometimes take two or three years. No contest pleas are a common legal agreement that allows a defendant to avoid a trial or civil liability but still leads to conviction.
An analysis by the California Teacher Credentialing Commission following AP’s report found that about two-thirds of the roughly 90 educators who face revocation or other serious action each year plead no contest to a misdemeanor offense.
Under Scott’s legislation, the credentialing commission will be able to revoke teachers’ licenses automatically if a previous criminal conviction has limited their contact with children. The commission also will be able to suspend them automatically if they have had their license revoked in another state for misconduct. Those teachers had been allowed to remain in the classroom while the commission investigates their cases.
Read more here: Calif. laws crack down on sex-offender teachers