Senate Bill S8929

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8929

SPONSOR: COONEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to excepting certain
crimes committed by certain school educators from the three-year window
to bring charges

 
PURPOSE::

This bill allows City School Districts (commonly referred to as the "Big
Five") to bring charges against a tenured employee after three years of
the date of the alleged misconduct and without proof of a criminal
conviction for alleged misconduct (1) that would constitute a criminal
sexual offense or (2) that would render that district liable under the
Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act. This change would bring City
School Districts in line with every other school district in New York
State..

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

              

Section 1 amends subdivision 8 of section 2573 of the education law to
allow a school district to bring charges against a tenured employee at
any time and without proof of criminal conviction when such misconduct
alleged would have constituted a violation of articles 130 (Sex
Offenses), 260 (Offenses Relating to Children, Disabled Persons and
Vulnerable Elderly Persons), and 263 (Sexual Performance by a Child) of
the penal law or misconduct that would have made any district named
under section 2550 of this article liable under the Child Victims Act or
the Adult Survivors Act.

Section 2 sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION::

Tenured educators in New York State have statutory protections pursuant
to Education Law 3020-a, the purpose of which is to preserve the educa-
tor's right to due process in disciplinary matters. School districts may
only discharge tenured employees for cause and only with due process.
Education Law 3020-a allows a district to pursue discipline against a
tenured employee by bringing charges within three years of the occur-
rence of the alleged conduct. However, this time bar does not include
allegations of conduct constituted a crime when committed, regardless of
whether the educator was convicted of a criminal offense.

However, the law treats City School Districts, also known as the "Big
Five," differently than all other districts. Education Law 2573(8)
governing the Big Five says that charges must be brought within three
years of misconduct, except when the misconduct resulted in the
conviction of a crime. Therefore, unlike all other School Districts in
the State of New York, the Big Five must plead and prove a conviction
for alleged misconduct occurring greater than three years prior to when
disciplinary charges are filed.

Under the current law, a tenured employee of the Big Five districts who
is later discovered to have engaged In sexual misconduct with a student
cannot be terminated unless they were found out in time and there was an
accompanying conviction. This also causes the scenario where a plea
bargain may result in a something less than a conviction, preventing a
school district from bringing charges and allowing the educator to
continue working with children.

Not only does this exception create inequity, but It also fundamentally
undermines the justice for child and adult victims and survivors that
the Legislature specifically granted under the Child Victims Act and
Adult Survivors Act.

This bill would close this inexplicable loophole and allow each and
every New York State school district to bring charges against a tenured
employee for engaging in sexual misconduct at any time, thereby ensuring
the full intent of the Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act.

 
PRIOR HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.