Senate Bill S7817A

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S7817

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend chapter 147 of the laws of 2001 amending the education
law relating to conditional appointment of school district, charter
school or BOCES employees, in relation to extending the effectiveness
thereof


 PURPOSE :

This legislation would extend existing law that enables school
districts to provide an employee with 45 days of conditional clearance
to begin work while background checks are being completed.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

This bill would amend section 12 of chapter 147 of the laws of 2001 as
last amended by chapter 179 of the laws of 2009 to extend the
effective date until July 1, 2012.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Conditional clearance for employees is sometimes necessary because of
delays in background checks conducted by the state education
              

department (SED) through the Division of criminal Justice Services
(DCJS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This section of
law was revised last year to cap the length of a conditional clearance
at 45 days, with a possibility of an extension for good cause. At that
time, the law was extended for only a single year, to allow evaluation
of the efficacy of the 45 day cap in discouraging delays due to
negligence or forgetfulness. The 45 day cap does appear to have
brought improvements to the system, and this bill would extend the law
for an additional two years.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

This is a new bill; however this provision has previously been
extended in:

2009: Chapter 179 (amendments to the law were also made)
2007: Chapter 90
2005: Chapter 127
2003: Chapter 100

This provision originally became law in 2001 as Chapter 147.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

This Bill is not expected to have any cost to the state.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.