Report 2016-103 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2016-103: Los Angeles Unified School District: It Can Do More to Reduce the Impacts of Removing Teachers From Classrooms Because of Alleged Misconduct (Release Date: October 2016)

Recommendation #3 To: Los Angeles Unified School District

To improve the consistency of its formal reassignments, by April 2017 LAUSD should develop a comprehensive risk evaluation tool to guide its local administrators in determining whether allegations against a teacher represent a clear risk to students or district personnel. LAUSD's evaluation tool should consider factors such as a teacher's prior behavior, the vulnerability of affected students, and the complexity of the allegations.

1-Year Agency Response

The revised bulletin with all of the audit recommendations was issued on July 17, 2017. A final copy will be forwarded to the CSA.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

LAUSD's updated reassignment policy bulletin, which was issued in July 2017, includes the risk assessment evaluation tool as a standard attachment for local administrator use.

6-Month Agency Response

The task force developed a checklist entitled Risk Assessment Reflection Tool: Allegations of Employee Misconduct. This form was created with input from Area Operations professionals to be included in the revised bulletin BUL-6532.1, entitled "Protocols and Procedures to Report, Reassign and Investigate Allegations of Employee Misconduct." The revised bulletin has been the basis of recent and ongoing trainings and is scheduled to be formally issued on July 1, 2017.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

LAUSD has developed a checklist-style tool that will help ensure decision makers are thoroughly and consistently considering the same key factors when making the decision whether to formally reassign a teacher. The tool is scheduled to become effective as part of LAUSD's policy update on July 1, 2017.

60-Day Agency Response

The LAUSD believes that trained administrators are in the best position to evaluate risk at their school sites. Our professional administrators know their school environment, know their students and families, and know their staff. While the LAUSD should continue to rely on the best judgment of its trained educators, it will include guidance in the form of a checklist in the upcoming revised bulletin. This checklist is being designed by a task force within Employee Relations with administrative and school site experience, in conjunction with local district Administrator of Operations professionals. We believe the checklist will assist administrators in considering all factors in order to arrive at the most sensible decision regarding removing an employee from the school site

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

We have assessed the status of this recommendation as pending until LAUSD completes the steps that it indicates it plans to complete and provides us with the documentation for our review.

All Recommendations in 2016-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.