California’s SB 1083: five questions about the new misconduct hiring rules

SB 848 set California’s rules for stopping a school employee accused of egregious misconduct from moving quietly to another school, and applied them to noncertificated staff at public schools and to every employee of a private school. SB 1083, signed on September 27, 2026, rewrites those rules and gives them hard dates, a week after AB 1381 made the prior-employer inquiry a condition of every hire. These are the five questions we expect your board to ask, each with the source you would need to answer it.

1. Which schools does it cover?

Public and private schools, but not the same staff. At school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, educational joint powers authorities and the state special schools, SB 1083 covers noncertificated employees; credentialed staff fall under separate rules in Education Code 44939.5, which AB 1381 also amends. At a private school it covers every position. For these sections a private school is one that enrolls six or more pupils, has filed the private school affidavit, and is not a charter school (Education Code 44050.5, added by SB 1083). “Egregious misconduct” is narrow and defined by reference in Education Code 44932: immoral conduct that is the basis for a sex offense or a controlled-substance offense as defined in Education Code 44010 and 44011, or for child abuse or neglect as defined in Penal Code 11165.2 to 11165.6. It is not a general discipline law. The changes take effect on January 1, 2027, with later dates for the pieces that need building.

2. What changes in the next hire?

Three things. An applicant for a noncertificated position at a public school, or for any position at a private school, must give you a complete list of every school district, county office, charter school, educational joint powers authority, state special school and private school that employs or has employed them. You must ask each one whether the applicant was the subject of any credible complaint of, investigation into, or discipline for, egregious misconduct; the current wording reaches only what was used to support a substantiated investigation (Legislative Counsel’s digest). And from January 1, 2027, the superintendent of a district or county office, or the chief administrator of a charter or private school, may not hire anyone, certificated or not, without completing that inquiry: a failure is unprofessional conduct that may subject that person to adverse action by the Commission (Education Code 44030.6, added by AB 1381). AB 1381 also makes it unprofessional conduct for an applicant to a credentialed position to leave an employer off the list.

When your school is the one asked, you must say whether you have reported the employee to the statewide data system, hand over the information and evidence behind any substantiated report, and preserve that evidence, regardless of any agreement, settlement or stipulation not to provide it (Education Code 44051). An employee may be subject to dismissal if you learn that a complaint, investigation or discipline at an earlier school was reported to the data system and either the employee left that school off their list or the school failed to disclose it (44051(c)).

3. What is the statewide data system, and what do we owe it?

A system of egregious-misconduct records run by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, due by July 1, 2027, if the Budget Act funds it (Education Code 44052). The 2026-27 budget gave the Commission $1,561,000 and 11 positions to implement the Safe Learning Environments Act, including the data system. The duties fall on public and private schools alike. Request access through the Commission’s secure interface by May 1, 2027, and give it an email address for notices. Review the system before any hire these rules cover; it does not replace contacting the employers the applicant listed. Within 30 days of a hire, or of an employee moving into or adding a position, submit the employee’s full name, date of birth and last four digits of the Social Security number; the system also records each position held and its dates. Within 10 days of a departure, submit the final date.

When an investigation ends in a substantiated report you concur with, submit the dates the investigation concluded and the report was issued. If an employee leaves while a credible complaint is open, record that and finish the investigation; the system emails the employee’s current employers, and again every 30 days until the outcome is entered. Within 90 days of the system going live, report whether you completed any investigation since January 1, 2026, that ended in a substantiated report; after January 1, 2027, also report whether you have answered another school’s inquiry about a substantiated report completed before 2026. Unfounded and inconclusive results, and substantiated reports you do not concur with, are removed. Only Commission staff and the school staff responsible for employment, investigations or hiring may see the data, and it is exempt from the Public Records Act.

4. Do we need an investigation policy, and what about contractors?

From January 1, 2027, a school that receives a credible complaint, or has other reason to believe an employee has engaged in egregious misconduct, must investigate. Districts, county offices and charter schools get fixed clocks: 15 days to begin and 90 to conclude, extendable for good cause, with a chance for the employee to respond and a written finding within 10 days of the conclusion. A private school sets its own: by July 1, 2027, it must adopt a written investigation policy with the steps it follows, reasonable timelines to begin and conclude, and the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee. Either way the investigation must be completed even if the employee leaves, and a substantiated report goes to the data system (Education Code 44053).

Contracts change too. From July 1, 2027, a contract for services to pupils must require the contractor to name its staff who have worked at a California public or private school, whom you check against the data system; to disclose, as a condition of qualifying, any credible complaint of or discipline for “reportable conduct”, a wider category that includes any sexual misconduct and any conduct that poses a serious risk to a pupil’s safety; to tell you of new ones; and to accept a termination clause. A private school’s contract must also carry the fingerprinting rules of Education Code 33192. Contracts already in effect stand until they expire, but none signed or amended from January 1, 2027, that runs past July 1, 2027, may leave these terms out. A credible complaint of egregious misconduct against a contractor’s worker goes to law enforcement and, in writing, to the contractor (Education Code 45125.15).

5. We did the SB 848 work. What is already in force, and what moved?

Since January 1, 2026, every employee and governing board member of a school district, county office, charter school or private school, and every volunteer over 18 who works with pupils outside the immediate supervision of a parent or a school employee, has been a mandated reporter (Penal Code 11165.7). Since July 1, 2026, private schools, like public ones, must give them annual training on mandated reporting and on preventing abuse by school personnel, with proof of completion within six weeks of the school year or of starting (Education Code 44691). SB 1083 moves one approval: from January 1, 2027, a private school’s alternative to the state’s online training module is approved by its governing authority, not its liability insurer. The prior-employer inquiry you already run is what question 2 rewrites.