An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law Compendium

 Schools may not obtain information regarding a job applicant’s salary history. Schools also may not consider salary history in determining salary or whether to offer employment.  It is legal to consider, as well as obtain, an applicant’s salary history as it pertains to employment at a public school or other federal, state, or local agency under the exception for salary information that is publicly available under the California Public Records Act or Freedom of Information Act  Consider accessing information from publicly available sources, including online resources. Possible approaches:  Provide notice to the job applicant prior to searching;  Access without notice to the job applicant, but provide the applicant with an opportunity to respond to questions concerning online information;  Access without notice and provide no opportunity for the applicant to respond; or  Not access the online information at all.  Information considered from online sources of information must:  Be true and reliable;  Be pertinent to the applicant’s ability to perform the job; and  Fall into a category that the school may legally elicit from the applicant during the application process.  If the school decides not to hire the applicant, provide a copy of all public records obtained to the applicant within 7 days after receiving the information.  Fingerprinting  Set up a Criminal Offender Record Information account with the Department of Justice.  Fingerprint all applicants who are being considered for a position which requires contact with minor students.  The school may not employ the applicant until the DOJ notifies the school whether he or she has been arrested or convicted of any crime, which includes the DOJ completing its check of the state criminal history file.  The school may enter into contract with DOJ to receive notification of any subsequent arrests of the applicant. The school must immediately notify the DOJ if it does not subsequently employ the applicant or when the applicant is terminated in order to terminate subsequent arrest notification.  Certain contract employees must submit their fingerprints to the school together with a processing fee determined by the DOJ, unless the school determines that the employees will have limited contact with pupils.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law - Compendium ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 56