A bill signed into law by the governor that aimed to close a perceived gap between district-hired coaches, who are required to be fingerprinted, and “walk-on” coaches, who are not, has resulted in some confusion in the education community.
Assembly Bill 1025, Conway, R-Visalia, appeared at the outset to be fairly simple and straightforward. It intended to ensure all coaches working with students would be required to be fingerprinted by the Department of Justice, even walk-ons who volunteer or are employed by a school’s booster club.
It also aimed to comply with a new requirement to receive an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate.
ACSA and all others in the education community believed this bill was narrow in scope. Instead, the bill was amended several times toward the end of session, leaving the education community confused to its intent. And now that the bill has been signed into law, educators are going to have to try to implement it when it takes effect July 10, 2010.
ACSA’s analysis of AB 1025 finds that it appears to require all non-certificated employees paid by affiliated groups and volunteers engaged in pupil activity programs to obtain an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing prior to assuming a paid or volunteer position. The certificate is good for five years and is renewable.
There are exemptions in the bill for volunteer supervisors for breakfast, lunch or other nutritional periods and non-teaching volunteer aides under the immediate supervision of certificated personnel.
However, by not stating the exemption for additional staff and volunteers, the bill implies that all others would be required to obtain the Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate. At the worst case scenario, all secondary certificated employees who do not hold a physical education or coaching clearance will have to obtain this certificate, along with all classified employees and all volunteers. This will result in an increase of $51 to obtain the certificate above the current fingerprinting requirement.
ACSA Legislative Advocate Laura Preston said much clarification is still needed on the bill.
“Currently, there are more questions than answers surrounding AB 1025,” Preston said. “ACSA has asked for a meeting with the CTC and members of the Education Coalition to seek clarification on the bill. The CTC plans to issue an advisory in early 2010 to clarify this bill and will be conducting a webinar on Feb. 9, 2010 to answer questions pertaining to AB 1025. In the meantime, we hope to have more answers for our members after our meeting with the CTC.”
If necessary, ACSA and others will introduce emergency legislation in January to fix unintended problems. Fortunately there would still be time, since AB 1025 does not take effect until July 1, 2010.
ACSA’s hope is that the CTC will limit the scope of AB 1025 in its advisory and legislation will not be necessary. However, should the need arise, Assemblymember Conway has indicated that she would be willing to work on any needed legislation.
ACSA will continue to keep members apprised as this discussion moves along. In the meantime, should you have any questions, contact Laura Preston at lpreston@acsa.org.