Report 2016-112 Recommendation 18 Responses

Report 2016-112: School Library Services: Vague State Laws and a Lack of Monitoring Allow School Districts to Provide a Minimal Level of Library Services (Release Date: November 2016)

Recommendation #18 To: Teacher Credentialing, California Commission on

To strengthen its monitoring of staff assignments, Teacher Credentialing should work with Education to identify potential misassignments by comparing annually the staffing information reported by school districts to Education against Teacher Credentialing's credentialing records. Further, Teacher Credentialing should incorporate misassignments identified using Education's data into its existing notification, reporting, and sanctioning structure. If Teacher Credentialing believes it needs express statutory authority to do so, it should seek it.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019

The Commission has completed and implemented a signed agreement with CDE to share data annually related to staffing assignments in order to meet assignment monitoring and federal reporting requirements for both agencies. This MOU was signed in October 2018. In addition, the Commission has updated its program for monitoring school district assignments moving it from a four-year cycle to annually. This program - CalSAAS, will be fully utilized by school districts and the Commission to oversee all assignment monitoring starting in the current 2019-20 school year. AB 1219 (Jones-Sawyer) was just signed by Governor Newsom and will take full effect on January 1, 2020. This bill updates the Education Code to reflect the change in requirements for assignment monitoring of school districts and also widens the scope of monitoring to include charter schools. The Commission will incorporate charters into the 2019-20 monitoring cycle.

With the passage of AB 1219, the Commission will monitor annually and report out to the legislature and public all misassignments. The CDE shares its assignment data captured in October each year with the Commission in April of the following year (i.e. October 2019 data provided to the Commission in April 2020). The Commission combines this employment data with credentials held by educators to create an initial misassignment report. This report is then provided to districts to review and make any corrections. Once this process is complete a report of misassignments is published in the fall based on the previous school year. However, the law requires hiring authorities to advise superintendents to correct misassignments within 30 days of their final determination.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Teacher Credentialing provided a copy of its signed agreement with Education, which describes the data that both agencies will share to meet assignment monitoring and federal reporting requirements.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2018

In the Commission's previous response, staff identified the state's assignment monitoring process as needing modernization. By combining the Commission's credentialing data with the Department's CalPADS data, the need to engage in manual monitoring of every teacher assignment throughout the state will be alleviated. While the legislative proposal the Commission authored failed to be enacted, the Commission was able to obtain funding and authorization through the budget act to implement a new database that will allow data sharing between the Commission and the Department. The budget act also provided authority to enter into an agreement to share credentialing data, and any other data as needed, with the Department to help fulfill their federal reporting obligations. The Commission and the Department have finalized a memorandum of understanding governing this data sharing process, which was signed and went into effect on October 1.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

Teacher Credentialing provided a copy of its interagency agreement with Education regarding the sharing of education workforce data. In addition, Teacher Credentialing provided documents showing that the upcoming State Assignment Accountability System (SAAS) will allow Teacher Credentialing to compare its credentialing data with Education's school staffing data. However, the documents note that the system will not be completed until July 1, 2019.

1-Year Agency Response

Since our 6 month response, both the Commission and the Department of Education have completed the IT modernization efforts necessary to simplify our monitoring and reporting processes. To that end, Commission staff are bringing forward a recommendation at the December Commission meeting that we pursue legislation to update the assignment monitoring statutes and allow us to monitor all districts statewide on an annual basis. In the interim, the Commission has just finalized the most recent bi-annual monitoring report, which is being prepared for submission to the Legislature. Until a new process has been finalized, the Commission will continue to implement the existing monitoring process.

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

Per Teacher Credentialing's response, its implementation of this recommendation is currently pending.

6-Month Agency Response

Since our previous response, the Commission has continued to meet with the Department of Education on an ongoing basis. Staff and attorneys from both agencies are working on ways to improve this process. CTC is committed to working with CDE towards full implementation of the audit recommendations. Currently the Department is working on modernizing their data reporting system which will ultimately result in a more efficient and timely reporting of teacher assignments. In the interim, the Commission is continuing the existing monitoring process.

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

Per Teacher Credentialing's response, it will not fully implement this recommendation until June 30, 2018.

60-Day Agency Response

The Commission on Teacher Credentialing has reached out to the Department of Education and set up a meeting to discuss how best to monitor staff assignments. Specifically, we will be working with the Department to identify ways to collect and compare our data across both agencies in a more efficient and timely manner.

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

Per Teacher Credentialing's response, it will not fully implement this recommendation until January 1, 2018.

All Recommendations in 2016-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.