(a) For situations in which a person is an applicant for employment, or is employed on a part-time or substitute basis, in a position requiring certification qualifications in multiple school districts within a county or within contiguous counties, the districts may agree among themselves to designate a single district, or a county superintendent may agree to act on behalf of participating districts within the county or contiguous counties, for the purposes of performing the following functions:
(1) Sending fingerprints to the Department of Justice.
(2) Receiving reports of convictions of serious and violent felonies.
(3) Reviewing criminal history records and reports of subsequent arrests from the Department of Justice.
(4) Maintaining common lists of persons eligible for employment.
(b) The school district or county superintendent serving in the capacity authorized in subdivision (a) shall be considered the employer for purposes of subdivisions (a), (d), and (g) of Section 44830.1.
(c) Upon receipt from the Department of Justice of a report of conviction of a serious or violent felony, the designated school district or county superintendent shall communicate that fact to the participating districts and remove the affected employee from the common list of persons eligible for employment.
(d) Upon receipt from the Department of Justice of a criminal history record or report of subsequent arrest for any person on a common list of persons eligible for employment, the designated school district or county superintendent shall give notice to the superintendent of any participating district or a person designated in writing by that superintendent, that the report is available for inspection on a confidential basis by the superintendent or authorized designee, at the office of the designated school district or county superintendent, for a period of 30 days following receipt of notice, to enable the employing school district to determine whether the employee meets that district’s criteria for continued employment. The designated school district or county superintendent shall not release a copy of that information to any participating district or any other person, shall retain or dispose of the information in the manner required by law after all participating districts have had an opportunity to inspect it in accordance with this section, and shall maintain a record of all persons to whom the information has been shown that shall be available to the Department of Justice to monitor compliance with the requirements of confidentiality contained in this section.
(e) Any agency processing Department of Justice responses pursuant to this section shall submit an interagency agreement to the Department of Justice to establish authorization to submit and receive information pursuant to this section.
(f) All information obtained from the Department of Justice is confidential. Every agency handling Department of Justice information shall ensure the following:
(1) No recipient may disclose its contents or provide copies of information.
(2) Information received shall be stored in a locked file separate from other files, and shall only be accessible to the custodian of records.
(3) Information received shall be destroyed upon the hiring determination in accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 708 of Title 11 of the California Code of Regulations.
(4) Compliance with destruction, storage, dissemination, auditing, backgrounding, and training requirements as set forth in Sections 700 through 708, inclusive, of Title 11 of the California Code of Regulations and Section 11077 of the Penal Code governing the use and security of criminal offender record information is the responsibility of the entity receiving the information from the Department of Justice.
(Added by Stats. 1998, Ch. 840, Sec. 7. Effective September 25, 1998.)